We expend a lot of effort to improve the external conditions of our lives, but in the end it is always the mind that creates our experience of the world and translates this experience into either well-being or suffering
Matthieu Ricard
Tag: mind
More on Mind-Body medicine: Meditation’s effect on the brain
This study on the effects of the MBSR Course on the Brain, is getting a lot of attention. I posted about it last week already. Here is a link, which Carol sent me, to a very nice piece in the New York Times. It summarizes well the current debate about the effects of meditation on the brain and health and links to some hard data in the area of mind-body medicine.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/how-meditation-may-change-the-brain/
On how to turn the mind into a friend
Learning to be present for the moment is the beginning. By sitting still and training the mind to be with the breath, we begin to relax our discursiveness. We see how the mind creates our solid sense of self and begin to discover the mind’s natural state of being. With this experience we can being to cultivate our garden. The flowers of love compassion and wisdom gradually take over, and the weeds of anger, jealousy and self-involvement have less and less room to grow. In peaceful abiding we become familiar with the ground of basic goodness. This is how we turn the mind into an ally.
Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind into an Ally
Ways we get shaken from the present:1: The improving mind
Mindfulness practice reminds us to be fully present now, and in doing that we live a more integrated life. However, it is not easy to stay completely in the present moment, open to what is actually happening. The mind has a number of simple ways that distract us from being fully at ease just with what is going on, and which shake us from being firm in this experience. If we can spot these thoughts in the small moments of each day and notice their effect, we can come to gradually notice them in the bigger picture of our life.
The first one is what I call the “improving mind”. We find ourselves in a situation, maybe quite pleasant, and we suddenly find ourselves wanting just a little bit extra. Very quickly after the arrival of a pleasant sensation – This is just lovely here– comes a thought that moves us from just being with how things actually are –It’s a pity we cannot stay a bit longer. There is nothing wrong with a thought like this; it’s just a thought; but what we notice is that it slightly moves us away from fully enjoying this moment. They move us from simple happiness of now, to “how happiness could be better”. And if we hook into these thoughts we get blown away and moved on from fully attending to here and now.
A simple practice: See if you can spot this “improving mind”. What is it like to stay solid in the moment in all its flavours and colours, just as it is?
More health benefits of mindfulness: Mindfulness, therapy and getting over our fears
There was an article in last Sunday’s Wall Street Journal on how increasingly Mindfulness is being used to help people overcome negative thoughts and feelings, or what the article terms, “the Voice” – that nagging, persistent commentary in your head. It describes mindfulness as an effective way of doing therapy with these negative, judgmental thoughts, by training us to simply observe them, rather than trying to deny them. Getting frustrated with aspects of our lives – such as our weight, our relationships, or our self-confidence – and suddenly trying to change them, (a frequent strategy around New Year), often only strengthens the grip of negative thoughts. Mindfulness, on the other hand, is based on us becoming non-judgmentally familiar with the stream of thoughts and emotions which pass through our mind every minute and – this is the key – observe them without getting involved, almost as if we were observing a parade on the street or a soap opera on television.
The article concludes with a quote from Marsha Linehan, who was one of the first to apply mindfulness principles in her work with Borderline patients. She speaks about the importance of not judging ourselves, of simply being with whatever arises in the mind as a thought or an emotion: “Most of us think that if we are judgmental enough, things will change. But judgment makes it harder to change. What happens in mindfulness over the long haul is that you finally accept that you’ve seen this soap opera before and you can turn off the TV.”
The whole article is well worth the read: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059823679423598.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_health
The myth of normality
A quote from my favourite book of last year on a similar theme to Monday’s post on loneliness.Wisdom begins with clearly seeing the dynamics which operate in the ways that society portrays happiness.
The common myth that is perpetuated in society is that the normal person is happy, balanced and integrated – otherwise there is something wrong with them; maybe they’re mentally unstable. We’re even alarmed by unhappy people. Everyone in the media is smiling and cheerful. The politicians are all smiling, cheerful. confident; funeral homes even make the corpses up to look smiling, cheerful and confident.
Meanwhile however, perhaps you’re not smiling and you don’t feel cheerful and confident. You know you can’t live up to any of the images of the model person. You don’t have the right appearance or status symbols, your performance doesn’t cut it, you’re out of touch with the latest trends, or maybe you are just poor – someone whom society doesn’t want to acknowledge. Unhappiness in Western culture is often treated as a sign of failure. Others think, “They’re not happy, maybe they didn’t do enough. And maybe they’ll want something from me so I’d better steer away from them”
Ajahn Sucitto, Turning the Wheel of Truth
Mindfulbalance 