#622 Ultimate Agency

     We work towards becoming continuously aware of our thoughts, words and actions. As clay turns into a sculpture, the quality of our awareness, intention & love becomes the quality of our life. How we are, moment-by-moment, is who we are.

         “She who works with her hands is a laborer. 
          She who works with her hands and her head is a craftsman. 
          She who works with her hands and her head and her heart is an artist."                        Francis of Assisi

#590 Mindfulness is NOT Suppression or Avoidance of Thoughts or Emotions

     Mindfulness practice first helps us become more comfortable with things as they are in the present moment ie helps cultivate a degree of mental stability. Then, with this stability - decreased ego-noise - we're able to have some insight into what's actually going on.
     So mindfulness is NOT about suppressing or otherwise avoiding thoughts, emotions, or any other aspect of life. We don't suppress thoughts. We do let go of habitually entertaining them, wrestling with them, being hijacked by them, identifying with them. The same goes for emotions. Thoughts and emotions remain, but become quieter & quieter background noise, no longer controlling & distorting our life.

     "Fully plumbing the depths of mindfulness requires time and exploration. There is a wealth of meaning and nuance in the experience of mindfulness that can enrich our lives in unimagined ways." 
       Goldstein J. "Mindfulness. A Practical Guide to Awakening." Sounds True, Boulder, 2013. 

Stephen Bright   www.dpreview.com

#576 Practicality of Prioritizing Quality

     When we compare a homeless alcoholic guzzling the handiest liquid intoxicant (including mouthwash, hair tonic, etc), with a sophisticated wine connoisseur, we tend to identify with the latter. 
     For one, it's all about becoming intoxicated as quickly as possible - mindlessly escaping reality.
     For the other, it's all about quality, with little or no intoxication - consciously savouring reality.

     All of us can be connoisseurs of our own life! We can carefully monitor the quality of our current thoughts, speech, and behaviours for lasting, timeless quality by asking:
          • Do these lead to stress and suffering, or to the end of stress and suffering?
          • If these lead to stress, are they necessary?
          • If not necessary, why do these again?
          • If these lead to the end of stress, how can I master these as skills?                                           Thanissaro Bhikkhu

#570 What Remains When Self-talk is Released?

     In Mindfulness practice, as we gradually, gently learn to let go of identifying with incessant self-talk (“thought proliferation”), and become more engaged with the physical experience of the present moment ("just this"), we experience interesting shifts. 

     This (or any other) statement / concept, in itself as a thought, is merely equivalent to self-talk - "blah, blah, blah ...". 
     BUT how are you experiencing this? How does it impact your one, fleeting, precious life?

#565 Gentle Questioning

     Can I gently question: 
          Why I do the things I do?
          Why I say the things I say?
          Why I even think the way I think?
          Is there an overall pattern to the way I live?
          And if there is, is it still how I wish to live my life?

     "In a perfect world", what would I wish for as the central driving force in my life?

     If, from this moment on, that energized & directed my life, how would life be?

     See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2014/08/simple-but-not-easy-vow.html

Steve McCurry   stevemccurry.com

#523 Benefits of Mindfulness

     "One of the greatest benefits of a powerful faculty of attention is that it gives us the ability to successfully cultivate other positive qualities. With the powerful tool of focused attention, we can uproot formerly intractable bad habits, such as addictive behaviors or harmful thoughts and emotions. We can use it to develop an openhearted stance toward others and, on that basis, experience profound insights into the nature of the mind and of reality, radically altering our relation to the rest of the world."

       B. Alan Wallace. "The Attention Revolution. Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind." Wisdom, Boston, 2006.
       See also: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/06/sadness-and-lostness-as-mood.html 

Tiplea Remus, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

#511 Who Am I - Right Now?

     As soon as I pause to consider "Who am I?", I'm immediately being mindful - a feature of the wise adult operating system (WAOS) - see yesterday's post. Perspective, awareness of how things interconnect, how everything is interdependent, how every thought, word & action has immediate local as well as long-term distant effects are important components of wisdom. Behavior that arises from this place of relative stillness tends to be appropriate, kind, and serves the long-term welfare of many.
     But when I'm "driven" to think, speak & act by unexamined energies, short-term gain for my ego is almost invariably the driver, the source of the energy. And long-term pain is very likely the result, for myself, others & the environment. Feeling "energized" to do something should always be carefully examined rather than quickly acted out. Reasonable courses of action seldom come attached to a brief rush of emotion. Behind energized zeal, there is often aversion, anger, hatred, and ultimately, fear - the fearful child operating system (FCOS) actually driving the whole sorry misadventure.
     "Who am I?" is such a critical question to ask oneself, very often, since we make important, life-changing choices moment-by-moment. EVERYTHING depends on the OS that's functioning - who we are - scared child OR wise adult - who do I want running my life? Please also read: http://www.johnlovas.com/2014/03/power-its-origin-how-to-use-it.html

upuaut   www.dpreview.com

#496 Metacognition, Clarity & Choice

     Metacognition is the amazing capacity we have to be self-aware: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2014/02/metacognition-grand-evolutionary.html We're constantly aware of our thoughts, words & actions, and are constantly comparing our present state of being - what & how we're doing - to our ideals. To the extent that we progressively approach living our ideals, our life becomes proportionately more natural, simple & true.

     We're amazingly aware of, in tune with, and responsible for what's going on in our lives, and thus, the actual quality of our lives.

Michael Melford, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

#473 Why Train in Mindfulness?

     Most people are drawn to Mindfulness when they find life overly stressful. Their usual coping mechanisms are simply inadequate to the burden that today's pace of life imposes. So at least initially, their interest tends to be focused on Mindfulness "as a self-regulation strategy in addressing stress & pain management and enhancing relaxation & physical health."
        Shapiro DH. A preliminary study of long-term meditators: Goals, effects, religious orientation, cognitions. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 1992; 24(1): 23-39.

      So why so much stress in a time of plenty? Is it possible that many of us have lost - or never found - our bearings, spending most of our time & energy chasing after relatively meaningless things? Before we reach meaningless goals, we ride the anxious energy of the chase. But after achieving them, profound disappointment quickly sets in. We sense we're wasting our precious life. After repeating this chase-&- catch routine too many times, the pattern becomes obvious, and hopefully we can stop "doing more of what doesn't work!"

      "Man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life."      Viktor Frankl 

     The beauty of doing meaningful work is that daily life becomes & feels worthwhile, significant. In the process of doing something of value, we live meaningful lives. Instead of stressed, we feel engaged, energized to contribute. But to know what is meaningful for us as individuals, we must first discover who or what we are. To help accomplish this intentionally, sitting quietly and observing the pattern of our thoughts & emotions is exceptionally useful. Welcome to mindfulness meditation!
     See also: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/11/432-i-try-and-i-try-but-i-cant-get-no.html 

 

#470 Accepting & Respecting our Bodies

     "Most of the time, our bodies react to the environment without generating thoughts. Feelings are just faster than thoughts to inform us about changes in the environment. Even emotions, which are feelings filtered by memory or interpreted, are often mere afterthoughts. It is very difficult to change habits with using thought only and practically impossible to talk ourselves out of a depression or phobia. Not surprising to me: the best predictor for therapeutic success is not how brilliant the cognitive interventions are, but if a client likes his or her therapist. We are primitive, social animals, albeit with a lot of potential."

       Andrea F. Polard, Psy.D. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/unified-theory-happiness/201301/your-brain-is-liver

Focusing   www.dpreview.com

 

#398 Clarity of Mind - the Jar of Soil & Water Metaphor

     If we take a glass jar, add some soil, fill it with water, put a lid on, then shake it all up, we've created a cloudy suspension of particles - dilute mud. Now if we leave this jar undisturbed, we see that inevitably all the soil particles gradually settle to the bottom, leaving crystal clear water above. 
     The soil particles represent the myriad things to which we attend. The more "going on in our lives", the more darkly turbid the jar contents. Inherently pure clear water represents our mind.
     The more we practice mindfulness meditation, the more opportunity we provide for the jar to sit still, the more particles settle, and the greater the clarity of the water.
     Each time we notice that we're thinking, worrying, daydreaming etc - playing or wrestling with soil particles - we patiently gently effortlessly - without shaking the jar - let it go, returning our awareness to the physical feel of the present moment eg breathing, posture, muscle tone, sounds.
     Although most of us only have rare, very brief experiences of our jar containing crystal clear water (all mud at the bottom), we all have this natural capacity. It truly is simply (though not easily) a matter of prioritizing time for this evolved activity. We have a lifelong habit of playing & struggling with mud. Now we know how to intentionally achieve clarity of mind. Far more exciting than theory - just another floating particle - is seizing the opportunity now to actualize & stabilize this clarity.

Kentville, Nova Scotia

#359 Primer on Perseverative - Repetitive, Negative - Thoughts

     Mindfulness practices train one to rest in the awareness of whatever the present moment holds, without judgment, letting go of self-talk, letting go of thoughts of the past or future. Below are a few reasons, from the perspective of Western psychology, why this is beneficial.

     "The ability to recall stressful life events and to anticipate stressful events has several adaptive functions. It enables us to learn from previous mistakes, to avoid negative events, and to prepare for the worst. There is, however, also a downside to these abilities: thinking about past and future negative events also enables perseverative thoughts (or perseverative cognition): repetitive, negative thoughts that do not solve or improve a situation. Examples of perseverative thoughts are: recurrent self-denigrating thoughts about a past failure on an exam or anxious thoughts about an upcoming contest. Two concepts that fall under the category of perseverative thoughts are worry (‘a chain of thoughts and images, negatively affect-laden and relatively uncontrollable’; and rumination (‘a class of conscious thoughts concerning one’s goals and that recur in the absence of immediate environmental demands requiring the thoughts.’ 

     Already in childhood, these perseverative thoughts are quite common. Perseverative thoughts arise in middle childhood when children’s cognitive development allows them to reason about future possibilities, to consider multiple outcomes, and to elaborate potential negative consequences. In line with findings confirming the down- side effects of perseverative thoughts on adults’ emotional functioning, perseverative thoughts in childhood are associated with further problems of negative affect, such as anxiety and depression.

      The literature on adults also has consistently shown that perseverative thoughts are positively associated with adverse physiological activation, cardiovascular disease and somatic complaints. These findings support the ‘perseverative cognition hypothesis’. According to this hypothesis, perseverative thoughts prolong physiological activation beyond the presence of actual stressful situations. Whereas acute physiological changes in response to an actual stressor are useful in enabling a person’s behavioral responses to stress (i.e., fight or flight), the prolongation of this physiological activation caused by perseverative thoughts adds to the total load, or ‘wear and tear’ that stressful events have on somatic well being. This prolonged physiological activation eventually leads to a pathogenic state and somatic problems. In addition, the negative affectivity related to perseverative thoughts may increase the attention of adults and children for internal signals, and to interpreting them more negatively. According to the symptom perception hypothesis of Pennebaker (1982), this will increase the likelihood that physical symptoms are perceived as somatic complaints." 

       Jellesma FC, Verkuil B, Brosschot JF. Postponing worrisome thoughts in children: The effects of a postponement intervention on perseverative thoughts, emotions and somatic complaints. Social Science & Medicine 2009; 69(2): 278-284.

Portia and Hildie

#346 Wisdom to Foolishness Ratio - Personal & Societal

     How well do we monitor the quality of our thoughts, words and actions? By quality I mean, where do these fit on the wise to foolish spectrum? How soon do we become aware when (not if) we're being / have been foolish? What do we do about it? What proportion do we rationalize, externalize, project, procrastinate, deny, suppress, repress vs see clearly, accept, make amends for, try not to repeat?
     Are we actively, intentionally, skillfully maturing, growing wise or stagnating?
     Where we are on this ratio is entirely our choice. Each moment-to-moment choice powerfully impacts our personal and societal quality of life. Mindfully or mindlessly, actively or passively, wisely or foolishly, we co-create present-moment reality, moment by moment by moment by ...

     See more re wisdom: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/03/wisdom-deep-insight-mature.html

Vivienne Leibowich   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/

#331 Thoughts, Energies, Actions - Choices, Choices, Choices

     A sponge is porous, all of the stuff in the water passes through a sponge immersed in the water. Likewise, each of us is immersed in the thoughts and energies of our current global culture. It ALL passes through each of us, whether we realize it or not, want it or not. Humans are completely interconnected at ALL LEVELS (thoughts, emotions, energies, communications, financially, ecologically etc).
     A massive problem is the fact that our human family is so diverse in terms of psychosocialspiritual development - from stone-age blood feuds to the Dalai Lama's message AND embodiment of forgiveness of current persecutors. We are in the age of BOTH the basest of child-soldier massacres AND Nelson Mandela's soaring example of what a human being can and MUST evolve to. 
     ALL levels of thoughts and energies pass through each of us - hideous & inspired - WE CHOOSE which ones to cultivate, which ones to enact in our lives, in this our one and only world. WE ALONE CREATE OUR REALITY, moment-by-moment. We must take great care about what we choose to occupy our minds, and what activities to feed with energy.

     “Wisdom traditions, the paths followed by our patients and our own experiences suggest that a sense of integrity comes through establishing healing connections. That’s not quite it. It wasn’t that the wave needed to establish connections. It was connected — part of a greater whole. Its challenge was to recognize the connectedness that was already there.”     Mount BM. The existential moment. Palliat Support Care 2003; 1(1): 93-6.

     Movement on the quality of life “continuum toward an experience of integrity and wholeness may be thought of as healing, and toward suffering and anguish as wounding.”
     Mount BM et al. Healing connections: on moving from suffering to a sense of well-being. J Pain Symptom Manage 2007; 33(4): 372-88. 

     “The key to self-development … is the experience of … a state of relaxed concentration in which the individual neither freezes out of fear nor clings due to desire. … the free flow of vital energy within the body and between the body and the universe.”     Sayama MK. “Samadhi. Self-development in Zen, swordsmanship, and psychotherapy.” State University of New York Press. 1986.

Dale Chihuly   http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/

#249 Busy, Scattered, Distracted, Monkey Mind & Clarity

     When we sit in meditation, particularly when there's a lot going on in our lives, the mind is flooded with, sometimes overwhelmed by, thoughts.

      “… in the mind of the ordinary person, no less than sixty-four thoughts come and go every … fraction of a second. These thoughts arise because … of desire, aversion, and ignorance. Because of them, our minds cannot help but constantly move. Only by transcending (these) can the mind stop moving.”
       Sheng Yen “Song of Mind. Wisdom from the Zen Classic Xin Ming.” Shambhala, Boston, 2004.

     Fortunately, as we continue sitting, thoughts settle with time. If we take a glass jar of water with a clump of mud and shake it, the water becomes opaque and brown. But as the jar sits still, and the mud settles to the bottom, the water gradually clarifies. Like water, the mind is inherently crystal clear.
     Time alone isn't enough. We must "choose to confront those fears and desires that hitherto we had either repressed or acted out.” Specifically, we must work directly & wisely with desire, aversion and ignorance.
       Batchelor S. “Living with the devil. A meditation on good and evil.” Riverhead Books, NY, 2004.

Photo: wchee   www.dpreview.com