I am in the process of developing my mindfulness skills.
There are various definitions for the term. "Mindfulness as a psychological concept is the focusing of
attention and awareness, based on the concept of mindfulness in Buddhist meditation." "Mindfulness helps us to stop living by reacting to
pressure, freeing us from destructive mental and emotional patterns. It
changes our habitual way of reacting unhelpfully. We learn and practice
staying calm and making sound and creative choices. To be mindful is to
be in each moment and live our lives with understanding."
I finished reading Buddha's Brain: The Practical
Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom, by Rick Hanson (2009). The book editor
describes Buddha's Brain
---"a clinical psychologist and a senior neurologist explain how the brain
benefits from contemplative practice and show readers how to develop greater
happiness, love, and wisdom by drawing from breakthroughs in modern
neuroscience."
Buddhism is not my spiritual practice but I do see great
benefit from the Buddhist philosophical approach for emotional and physical
well-being. Since solid research has demonstrated that mindfulness meditation
does change the biochemistry of the brain, I believe we should use this
knowledge to improve our emotional health. There are cultural differences
between Eastern thinking and Western thinking. But often these differences are
exaggerated by our own insecurities.
It is disconcerting to me when meditation practices
advocate letting go of your sense of self, be impersonal---etc. As a Westerner,
and from the USA, we tend to see Eastern practices as creating an overly
compliant, dependent populace. (Yes this a naive, biased, stereotype but it
seems to be human nature to be negatively biased about the unknown, which may
actually be an evolutionary survival mechanism. Buddha’s Brain, the
book, addresses topics like this.) And I am
sure many Easterners view our striving for assertiveness as arrogant and
aggressive. To me it seems the best place to be is living in the middle and
having the ability to choose behavioral responses from either end of the
continuum that enhance one’s life and well-being.
Constant aggressiveness creates a body chemistry
overloaded with stress hormones, which is damaging to the body. Being overly
compliant also creates an over abundance of stress hormones. Both behavior
choices displaying “fight or flight” stress reaction. So perhaps we are not on
opposite ends of a continuum but we are actually standing side by side—brothers
and sisters under the skin.
One then sees that the best place to be is to be
impersonal, let go of excessive self-interest. It is not easy; it is a mental discipline.
How many of us make ourselves sick worrying over things we cannot change.
Possibly we could have a positive effect if we calmed our minds to allow
creative insight and intuition.
If the ego self is overly invested in controlling a
situation for a specific outcome, we limit our possibilities. I am in a time of
transition between being retired from a career that defined my livelihood, and
my emotional sense of self-worth and self-competence and I am transitioning to
……? That blank space creates an inner tension and stress. When my ego self
takes over and I worry about the future, or crave the economic stability of the
past, my thinking becomes stuck, frozen.
Mindfulness meditation has helped me realize that quieting
the mind puts me in touch with my own inner knowing and allows room for
inspiration from the higher realms of Spirit. At the same time the body
responds by cutting back on cortisol the stress hormone and releases happy,
calm hormones such as dopamine and oxytocin.
It is my hope you will join me in my mindfulness
adventure. I intend to post my insights and thoughts for the day. My spiritual
inspiration has opened my eyes---this is part of my new life and I still have
much to contribute. Best Wishes!
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