#611 Healing is in My Hands

     All of us have been traumatized many times, in many ways. These hurts and traumas conditioned us to try to avoid re-injury from similar situations. Conditioning is not only reactive but also proactive. When we're wise, we nurture ourselves and each other to flourish, like loving grandparents. When we lack wisdom, we re-traumatize ourselves and each other, like cruel children. We choose to do one or the other, countless times, every day.
     Nurturing and traumatizing feel very different. Their impact, on ourselves and everyone else, is as different as heaven or hell. 
     May I be progressively more mindful to nurture more & more, and traumatize less & less.

#427 Because, and Only Because, It Works

     Instinctively, when we hear advice on what to do, or how to do something, we tend to take the contrary position - something in us wants to do the opposite. Call it stubbornness, resistance, noncompliance, dragging our feet - we don't appreciate "shoulds", rebel against rules, and resent being told what to do! We like to learn from our own experience, despite the inevitable mistakes.
     Mindfulness is all about experiential learning. Mindfulness methods are to be tried and experienced in our own life, practiced more if helpful, and let go of if not helpful at this time. The instructions are handed down from a long line of serious practitioners who've benefited from and have continuously refined this practice - it's all about what works best. When you experience the benefits from practicing, you know it's working.

carizi   www.dpreview.com

#417 Appreciating & Even Prioritizing QUALITY - Stillness & Silence

     How does it feel when we're about to do something that gives us a quick fix - like eating a chocolate bar (instead of a healthy snack) when we're hungry, or rushing a job to get it over & done with (instead of doing it with appropriate care)? Isn't there a building momentum to approach & complete the act, as if starting to descend from the highest point on a roller coaster, or as if pulled by a powerful magnet?
     When we're being self-centered, grasping for "short-term gains" - we're much like addicts reaching for their addictive substance of choice - big pull, brief elation, big let-down, and we're worse off, knowing we've just added to our own (plus likely our loved ones') "long-term pains".

     In contrast, how does it feel when we're about to do something that's not about us, but for the long-term benefit of others? When we're about to do the right thing? There's no momentum, no magnetic effect. We make wise, mature decisions from a place of stillness, a place of silence. We can feel this stillness.

     Isn't it sad that we become addicted to the "excitement" of brief highs, despite, & even because of their brevity, inevitability of crashing & other hangovers? Why does it take so long for us to let go of cheap thrills? We seem to have to gradually, intentionally learn to appreciate, and very slowly prioritize, peace & mature judgment.
     Quality is a very slowly acquired taste for most of us. Mindfulness practice is a direct way of increasing the pace of this critical - yet mysteriously avoided - experiential learning. Of course we still have prioritize this practice over our habitual momentum-driven distractions.

     See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/10/self-concepts-sense-of-momentum-or.html
     and: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/10/uncomfortable-being-still.html 

#355 Physically Connecting with Life

     "The most powerful thing I've learned in practice is to tune in to how I actually feel. Our tendency is to either bury or act on feeling but not to actually feel feeling - and I don't mean a particular feeling but the felt sense that is underneath all feeling: our beating heart, our humanity, our basic goodness. The most important thing is to connect with that, and then everything else is just our life. ... our path is not a project, it's life. It's so powerful to realize that practice is fundamentally choiceless. It's just about being a human being, about being able to connect with our humanity on a more complete level."   Judith Simmer-Brown

Gretel in contemplation