#304 Positive Psychology, Cynicism, Arrested Development, Mindfulness the Middle-Way

     In her book "Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America," Barbara Ehrenreich (YouTube video below) rightly criticizes simplistic cheerleader-style optimism and associated intolerance towards critical thinking. Unfortunately, in a more recent YouTube "Barbara Ehrenreich - Smile or Die" she also explicitly states "cancer left me more cynical and meaner". Cancer can be a "shipwreck" experience - see: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/07/361-beyond-stress-management-resilience.html
     This reaction is understandable, but it's the sign of an early stage of adult psychosocial development ("spiritual journey"). Remaining stuck (wallowing) here is an unnecessary, sad, self-imposed life-sentence. This is NOT "as good as it gets." With intelligence, curiosity, perseverance, and energy we can definitely transcend this existential / spiritual dry period ("dark night of the soul").
     Mindfulness practice is all about fearlessly exploring what's real, who am I, how do I relate to reality in a way that reduces suffering (including my own), how can we experience the most profound quality of life. Mindfulness is not about being negative nor positive, but about waking up to & engaging reality.
     More about Normal Adult Development: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/search?q=development 

#303 Heart Mind Body Energy Life-changing Experiment

     As with everything in Mindfulness, this is an experiment to try. If it feels beneficial and reduces suffering (yours & others' around you) then try to do it more & more consistently, until it's an inherent part of your life - a way of being.
     If, for whatever reason, you don't connect with this particular experiment, don't force it. Just be curious about what you perceive, and move on with aspects of Mindfulness you do connect with, and find experientially beneficial right now.

     The heart region is a major energy center (chakra - yoga / Ayurvedic medicine; meridian - traditional Chinese medicine). In these ancient healing systems, health is associated with the free flow of energy, while illness / disease is the result of blockage / stagnation of energy.
     Countless daily minimal threats, primarily to our ego, cause a chronic state of defensive contraction of / armouring around our heart region, as well as an ongoing (primitive) reactivity at least in our thoughts, but also our speech & other behavior. All of this reactivity, in itself, has a large negative impact on us & everyone around us, tightening & closing down our hearts, blocking & draining our vital energy.

     But this is just theory. To see if it's real for you - if there's experiential proof - see what happens when you keep your heart open for a week - challenge yourself! 
     No matter what, accept everything that happens for a week, and make the best of it. If you have a flood in your basement, "oh well, let's clean it up"; if immediately before a snow storm your snowblower decides not to start but instead leak gas, "oh well, let's clean it up"; and on and on challenges to keeping one's heart open continue.
     But we all know people, right now, with life-threatening illnesses. By always keeping the bigger picture in mind, it's easier to keep minor events in perspective. It's also useful to remember that we all have much greater challenges ahead of us, so learning how to deal intelligently, realistically, and effectively with relatively trivial day-to-day challenges is a very smart practice opportunity.
     The sooner we each discover for ourselves the benefits of keeping our heart open, in ALL situations, the better. Decide for yourself to try this - continuously for a week - right now. This experiment does NOT use up energy, it will SAVE / GIVE you ENERGY.

     These blogs may help inspire you to continue:
http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/03/301-open-heart-energized-closed-heart.html

http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/03/say-yes-to-everything-embrace-it-all.html

http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/03/clinging-aversion-vs-free-flow-of.html

http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/03/vow-to-keep-your-heart-open-no-matter.html

     Have fun with it!

Annual MBSR-style MINDFULNESS COURSE for Health-Care & Other Professionals in Halifax NS

MINDFULNESS
for Health-Care & Other Professionals: 

An 8-week Immersion in Self-care

Dr. John Lovas
Thursday Evenings, 5:30 – 8:00 pm early October – November each year

Faculty of Dentistry, Dalhousie University

Halifax, NS, Canada

 

Course Synopsis
          Working in health care, other professions, and life in general, is very stressful at times. Yet to truly enjoy life, and best serve our patients, clients, coworkers, families and society, we ourselves need to be healthy. Effective, regular self-care is not only sensible, but also a professional responsibility. Mindfulness – a universal, but underdeveloped way of relating both realistically and kindly to ourselves and the world – is becoming a well-recognized foundation of self-care. 

          This continuing education course is designed for health-care & other professionals who spend an unhealthy portion of their life caring for everyone but themselves. The course provides a unique opportunity to learn about and experience a profoundly beneficial program of self-care practices. 

          Not simply a technique, mindfulness is a state of being “that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.” (Kabat-Zinn) Mindfulness training “increases awareness of thoughts, emotions, and maladaptive ways of responding to stress, thereby helping participants learn to cope with stress in healthier, more effective ways.” (Bishop et al)

Course Objectives
          Participants will learn and practice sitting meditation, walking meditation, qi gong breathing, standing meditation, and partake (voluntary) in discussions about integrating mindfulness into our professional and private lives.
          Intended audience: Dental, medical, legal & other professionals. You and your entire office are invited to engage in a profoundly positive transformative learning experience. Attendance is limited to 20.
          Homework: Participants are encouraged to engage in up to 45 minutes of daily practice at home. We derive from this ‘practice’ precisely what we put into it.

John G.L. Lovas BSc, DDS, MSc, FRCD(C) 

          Dr. Lovas obtained science and dental degrees from the University of Toronto, and specialty training in oral pathology at the University of Western Ontario. He’s served as chief examiner in oral pathology for the Royal College of Dentists of Canada and as president of the Canadian Academy of Oral Pathology. Dr. Lovas was full-time faculty at the Faculty of Dentistry, Dalhousie University, teaching oral pathology & oral medicine for 31 years, and served as Assistant Dean for Student Affairs until his retirement in 2014. He obtained teacher-training in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at UMass Medical Center, the Omega Institute in New York, and the Rochester Medical School. For over ten years Dr. Lovas has been leading Mindfulness workshops for dental, dental hygiene, medical, law and other students, practitioners and staff.

Course Schedule
5:30 – 6:00 pm Registration & Light Dinner
6:00 – 8:00 pm Thursday evenings. Please note that we will postpone any sessions that the majority cannot attend (eg for inclement weather).
Participants are expected to attend at least 7 of the 8 sessions. Positive group dynamics depend on consistent attendance and participation. 

For registration, please contact:

CDE Office          Phone: (902) 494-1674        Email: dentcde@dal.ca

See also:       http://jglovas.wix.com/awarenessnow#!courses/cfvg

CREDITS  16 hours of lecture

#301 Open Heart - Energized; Closed Heart - Disturbed / Lethargic

     “Although various energy centers exist within you, the one you intuitively know the most about opening and closing is your heart. Let’s say that you love somebody, and you feel very open in their presence. Because you trust them, your walls come down allowing you to feel lots of high energy. But if they do something you don’t like, the next time you see them you don’t feel so high. You don’t feel as much love. Instead, you feel a tightness in your chest. This happens because you closed your heart. The heart is an energy center, and it can open or close. The yogis call energy centers chakras. When you close your heart center, energy can’t flow in. When energy can’t flow in, there’s darkness. Depending upon how closed you are, you either feel tremendous disturbance or overwhelming lethargy. Often people fluctuate between these two states. If you then find out that your loved one didn’t do anything wrong, or if they apologize to your satisfaction, your heart opens again. With this opening you get filled with energy, and the love starts flowing again.”

       Singer MA. The untethered soul. The journey beyond self. New Harbinger Publications Inc, Oakland CA, 2007.

     See also: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/02/285-how-my-heart-feels-heavy-or-open.html

http://stevemccurry.com

 

#300 Suffering, Mindfulness, Self-regulation, Self-exploration, Self-liberation

     Interest in meditation is often "focused on its effects as a self-regulation strategy in addressing stress and pain management and enhancing relaxation and physical health. By operationalizing the content and components of meditation, and divorcing it from its (deeper) context, meditation could be viewed as a self-regulation strategy."
       Shapiro DH. A preliminary study of long-term meditators: Goals, effects, religious orientation, cognitions. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 1992; 24(1): 23-39.

     Yet, the actual aim of Mindfulness practice is "not to bring about particular desired states or experiences, but rather to accept experiences as they are without reacting to them or judging them negatively. It is therefore clear that the main aim of mindfulness programs for pain is not sensory pain reduction, but rather better control over the cognitive and emotional aspects of pain, and it is this that defines the usefulness of mindfulness within a pain self-management program." 
       Brown CA, Jones AK. Psychobiological correlates of improved mental health in patients with musculoskeletal pain after a mindfulness-based pain management program. Clin J Pain 2013; 29(3): 233-44.


      With continued practice, a gradual shift occurs even in the intention behind practicing - from self-regulation, to self-exploration, and finally self-liberation.
       Shapiro DH. A preliminary study of long-term meditators: Goals, effects, religious orientation, cognitions. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 1992; 24(1): 23-39.

Photo: Lanski   www.dpreview.com

 

#299 Challenges, Difficulties, Obstacles - Meditation - Opportunities, Gifts, Treasures

“Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth,

Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.”                Noela Evans

       Gardner-Nix, J.  “The mindfulness solution to pain. Step-by-step techniques for chronic pain management.” New Harbinger Publications Inc, Oakland CA, 2009.

     Remember how very difficult it was to sit still for 5 minutes, or to resist scratching our nose during our first few sittings? Then, a few weeks later, everyone in the group sits still for 30 minutes - comfortably! Sitting in stillness at first appeared to be an obstacle, but was in fact a teacher, a gift. Such shifts are very important signals that we are growing increasingly more comfortable and competent - being - resting in awareness, in the present moment.
     What today appears as an impossible challenge, may well be transformed through training into equanimity. Continuous mindfulness practice continues to unfold benefits which we literally cannot, with our current understanding, imagine.

http://stevemccurry.com/

#298 Readiness To Practice Mindfulness Meditation

     "Mindfulness" is now mainstream, but to actually benefit, one needs to have a regular mindfulness practice. The vast majority of people know about the benefits of aerobic exercise and healthy eating, yet obesity & cardiovascular disease remain epidemic. Mindless eating habits are a large part of the problem. Having conceptual awareness is rather simple, consciously changing one's lifestyle (behavior patterns) is at a whole different level.
     Our relationship with the momentum of our life is much like the relationship between a swimmer and the fast-flowing river that she's swimming in. It takes some mindfulness even to think of getting to the shore, then additional continuous effort to get there, and then more to climb out. But once the swimmer is out on the bank, she has a completely different perspective than while she was being swept away.
     A seasoned meditator once stated that meditation is not easy, but it's the easiest way he knows of to live well.

http://stevemccurry.com/