mindfulness and the backpack

Written by brian

When the mind receives inputs from the senses it categorizes them in various ways to organize what is happening around it. This ranges from the fairly low level, such as edge detection for site (figure out the location of the edges of a thing is difficult), colors, the location of sound for hearing, etc, to the relatively high level, such as anything to do with language.

It goes even higher level than that when the mind has to begin to consider ideas and facts. For instance, processing the fact that your car just got flooded (r.i.p. old car) is difficult to really grasp.

Sometimes in common language we will use these kinds of difficulties by saying we need to “get our mind wrapped around” the idea of some big change. Another turn of phrase we use is “need time to process.”

I want to stick with getting the the mind wrapped around something.

When you were a child (or even now) and you were shopping for a backpack or perhaps in more adult terms luggage, what were you looking for? Personally, I was looking for one big compartment and perhaps one or two other smaller compartments. I was not looking for a backpack with 24 pockets of varying sizes cut up in 7 different ways so everything could be nice and orderly.

Why? Because I would never use it.

It is similar with the mind. The mind is continuously organizing and compartmentalizing the inputs it receives into a universe that makes sense. This is good when it works. However, when the mind cannot make sense of something, and doesn’t have a “big compartment” to throw everything into, anxiety sets in.

If you do not have a “big mind” philosophy in life, you will run into crises that you cannot process and they will be much more difficult for you than if you had cultivated big mind.

In the Tao, part of this is called “The Way.” It is pretty much the heart of Buddhism. It comes to us in various forms in the different Vedic ideas.

By keeping our compartments simple, so that we are not so worried about “good” and “bad” and do not have such specific parameters for “happy” and “successful,” we can begin to ride life out more easily and waste less effort on ineffectual anxieties. From that base, we can move forward.

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ego and depth

Written by brian

This weekend I watched Mythos, a special from the mythological scholar Joseph Campbell. Campbell mentioned the difference in the ego (in a Jungian sense) between Eastern and Western sensibilities. Put bluntly, Westerners have a much more solid ego than people from an Eastern background.

Campbell likened it to “taking a little hammer to a big western ego.”

What do we do with this?

The answer, I think, is to take things in steps. We have already acknowledged that different meditation techniques work for different people. In another way, perhaps we need to understand that different techniques work for people at different times and at different stages of their development.

One of the first things in many meditation practices is to listen to the sounds around you. Sometimes an instructor will ask a student to keep listening for sounds that are further and further away. Try to live in the sound.

I think that another option, rather than counting on ambiance, is to listen to white, pink, or brown noise. Through listening to these kinds of artificially generated noise, the mind begins to find new depths in existing sound rather than looking to expand the consciousness spatially.

This depth is crucial to finding the part of the self separate from thoughts and body. This part of the self is the real self, and once you can connect with it, you will be well on your way to a deeper life.

 

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mindfulness and water: breathe water and drink air

Written by brian

Drink. Water.

Repeat.

Drink. Water. Drink water. Seriously, drink water. Water will make your body and mind happy. Drink drink drink water.

Also breathe. Breathing is good. Breathing makes your body and mind happy because then body and mind have enough oxygen that they don’t have to worry about it. When they don’t have to ration, they do better.

Breathe water and drink air

I like to think of optimal breathing and drinking habits this way. You should really be constantly drinking water throughout the day. Always have a glass of water to sip whenever you think about it. This is far preferable to coffee and will probably improve your energy level even more.

Making water intake a practically unconscious thing will improve your life. You probably don’t realize how dehydrated you often are throughout the day, but you are. When you are dehydrated you don’t think as well and get anxious more easily.

You should also drink in air. Deep breaths when you are stressed. This blog talks about breath a lot in relation to anxiety because it is so crucial to both body and mind. When you breathe in deeply, you slow down an unconscious activity in your brain, which often works by itself to slow down your other thoughts. Even when the mind is humming too quickly for that, it still gives your body more oxygen. Oxygen is good.

It also clears out the stale air in your lungs that can otherwise stay there for several breaths. People don’t come anywhere close to fully emptying out their lungs when they exhale. As such the process is more gradual. When you fully empty out your lungs, it is cleansing. It is a quick cleanse.

Drink air. Breathe water. When you do this, and eat well, your body is fully stocked to take on whatever comes. It works optimally. This is good.

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mindfulness and suffering

Written by brian

This dog amused me more than the other images I got when I looked for “Buddha.” Photo via http://www.flickr.com/photos/superfantastic/

Children do this. There is something that needs to be done that they cannot initially figure out and may be bad. They stress over it and put it off for a long time. When they FINALLY sit down to do it, it turns out it wasn’t that bad.

Oh sorry, did I only say children? I should have said people in general do this. All the time.

What does this have to do with suffering?

Buddhism often talks about “suffering.” I think that this is an imperfect translation. Sometimes, certainly, the things around us constitute witnessing suffering or ourselves suffering. Sometimes they are not so bad.

Sometimes “unpleasantness” will do just fine.

The important note in Buddhist discussion of suffering is to accept it. This is not so different from simply thinking about it sometimes and then letting it go. Do not obsess over suffering or unpleasantness. Do not be afraid to think about it either.

This is not so different from the concept of “big mind.” One must be honest with one’s self when it comes to thoughts. To suppress thoughts is to give thoughts power and to let them creep up and cause anxiety.

This is naturally easier to do with thoughts that are merely unpleasant than thoughts that are really, truly about suffering. Either way though, it must be confronted. To live without confronting the thoughts is to be dishonest with one’s self. Perhaps you need to join a support group. Perhaps you need to have a heart to heart conversation. Perhaps you need to write about it.

This is all fine. This is good. Do not suppress, however painful. When you suppress you ultimately cause anxiety and putting off that suffering will in the long run make things worse for you and cause more suffering down the line.

A policy of confronting these thoughts will end up leaving you happier. This is one of the main concepts that has made Buddhism so popular. It is a good practice.

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mindfulness and localized sensations

Written by brian

Focus on just the sensation in your toes right now. Wiggle them around like a child. Focus on just that feeling, the friction of your toes wiggling against each other, against your socks, against your shoes.

That should be easy, right? To focus your mind on just one simple thing, just a sensation in your body?

Of course, for many people it’s not.

I remember watching a special once about the Navy SEALs where they discussed techniques for pain tolerance. One of their biggest tips was, if your foot is hurting, pound on the other leg’s thigh and focus on that.

If localized sensation is good enough for the Navy SEALs, it’s good enough for me.

What’s the point?

The point of localized sensation, such as focusing on the space under your nose when breathing, is to connect your mind and body. Of course, they are already connected, but sometimes people abstract things so far they lose touch with their body.

The mind and body are one just like the world and yourself are one. Really they are one. We split them up, sometimes arbitrarily, sometimes based on assumptions we make arbitrarily, sometimes based on assumptions we have been taught. We split them up.

They are not split. Sometimes we perceive them as split, but when we think about it we realize that perhaps we weren’t fully perceiving and that is the problem. Localized sensation meditation brings us back to the true world.

From that localized sensation, naturally, the mind can expand outward from the body. It pulses in towards the body and out toward the world, connecting. This is a sensation I cannot describe to you without metaphors, but if you continue to meditate you will one day soon feel the sensation of your consciousness pulsing into your body and out towards the world and back again.

It is a feeling like no other.

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mindfulness and renewing habits

Written by brian

In a post last week I talked about the day to day of mindfulness, including renewing habits. I want to expand on that concept with this post. What do I mean when I say renewing habits?

I’m totally 100% positive that nobody who ever reads this post will have tried to start a new habit and had that attempt fail. That last sentence is false.

Why do our attempts at new habits fail? Often, it’s down to falling off the wagon once, and then staying in that failure. It’s often easier to do something every day than once a week. Why is that?

Think of meditating. Is it easier to count every breath, or every fifth breath? Every breath right? To remember to do the habit is one of the biggest obstacles.

It is also down to conditioning. Often the habits we try to develop are for health or motivation reasons. Perhaps you are often too lazy to go to the gym, just to combine the two.What happens here?

What happens is your mind fails to overcome the laziness obstacle in the way of completing the task of actually going to the gym. The way to overcome this is to condition the mind to consistently overcome this laziness obstacle.

Now anyone who has ever tried to condition their body knows that your body conditions faster if you are working out several times a week rather than once a week. It’s just a fact.

You might say “sure, but if you work out every day, in this example, you will get burned out.” True. One needs days off.

Similarly in a diet there are often built in “cheat days” where a person can eat whatever they want. Depending on what the habit you are trying to form is, this might be possible. If you are trying to quit smoking cigarettes, this is a bad idea because of the chemical dependance. If you are trying to form a habit of writing every day, taking one day a week off (so long as it is preplanned) is fine.

It is fine so long as you renew the habit.

Every time you bring yourself back to concentrating on the now, on your mindfulness practice, you are renewing that habit. You can always renew the habit.

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mindfulness and poetry friday!: the fall of hyperion

Written by brian

Image via Phil Sellens

John Keats is one of the most talented poets in this language’s history, though he died so young (25!) from tuberculosis. This is from a fragment he never finished, “The Fall of Hyperion.” Mindfulness isn’t quite what the poem is about, but the poem does discuss the concept of dreamers vs. those who live in the world and so I will post this little fragment.

Only the dreamer venoms all his days,
Bearing more woe than his sins deserve.

We can all of us make our lives hell by living in our mind. When we live in the world and not in dreams, we can escape our own treachery.

Go out and live your weekend.

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mindfulness basics: the day to day

Written by brian

Mindfulness is about more than just meditation, even though that’s the focus of so many posts here. Here are some quick tips to be more mindful in your day to day life.

  1. Constant vigilance:The first tip is one for which there is no trick. Put simply, if you’re going to be more mindful, you have to work at it, at least initially. Without a constant effort, you will remain as you were.
  2. Common Experiences: Before you scream at that idiot driver in front of you (or as you are screaming, in my case), think of yourself or a loved one in a similar situation. In my case I try to think of my mother, who has some vision problems, driving over-cautiously when I get frustrated with an over-cautious driver that is slowing down my commute. It is not an exaggeration to say that becoming a more mindful driver is one of my toughest challenges.
  3. Renewing habits: I think we all know it’s not hard to “start” a new habit. It’s hard to make it an actual habit instead of something you just do for a week. It’s always important to keep in mind that something is better than nothing; as such, I like to think of “renewing” habits constantly for when I fall off the wagon a little bit. This is a subset of the first tip, really.
  4. Take time: Take time out to recognize how beautiful something is every day. For me, this is often marveling at a sunrise or sunset (sunset more now that I don’t get up so early for work). Another favorite natural marvel of mine is the way green leaves look at the end of the day. There is something about the way the light strikes the leaves, especially if you look towards the sun while the leaves are blocking it, so that light creeps around the edges, that I find so beautiful….
  5. Drink and eat: You probably didn’t expect this one. I know we all hear it so often, but that’s only because it’s true: Drink Water! It’s amazing how often a couple glasses of water can turn you from being irritable to at peace. The same goes for eating; if your blood sugar is out of whack, you’re going to have a hard time controlling your mind. Don’t abuse your body through neglect.

These are basic, but if you apply them they will make a difference in your life and your ultimate happiness. And no, I cannot stress enough how difficult battling road rage is for me. Why don’t you share your biggest mindfulness challenge in the comments?

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mindfulness basics: a beginner’s meditation

Written by brian

Here’s a quick, beginner’s meditation that you can try in bed tonight. It’s not so different from the childhood trick of counting sheep. In this case, we’ll be counting breaths.

While you read this paragraph try and count each inhale without consciously taking over your breath. Breath is used in meditation so often for a variety of reasons, some of which I have discussed here. Put simply, if we could control our heartbeat, we would, but since that isn’t possible breath is the most primal cyclical body function we can concentrate on and so the closest we can get to not concentrating on anything (as beginners). Eventually, it is possible to let the breath go and focus on nothing. This is very advanced meditation practice that goes beyond mindfulness. Until then, focusing with the breath is the closest we can get.

How did you do on counting breaths? Not so easy, right? You probably either lost count or consciously took over your breathing so it wasn’t the way you naturally breathe.

Here’s a dead simple breathing meditation you can try tonight before you go to bed. Seriously, dead simple.

A First Meditation

  1. Get comfy. Since this will be in bed, I suggest that you lie on your back if possible. This is a more centered position than some others you could use. It will also allow for easy deep breaths.
  2. Take 3 deep breaths. Try and breathe in and out slowly and through your nose.
  3. Now stop. Wait for a count of 5.
  4. Now breathe in deeply like you were before, and exhale just as slowly. This counts as your first breath. Remember you are only counting inhalations. Technically the inhale and exhale count as one breath, but it’s easier to count on the inhale.
  5. Count your breaths up to 25. If at any point you are not absolutely certain of which breath you are on, start over at 1.
  6. Once you’ve gotten to 25, you’re done. Congratulations. Roll over and go to sleep, or start another cycle of 25.

Doesn’t sound too hard, right? In fact it isn’t, but many people will have a hard time focusing on such a mundane task when there are a zillion things to think about. It is often people’s trouble with something this simple that proves to them that their mind is going absolutely crazy and they need to get under control.

Some tips: I like to visualize the numbers sometimes when I’m counting breaths. Other times I focus on sensation in a localized part of my body, usually the space between my eyes. More on THAT later. Another common tip is to focus on the area just under the nostrils where you can feel the breath.

This is often more to focus on than a person needs. If you just manage to count all 25 breaths, you’re doing alright.

One final note: no, you are not allowed to use your fingers, toes, or anything other than your mind to help you count. No cheating!

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mindfulness basics: dealing with distractions

Written by brian

To include dealing with distractions in the “basics” of a mindfulness practice is kind of silly, but these are just some introductory tips. This is a topic that you will come back to throughout your mindfulness practice. It is in some ways the essence of a mindfulness practice.

The key to a successful mindfulness practice is to find 1-3 techniques that really work for you and use those well rather than have a veritable swiss army knife of different options. However, people often have to try many techniques before they find what will work for them.

With any of these, the name of the game is vigilance and consistent effort. When in doubt, just keep trying.

On to the techniques.

Write about what is on your mind

This is something different from what typical meditation instructors teach, but I have found it exceptionally valuable as a language-focused piece of humanity. The idea here is simple: if you have a recurring thought that keeps interfering with your meditation practice, write about it. Write down everything going through your mind in a free write. The key is to keep those fingers tapping (or your pen going across the paper).

It doesn’t have to be structured, it doesn’t have to even be grammatically correct. Draw pictures and diagrams if they help. Write as if you will never share it with anybody. In fact, I suggest not sharing it with anybody, though you may want to use this free write as material for something you do eventually share.

The fact is humanity has not found a better way to organize thoughts than through language. Once you have defined the problem that keeps cropping up for you into language, your mind will have a better chance at processing it and figuring out what to do with it.

Watch this space for a future post on some questions you can ask to tease out everything that is bothering you about a particular thought.

Big Mind

This is a more traditional technique from Zen Buddhism. Think of the mind as a body of water upon which thoughts are cast like stones that make ripples. How big is your body of water?

Often people start with a shallow, small body of water (as their mind). This causes each thought to make huge waves in the mind so that it becomes very hard to be still.

On the other hand, an experienced mindfulness practitioner has a huge ocean of a mind, so that nothing makes such huge waves that they do not quickly dissipate and allow calmness to pervade again.

What is the difference between a small body of water mind and a big ocean mind? Perspective.

I will write more about this in the future, but for now, think of the mind as a big ocean upon which thoughts can make no more than slight ripples. When a thought makes a ripple in your mind, do not try to counteract it. Simply let it play out, and try your best to not let another thought follow on to create another ripple. Just let it fade away.

Big mind. Beginners mind. Write it out.

 

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