The Power of the Moment
First and foremost, taking what I like to call a ’Buddhist Pause’, permits us to witness our own interior processing. We can then see the patterns of thoughts and feelings flowing by as if they were ‘debris’ floating upon the stream of consciousness. We become witness the very business of being. Secondarily, any and all opportunities to influence that internal activity exist in real time only. Only, as we catch the moment, can we discern the patterns that drive our internal states In the moment we can catch ourselves in the act of ‘filtering’. We can relax our filters, attending to more. We can strengthen filters, attending to less. This is important to any understanding of what is popularly called ADD. We can catch ourselves...
Read MoreRecollections are What Exactly?
Each moment you reminisce you are tapping your imaginational wherewithal. You are tapping the record of your past experience and, picking and choosing from that ‘data’, a piece of the puzzle. The event in real time was necessarily filtered; you saw from your own vantage point only. And now, something in the moment has triggered recollection of a piece of the remembered experience. It is likely to be more nuanced and as such, it may be particularly helpful. The nuanced recollection may include a piece of the original experienced ‘differently filtered’, therefore less constrained by your own vantage point. Neat huh? The Very Experience of Recalling May be Therapeutic Your imaginative capacity may allow you to now see the event from another...
Read MoreBecome a Botanist of Mind
Botanists get the ball rolling. They identify plant forms. They identify the position of each form on the phylogenetic chart. They distinguish it as a type. They note it’s relationship to other types. From that, much science follows. Typing permits one kind of understanding; the nature of the form, it’s history, it’s wherewithal. Exploration of those characteristics of the ‘types‘ as separate pieces of something larger is ‘reductionist science’ and it is not to be sneezed at. Holistic science is the study of the relationships between things or types of things. The concept is not but the science is new. It has only been possible to understand things in relation to one another as our mathematics have evolved. We now see...
Read More‘Witness’ your Thoughts
Can you witness your thoughts at least twice today? Obviously you are aware of your thoughts. We are typically immersed in our thoughts, profoundly influenced by them. Hopefully, we are frequently entertained by our them. This is good! However ‘witnessing’ your thoughts is tricky. Imagine yourself sitting beside the stream of your own consciousness. Oh, There’s one. There’s another and another. Become a Botanist of Mind. Is this thought, social commentary? Is it amusing? Is it kind or unkind? It doesn’t matter for purposes of this exercise. Don’t judge it. It is what it is. It is not a crime to be you. Allowing your thoughts to be what they indeed are creates a solid platform for growth. Noting that a given thought may...
Read MoreYour Mental Wherewithal
Edit and Code Thoughts? Your mind is an information management system. It can be managed. One of the most common ‘errors’ I encountered as a therapist was confusion of thoughts with emotions. I would ask, ‘how do you feel about that?‘ Someone would reply, ‘Well, I think that…’. I might ask again, ‘how do you feel?’ and again hear something on the order of, ‘well, if you ask me…’ This reflects a lack of awareness of the distinction between thoughts and emotions. Mind stuff includes: perceptions of sensation, perception of emotion, snap judgements, recollections, opinions, conclusions drawn, etc. It is in your interest to distinguish between all of the above. Failure to make those distinctions...
Read MoreDrinking Too Much Wine? Take a ‘Buddhist Pause’
Five minutes is all it takes. You may opt for ten. At the end of the day many folks look forward to a glass of wine, then perhaps a second. Roughly 50 % of folks I’ve worked with have overcome this problem simply taking what I call a ‘Buddhist Pause’. The point of the pause is to just take note of what’s in play. What were your thoughts just a moment ago. Your thought a moment ago increased the likelihood that you would take that drink. What was the thought? The thought before that? A Dangerous Pattern Shifts as a Result of the Pause Taken and Insight Gained. Not uncommonly, with the pause, people note that the thought was something like, ‘I feel like cr…’ or, ‘that SOB!’. Those thoughts matter. Not...
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