Learning - by being Open to Discomfort

     "Wong, in a course on ‘Identity & Diversity’, used simple breathing exercises to extend the ‘limits of critical pedagogy’ and cultivate ‘listening silence’ - defined as ‘a space where automatic mental activities of moulding, ordering & ideologizing is set aside, to make room for our hermeneutic effort to engage in genuine dialogues’.

     She found this enabled students to be open to and stay with the feelings of discomfort being experienced in order to create ‘ . . . dialogic communications and relations’."

       Lynn R. Mindfulness in social work education. Social Work Education 2010; 29(3): 289–304.

     Our tendency to automatically avoid discomfort causes us to miss critical learning opportunities. See:
http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=discomfort

http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/search?q=discomfort

http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/search?q=discomfort

 

Old Halifax - January 30, 2014

Integrating Knowledge & Behaviour - Teaching the Talk AND the Walk

     Mindfulness practice cultivates "‘... a quality of self-focused attention characterized by openness & acceptance of experience that is not articulated in the descriptions of ... other constructs involving self-observation’. This quality of attention could potentially assist learning in social work education. 

     ... in order to equally value the sensory & bodily experience with conceptual knowledge, greater emphasis needs to be given to the phenomenology of experience, and to ‘... the reunion of our mind with our body, emotions, & spirit in teaching & learning’. ... (considered) essential to integrating ‘what one learns & knows with how one acts’."

       Lynn R. Mindfulness in social work education. Social Work Education 2010; 29(3): 289–304.

Yochi23   www.dpreview.com

The Freedom of Real Education

     "If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is, and who and what is really important, if you want to operate on your default setting, then you like me probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable.
     But if you really learn how to think, how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation, as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars. Love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.
     Not that mystical oneness is necessarily true. The only thing that's capital-T true is that you get to decide how you're going to try to see it. This, I submit, is the freedom of real education.                                       David Foster Wallace

      Wallace's entire 2005 Kenyon College Commencement Speech (below) is WELL worth 22 minutes of your time.

Spirituality, Faith & Transcendent Meaning

     "spirituality (is defined) as that which allows a person to experience transcendent meaning in life. Spirituality is a construct that involves concepts of 'Faith' and/or 'Meaning' ...

     Faith is a belief in a higher transcendent power, not necessarily identified as God, and not necessarily through participation in the rituals or beliefs of a specific organized religion; faith in a transcendent power may identify this power as being external to the human psyche or internalized; it is the relationship and connectedness to this power, or spirit, that is an essential component of the spiritual experience and is related to the concept of meaning. 

     Meaning, or having a sense that one’s life has meaning, involves the conviction that one is fulfilling a unique role and purpose in a life that is a gift; a life that comes with a responsibility to live up to one’s full potential as a human being and, in so doing, being able to achieve a sense of peace, contentment, or even transcendence through connectedness with something greater than one’s self ..."

        Breitbart W. Spirituality and meaning in supportive care: spirituality- and meaning-centered group psychotherapy interventions in advanced cancer. Supportive Care in Cancer 2001 DOI 10.1007/s005200100289 

     "Transcendence (religion), the concept of being entirely beyond the universe; Transcendence (philosophy), climbing or going beyond some philosophical concept or limit. In religious experience transcendence is a state of being that has overcome the limitations of physical existence and by some definitions has also become independent of it."

       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendence

Tamas Dezso photography   www.tamas-dezso.com

Choosing One's Way, Attitude, Meaning - & ultimately, Wisdom over Suffering

     “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

     "We can discover meaning in life in three different ways:      
     1) by creating a work or doing a deed; 
     2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and 
     3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering."           Viktor Frankl MD

     Without wisdom, life IS suffering - at least according to Buddhist psychology.

     "In 1950, the psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson, in a famous treatise on the phases of life development, identified wisdom as a likely, but not inevitable, byproduct of growing older. Wisdom arose, he suggested, during the eighth and final stage of psychosocial development, which he described as 'ego integrity versus despair.' If an individual had achieved enough 'ego integrity' over the course of a lifetime, then the imminent approach of infirmity & death would be accompanied by the virtue of wisdom."           Stephen S. Hall
       http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/magazine/06Wisdom-t.html?_r=0 

There is a way out

Wisdom vs Psychological Distress & Existential Terror

     Can we be proactive and do something constructive for ourselves & our patients so as to become resilient during potentially the most vulnerable time of life? Thousands of years of human wisdom traditions hold the key - let's not forget to make wise & timely use of them.

     "As the discipline of Palliative Medicine matures throughout the world, it is becoming more apparent that concepts of adequate palliative care must be expanded in their focus beyond pain and physical symptom control to include psychiatric, psychosocial, existential, and spiritual domains of end-of-life care. While pain and physical symptoms are indeed distressing to cancer patients with advanced disease, the fact remains that symptoms relating to psychological distress and existential concerns are even more prevalent than pain and other physical symptoms. Integrating spirituality and issues of meaning and faith into the supportive care of cancer patients with advanced disease is now an essential component of optimal supportive care."

       Breitbart W. Spirituality and meaning in supportive care: spirituality- and meaning-centered group psychotherapy interventions in advanced cancer. Supportive Care in Cancer 2001 DOI 10.1007/s005200100289 

 

Tamas Dezso photography   www.tamas-dezso.com

Fool's Gold & Other Shiny Things vs Depth & Substance

     "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people".     Karl Marx     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people

      The human propensity to try a quick easy fix for the most complex of all matters - the meaning of life - is astounding. Gobbling down a chocolate bar when one's hungry, gives a sugar-high, quickly followed by a crash, and so it goes for all of our impatient attempts to feel good fast, without addressing the fundamental issues appropriately.
     Some of today's promoters of meditation gain popularity by promising quick routes to bliss, happiness, wealth, success etc - ie an alternative route to "the American dream".
     Sitting meditation - taught by a competent teacher - is a solid, intelligent, well-traveled path to profound wholeness, depth & meaning. It's a lifetime journey of discovery & deepening, learning to embrace all of life: the horror, the mundane & the awe-inspiring beauty - the "full catastrophe." It's NOT a quick fix, and "bliss" is an occasional tap on the head ("spiritual consolation"), NOT the goal. Choose your teacher well.

Fundamental to Health: Peace

      The first International Conference on Health Promotion met in Ottawa on November 21st, 1986 and drafted the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Quite reasonably, the first fundamental prerequisite for health named is peace.

     Clearly, if one's world is filled with mayhem, mere survival takes priority over health. This applies equally to one's outer and inner world. Mindfulness meditation provides the opportunity to bring peace to one's inner world. One can more easily influence the outer world in a positive direction, if one's inner world is at peace. In both ways, mindfulness meditation helps improve quality of life. This is widely recognized today.

 
       Thompson E. "Waking, Dreaming, Being: New Light on the Self and Consciousness from Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy." Columbia University Press, 2014. http://evanthompson.me/waking-dreaming-being/

 

Bouquet of Anemones by Odilon Redon

 

Teaching for Wisdom - Urgently Needed Now

     "Teachers who teach for wisdom will explore with students the notion that conventional abilities and achievements are not enough for professional success as well as a meaningful life. Many people become trapped in their lives and, despite feeling conventionally successful, feel that their lives lack meaning, at least in the sense of contributing to a good that is larger than their own. Contributing to a common good is not an alternative to success, but rather, is an aspect of it that, for most people, goes beyond money, promotions, large houses, and so forth. The teacher will further demonstrate how wisdom is critical for a life that makes a positive difference to the world. In the long run, wise decisions benefit people in ways that foolish decisions never do. The teacher must teach students the usefulness of interdependence -- a rising tide raises all ships; a falling tide can sink them.  
     It is also important to role model wisdom, because what you do is more important than what you say. Wisdom is in what you do, not just in what you say. So students should read about wise judgments and decision making in the context of the actions that followed so that the students understand that such means of judging and decision making exist. Teachers need to help students to learn to recognize their own interests, those of other people, and those of institutions. They need further to help students learn to balance their own interests, those of other people, and those of institutions. They will teach students that the "means" by which the end is obtained matters, not just the end. Students need to be encouraged to form, critique, and integrate their own values in their thinking. They further need to learn to think dialectically, realizing that both questions and their answers evolve over time, and that the answer to an important life question can differ at different times in one’s life (such as whether to marry). Wisdom further requires them to learn to think dialogically, whereby they understand interests and ideas from multiple points of view. For example, what one group views as a “settler,” another may view as an “invader.” Most importantly, students need to learn to search for and then try to reach the common good -- a good where everyone wins and not only those with whom one identifies.
     Teaching for wisdom will succeed only if teachers encourage and reward wisdom. Teacher must make wisdom real for students’ lives. Teachers should teach students to monitor events in their lives and their own thought processes about these events. One way to learn to recognize others' interests is to begin to identify your own. They also should help students understand the importance of inoculating oneself against the pressures of unbalanced self-interest and small-group interest. 
     Students will develop wisdom by becoming engaged in class discussions, projects, and essays that encourage them to discuss the lessons they have learned from both classical and modern works and how these lessons can be applied to their own lives and the lives of others. They need to study not only “truth,” as we know it, but values. The idea is not to force-feed a set of values, but to encourage students reflectively to develop their own prosocial ones.  
     Students should be encouraged to think about how almost everything they study might be used for better or worse ends, and to realize that the ends to which knowledge put do matter. Teachers need to realize that the only way they can develop wisdom in their students is to serve as role models of wisdom themselves. A role model of wisdom will, I believe, take a much more Socratic approach to teaching than teachers customarily do. Students often want large quantities of information spoon-fed or even force-fed to them. They then attempt to memorize this material for exams, only to forget it soon thereafter. In a wisdom-based approach to teaching, students will need to take a more active role in constructing their learning.

     The important thing is to work together toward a common good — toward devising the best ways to select and educate students so as to maximize their positive future impact. We wish our students to show wisdom. We need to do the same."

       Robert J. Sternberg "Academic Intelligence is not Enough! WICS: An Expanded Model for Effective Practice in School and in Later Life."  https://commons.clarku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=mosakowskiinstitute

The Culture of Medicine, Dentistry, Psychology etc ...

      “The culture of medicine is one in which perfectionism and 'workaholic standards' rule the day. Many practice settings reward long hours and self-neglect. Physicians are encouraged to disregard themselves and deny their own needs. The process of medical education may enhance development of defense mechanisms that make it difficult to ask for help... Physicians become masters at delayed gratification. Many medical students and residents spend years coping with the high level of demand required in medicine, often harboring the expectation that later they will be rewarded with a happy, more balanced life. However, the task-oriented coping skills developed during training do not go away automatically after training... the goal-oriented approach leads to neglecting alternative sources of gratification or self-esteem; thus, after training, physicians may not have a way to find meaningful balance between work and other life activities."                 

        Miller MN & McGowen KR 2000 

        Garneau K, Hutchinson T, Zhao Q, Dobkin PL. Cultivating person-centered medicine in future physicians. European Journal for Person Centered Healthcare 2013; 1(2): 468-77.  

Bee by Sam Droege   www.dpreview.com

A Great Shift, Challenge & Gift - Adversity!

     "When we come so close to death and so close to our own mortality and also to our own vulnerability, with the very fine line between being very capacitated, on top of our game, to absolutely losing everything - and then realizing that none of those things were actually who we are - that place is a very rich bed of insight.   ... in a wheelchair ...   That much slowing down, and that much introspection, and that much uncertainty & vulnerability, in the crucible of what makes us be able to move forward in life and in what really informs our ability to rise above these great adversities is what really comes forward in the situations in which you have nothing else left."

     "We are all incredibly courageous to have come here in the first place. This is not an easy journey. ... Our hearts are transformers. They can heal & love beyond anything we can even imagine."                                                 Mary-Jo Fetterly  http://mary-jo.com/

        from Pamela Post's CBC Radio Tapestry documentary "If You Can Breathe" - the inspiring story of yoga teacher Mary-Jo Fetterly: http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/popupaudio.html?clipIds=2428137564

A Moment - Poem

Crow
perched on a parking meter
during the winter storm

Risking for a Meaningful Life

     “If you have been brave enough to love, and sometimes you won and sometimes you lost; if you have cared enough to try, and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't; if you have been bold enough to dream and found yourself with some dreams that came true and a lot of broken pieces of dreams that didn't, that fell to earth and shattered, then you can look back from the mountaintop you now find yourself standing on, like Moses contemplating the tablets that would guide human behavior for a millennium, resting in the Ark alongside the broken fragments of an earlier dream. And you, like Moses, can realize how full your life has been and how richly you are blessed.”                                        Harold S. Kushner


     See also: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/search?q=shipwreck

December's Child

Historical Irony: "God is on Our Side"

     "Historical irony calls attention to the dramatic or fateful turn of events, in which rational purposes and high ideals are thwarted or brought to surprising result and human inventions perform functions contrary to their design.
     Instances of historical irony, in which the consequences of an act prove to be diametrically opposed to the actor’s original intention, provide occasions for the exercise of ironic wisdom as a form of critical public judgment. In American public life, ironic wisdom has particularly taken rise from occasions of historical irony. This ironic mode of wisdom is famously present in Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural:

     'Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental & astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. . . .  The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes.'"

       W. Clark Gilpin
       http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1198.aspx#

Bee by Sam Droege   www.dpreview.com

Instances of historical irony, in which the consequences of an act prove to be diametrically opposed to the actor’s original intention, provide occasions for the exercise of ironic wisdom as a form of critical public judgment. In American public life, ironic wisdom has particularly taken rise from occasions of historical irony. This ironic mode of wisdom is famously present in Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural: - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1198.aspx#sthash.qOGtRHqm.dpuf

Instances of historical irony, in which the consequences of an act prove to be diametrically opposed to the actor’s original intention, provide occasions for the exercise of ironic wisdom as a form of critical public judgment. In American public life, ironic wisdom has particularly taken rise from occasions of historical irony. This ironic mode of wisdom is famously present in Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural: - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1198.aspx#sthash.qOGtRHqm.dpuf

Instances of historical irony, in which the consequences of an act prove to be diametrically opposed to the actor’s original intention, provide occasions for the exercise of ironic wisdom as a form of critical public judgment. In American public life, ironic wisdom has particularly taken rise from occasions of historical irony. This ironic mode of wisdom is famously present in Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural: - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1198.aspx#sthash.qOGtRHqm.dpuf

Historical irony calls attention to the dramatic or fateful turn of events, in which rational purposes and high ideals are thwarted or brought to surprising result and human inventions perform functions contrary to their design. - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1198.aspx#sthash.qOGtRHqm.dpuf

Historical irony calls attention to the dramatic or fateful turn of events, in which rational purposes and high ideals are thwarted or brought to surprising result and human inventions perform functions contrary to their design.
Instances of historical irony, in which the consequences of an act prove to be diametrically opposed to the actor’s original intention, provide occasions for the exercise of ironic wisdom as a form of critical public judgment. In American public life, ironic wisdom has particularly taken rise from occasions of historical irony. This ironic mode of wisdom is famously present in Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural:

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. . . . The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes.

- See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1198.aspx#sthash.qOGtRHqm.dpuf

Historical irony calls attention to the dramatic or fateful turn of events, in which rational purposes and high ideals are thwarted or brought to surprising result and human inventions perform functions contrary to their design.
Instances of historical irony, in which the consequences of an act prove to be diametrically opposed to the actor’s original intention, provide occasions for the exercise of ironic wisdom as a form of critical public judgment. In American public life, ironic wisdom has particularly taken rise from occasions of historical irony. This ironic mode of wisdom is famously present in Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural:

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. . . . The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes.

- See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1198.aspx#sthash.qOGtRHqm.dpuf

Essential Self-knowledge

     "For it is not physical solitude that actually separates one from other men, not physical isolation, but spiritual isolation. It is not the desert island nor the stony wilderness that cuts you from the people you love. It is the wilderness in the mind, the desert wastes in the heart through which one wanders lost and a stranger. When one is a stranger to oneself then one is estranged from others too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others."                                                                                               Anne Morrow Lindbergh

       Streep P ed. Spiritual Illuminations. Meditations for Inner Growth. Viking Studio Books, NY, 1992.