Mindfulness

I've been giving a little thought to this concept of "mindfulness," the idea that we should live in the moment and clear our minds, keeping free of distractions.

It's an age-old concept that has been practiced by followers of various philosophies and religions. It's a form of meditation that helps many cope with the accelerating pace of life in modern times.

Zen practitioners talk about concentrating on simple things, like tooth brushing, or just sitting alone in a room, and focusing entirely on the present: the atmosphere in the room, the sensations we feel, our breathing. The mind must be clear and still. It should not wander outside the room. It should not recall past events or bring up thoughts of the future.

One thing about this has stimulated a little internal debate. I raise a question: if we could master this type of mindfulness, wouldn't we be just like the animals? I'm sure they live mainly in the moment. But isn't thinking like a human being what makes our species unique? The ability to consider abstract concepts is an advanced mental skill. Most animals don't seem capable of that. Without imagination, we would not have built our civilization. Without planning, we would not have created cities, advanced medicine or developed agriculture.

So in the end we can't devote ourselves completely to the practice of mindfulness. It's really about using meditation as an antidote to our increasingly schizophrenic existence. It's about restoring a balance.

Re-training ourselves to focus on the present is a useful tool that we can employ when our humanity, stimulated by the rush of moving forward, conditioned by splintered thoughts and multiple distractions, is at risk of falling into a state of unhealthy mind-body imbalance. Finding ways to still our thoughts and just "be" -- here and now-- , is a positive way to reduce stress. Then we can return to work on next week's agenda or discovering the next renewable energy source.

Labyrinths: leading you in circles for peace of mind

Have you ever walked a labyrinth? Proponents of these walks say it's a practical way to clear the mind using the body's natural rhythms.

For thousands of years and in different cultures, people have built labyrinths for this purpose. A labyrinth is a system of paths with many turns and interconnecting passages. It is like a maze. However, unlike a maze, it is not a puzzle to be solved, but rather a path to be followed to the centre of the pattern and then out again.

Writer Joe Kissell followed his curiosity about stress relief to a sanctuary in San Francisco, where he took part in a labyrinth walk. He then wrote about it here. The subtitle of his article is interesting: "The twisty path to clarity."

The photo above shows an example of a medieval labyrinth. It's from the French cathedral in Chartres, the site of many pilgrimages. You can read more about that labyrinth here.

The benefits of walking to clear the mind have been promoted by many great men and women throughout the ages. I like a quote by Saint Augustine that I found on one site:
"Solvitur ambulando" -- "It is solved by walking."


Note:
The photo from Chartres Cathedral is used under a free documentation licence made available by Wikimedia Commons
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The benefits of a positive attitude

The relative quiet of a Sunday is always a good time to reflect on the week that passed and to take a look at the week ahead.

Recently, I read a quotation from the Dalai Lama that resonates with its simplicity but also with its positive nature. If there's something I think we can all aspire to, it's to be more positive. This applies especially to me. When I was younger, I seemed to naturally lean toward negativity. To some extent, I still do, but much less so, because I've been working on seeing things differently.

If you feel the world is going to hell in a handbasket, it doesn't do any good to wail and make it worse. Turn the perspective around, and at the very least you'll feel better, because by seeing the positive aspect of a situation, you're contributing to make something better, even if it's a little thing like attitude.

It helps to remember that negative thoughts also contribute to stress, and we know that stress kills.

The easiest way to inject some positivity into life, is to start out by being thankful. Look around you in the morning or in the evening and see what you can be grateful for.

Here's that quote:

“Everyday, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”

The Dalai Lama recognizes how all things are connected and how his own outlook can affect the whole.

It's an affirmation that costs me nothing to try. And like the words of so many other sages and spiritual leaders, it could literally change my life.

Notes:
1.The Dalai Lama was quoted in Zen Habits, a web site about life balance with close to 74,000 subscribers.

2.If you'd like to read more about giving thanks, see 8 Tremendously Important Ways That Gratitude Can Change Your Life.

3. The photo is courtesy of Damien Moorehouse who made it available on the stock photo site, http://www.sxc.hu/.

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A new approach to mental health

For those who regularly practice meditation, it may seem self-evident; but to me, the idea of using holistic methods to help people get through mental illness seems refreshingly novel: instead of a possible dependency on drugs, a patient might find that learning to observe one's troubles with detachment may help in recovery.

"Mindfulness-based psychotherapy" is a new approach currently being experimented in hospitals and mental health organizations. According to the Globe and Mail, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto is one of these. It's taking part in a $2.5-million clinical trial to find out if mindfulness meditation can prevent relapses of depression in certain people as effectively as anti-depressant medications.

This type of discipline requires that a person sits still, relaxes and listens to one's body, focuses on breathing and on being aware of one's surroundings. When the patient learns to prevent the mind from wandering too much, he or she is asked to turn their attention to whatever is troubling them.   Learning to observe difficult emotions impartially and accept them is an important step.

Zindel Segal, a psychologist, tells the newspaper that pausing at these moments can help people who have a history of depression. They can identify and observe emotions instead of reacting automatically. "Fright, alarm, rejection are experiences that can come over us very quickly, " Segal says. In many cases, they are built-in responses that prevent patients from choosing alternatives.

The Globe article offers some interesting insights.  Here's the link.

For related stories, see "The present is the only thing that's real" and "Oxygen, a simple prescription for better health?"

Illustration courtesy of Sachin Ghodke.

A contemplative moment

A sign posted outside a church in Mississauga, Ontario:

"When the outlook is bad, try the uplook."

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Thanks to Gokhan Okur for the photograph from Bellapais, Cyprus.

The present is the only thing that's real

Time for a little reflection.

We run around so much these days, juggling multiple activities, thinking about what we need to get done or analyzing what we did yesterday. We worry. We feel anxiety when we're delayed on our way to an appointment or when something deviates from our plans; when we're stuck in traffic; when our children are late coming home. We worry when we lose control of our timeline or when things don't jive with our expectations.

When you look at how we go through our days it becomes apparent that we live a great part of the time in the world of our thoughts, in the virtual reality of our minds.

When feeling stressed, and in search of serenity or some tranquility, try turning down the volume in your brain. Many people find it useful to consciously focus on the present, to become aware again of the senses and experience this particular moment in these surroundings.

Sometimes, the mind is like a runaway train. And we make things worse by letting ourselves get further distracted by the car radio, for example, or the mp3 player, the video game, the television or the computer. We may be in one place physically, but our minds are too often somewhere else.

A useful technique to improve awareness is highlighted in the book "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. His suggestion is to visualize your thoughts as if they're a series of images on a screen, to see them as a movie. Don't analyze them, just observe them without judgment.

As you see these disjointed thoughts running on the screen, you come to the realization that the room is filled with another presence -- the watcher. And the watcher is also YOU.

But how can this be? This means there's another "you" that is not a part of those thoughts up on the screen. The more you connect with that "watcher", the more your presence focuses on the "other" you; the you that is set apart from all the mental noise or static. As you practice this, the easier it becomes to disconnect at will from uncontrolled mind activity and the easier it becomes to focus on the present.

There are other techniques to focus on the present, of course, like conscious breathing exercises, yoga, etc.

The bottom line, according to the experts, is that you start to feel better the more your body and mind synchronize with the "now", with the surroundings and situation that defines the present.

Only the present is real; the past is a movie in your mind and the future is also just a series of images, also in your head. As humans , we can only truly live one "here and now'' at a time. The more we can fully experience this, the better we will feel. Tolle points out that our minds are so polluted that this has become difficult to do.

But with a little practice, living life a little more "unplugged" can make you feel better.
It's worth a try.

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Photo courtesy: Greg Hill, stock.xchange