We're All Building Walls!

     It's obvious that tying off an arm or a leg with a tight tourniquet causes the tied-off portion to rapidly wither & die. Normal circulation of blood, carrying oxygen & other nutrients ie vital energy to, and carbon dioxide & other wastes away from all parts of the body, is a basic necessity of life.
     Not so obvious, but one can see for oneself, is that focusing attention on a part of the body during meditation, for example by visualizing breathing directly into the area, will increase circulation in that area. The area will soon feel warmer, look redder, & may swell slightly (eg hands during standing meditation). This is a healthy, parasympathetic "relaxation response."

     These next two are more advanced, but make sense and are definitely worth experimenting with.

     • Immediately after an acute physical injury (that doesn't require medical or first aid treatment), drop all anger, worry or concern, and know that the injured area will heal perfectly fine on its own, and carry on as if nothing happened. Remember, for millions of years, our ancestors would have behaved precisely this way, even for more severe injuries! It will surprise you how much less pain, swelling, redness, stiffness & loss of function you will experience.
     Nowadays, we typically do the opposite - we get mad at ourself or whoever we blame for the accident; get all worried that it will hurt; anxious that it will take a long time - if ever - to heal properly, etc. Such emotional overreactions markedly ramp up the acute inflammatory response: pain, swelling, redness, stiffness, and delay healing - all for a very minor injury that is best simply left alone.

     • During an otherwise pleasant musical performance, the couple sitting beside you compulsively text in the dark theater, despite you repeatedly looking at them with disapproval. Your anger steadily mounts with unpleasant fantasies of what you'd like to say / do to them. You feel physically tight & know your blood pressure is elevated. Suddenly you decide to drop all anger, worry & concern, and simply enjoy the show. The tightness & pressure you felt is immediately replaced by looseness, relaxation & gentle tingling throughout your body (felt flow of energy - qi or prana). 
     It takes practice to suddenly intentionally shift the flow of your energy from fight / freeze / flight (sympathetic nervous system) to relaxation (parasympathetic nervous system), but it's remarkably gratifying & wholesome, and will prevent all manner of short- & long-term problems in your life.

     It's disconcerting to realize how many times per hour we mentally, emotionally - & therefore physiologically & in other physical ways - isolate parts of our self from the rest of ourself, or our entire self from other people or the rest of the universe. Unthinkingly, we erect all sorts of these needless conceptual walls, causing us & everyone else endless problems. A classic book on this: Wilber K. "No boundary. Eastern and Western approaches to personal growth." Shambhala, 1979.

     But with dedicated, intentional practice we can & will gradually break down all the "walls" (boundaries, armor, ego defences, etc) on which we once depended for survival (or thought we did), but which now are heavy burdens. 
     During qi gong breathing, we open up all the pores in our body welcoming in fresh air & energy as we breath in. During the out-breath, we release all the stale air, stress & fatigue. We learn to be increasingly porous & open, allowing vital energy to circulate freely, re-establishing normal healthy circulation between ourselves, parts of ourselves, and the universe. 

Green Tree by Alice Mason   https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AliceMasonArtist?ref=l2-shopheader-name

What to Do?

I too tire of imperfection.
So nice to fly away from the same old
To see our world from 30,000 feet
To seek out only the cream,
in a far-off place.

There is truth
in beauty and perfection,
but our methods are yet crude. 

Impatience and perfectionism
- murderous companions - 
ensnaring foolish youth
unleashing hell on earth.

"It is no measure of health
to be well adjusted
to a profoundly sick society"
wrote Krishnamurti.

It certainly is a measure of health
to channel my energy
- be it anger or love -
to lessen, 
instead of adding to
suffering in our one shared world.

Latest Massacre - Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

What Are We Doing With Vital Energy?

     “He was an old man, wore old man’s clothes, a flannel shirt and old man’s trousers, slippers and a hat, and had an old man’s gait, yet there was nothing old man-ish about him, such as there was with my grandfather or my father’s uncle, Alf; on the contrary, when he suddenly opened up to us and wanted to show us things, it was in a kind of artless childlike way, infinitely friendly, but also infinitely vulnerable, the way a boy without friends might behave when someone showed some interest in him, one might imagine, unthinkable in the case of my grandfather or Alf, it must have been at least sixty years since they had opened up to anyone like that, if indeed they ever had. But no, Haugue hadn’t really opened himself to us, it was more as if it had been his natural self which his rejection had been protecting when we arrived. I saw something I didn’t want to see because the person showing us was unaware of how it looked. He was more than eighty years old, but nothing in him had died or calcified, which actually makes life far too painful to live, that’s what I think now. At the time it just made me feel uneasy.”
       Karl Ove Knausgaard. “A Death in the Family. My Struggle: Book 1.” Vintage Books, London, 2014.


     We bury so much difficult-to-understand, liminal energy in our bodies, causing us to harden, stiffen, & die well before we're buried. This feared & banished energy is the very stuff of life, growth, learning, evolution. What wasted opportunity!

 

Public Gardens, Halifax, NS, Canada

Real-time Monitoring of our own Energy Levels

     Except for pretty major "ups" or "downs", I suspect most of us remain remarkably unaware of our own energy levels - we have no moment-to-moment readout on our own vitality. Yet it's practical as well as intriguing.
     It's useful for maintaining physical health. Over the past year or so, I've become able to feel a sudden, remarkable drop in energy - like an electric appliance being unplugged - at the earliest onset of a common cold or flu. When this happens, I immediately make sure I take it easy, get extra sleep, and take vitamin C. Presumably due to this unusually early response, I often feel fine again within 24hrs. Sadly, many people allow themselves to become "run down" irreversibly, probably with little or no awareness as it's happening.
     On a deeper, mindfulness practice level, it's fascinating to observe how I assign a value or judgment to a person or event, instantly followed by feeling a corresponding increase or decrease in energy. I clearly see how preferences are arbitrary, yet significantly impact my quality of life. I'm thus learning, more or less while it's happening, to hold my preferences and other aspects of conditioning much more lightly. Sadly, most people incorrectly assume that external factors directly determine the quality of their lives, while they themselves are powerless victims.
     Closely monitoring and deeply understanding the causes of energy fluctuations has mundane to illuminating dimensions. Becoming increasingly mindful - nonjudgmentally aware - of our physical, emotional and energetic dimensions is a profoundly healthy practice.

     Basic Energy Choices: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2015/02/643-choosing-our-energy.html

Srimanta Ray, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

What & How?

     "The starting point on the path is asking ourselves what we really want out of life, and then, whatever that response is, doing it full-heartedly. Even if our answer is a worldly pursuit, full-heartedness will show us its value and limitation. After repeatedly seeing the limitation of our wanting, our energy begins to consolidate around a deeper objective and yearning. Once that deeper objective is set in motion, the next question that arises is: 'What is going on in me right now?' From that question, everything unfolds."

       Rodney Smith interview: http://blog.shambhala.com/2014/03/12/rodney-smith/

Hall's Harbour, Nova Scotia

What's Driving Your Life?

     Have you thought about this much? What's the main driving force fueling much of what you do? 
     Chasing?:
          Fame?
          Wealth?
          Security?

     Trying to escape?:
          Fear?
          Shame?
          Guilt?
          Anxiety?

     You may be shocked at how much energy these negative emotions (craving & aversion) suck out of you.

     Imagine how it might feel being energized by loving creativity. See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2014/08/simple-but-not-easy-vow.html

     Is it possible that a part of us carries such a monkey on it's back AND a part of us is free, wise, loving & energized? Can the latter part 'hold' the former? As Henry Ford famously said, "Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right!"

Steve McCurry   stevemccurry.com

Conscious, Intentional, Healthy Maturation

     We've had, and continue to have, amazingly inspiring individuals among us: Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, Deepa Ma, Viktor Frankl, Terry Fox, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama, etc.
     And we have individuals among us who, at best, elicit our mercy & forgiveness. 

     "the measure of a civilization's growth is in its ability to transfer increasing amounts of energy & attention from the material side of life to the psychological, cultural, aesthetic, & spiritual side of life."                                        Arnold Toynbee's Law of Progressive Simplification
       Joel & Michelle Levey. Living in Balance: A Mindful Guide for Thriving in a Complex World. Divine Arts; Revised ed'n (Aug 12, 2014)

     OUR individual responsibility is to lead civilization, by being the best human being we can be. See: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2014/07/552-greatest-risk-of-all.html

The Energy of a Place

     New Mexico for us, and for many before us, felt quite obviously holy. 
     If one walks into a room full of people, or someone's home, there's often a prevalent, almost palpable, energetic atmosphere. And so it seems to be with geographic locations. 
     It would seem reasonable to assume that the energy of each thought, word & action should more powerfully impact the environment in which it occurs, than more distant places.
    

     “Be always mindful of what you are doing and thinking. So that you may put the imprint of your immortality on every passing incident of your daily life.”    Abd’l-Khaliq Ghijdewani, 13^th century Sufi 

       Walsh R. “Essential spirituality. The 7 central practices to awaken heart and mind.” John Wiley & Sons Inc, NY, 1999.

Chernobyl

Energy Medicine - a Zen Perspective

     “Some people understand energy medicine as a process whereby the healer gives energy to the person in need of healing. From a Zen perspective energy is not viewed as a commodity or thing that can be given or received. Your energy is not separate from the energy of the whole universe. You are not separate from the whole. A healer helps you stop building walls & barriers within yourself and between yourself & the world. Letting down the walls & barriers that block the flow of energy allows you to experience wholeness & healing.”

       Birx E. “Healing Zen. Awakening to a life of wholeness and compassion while caring for yourself and others.” Viking Compass, NY, 2002. 

Michael Wood   http://miksang.com//michael_wood.html

 

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

Active Ingredient(s)?

     Coronary bypass surgery appears to be effective. An early study comparing regular coronary bypass surgery with mock surgery (only a skin incision was made, then sutured up, all under GA) apparently gave very similar results. Drugs (GA & analgesics) can keep us asleep, pain-free, during what otherwise would be unbearably painful surgery. The insertion of acupuncture needles alone also permits pain-free surgery. Under clinical hypnosis alone (without any drugs: sedatives, anesthetics, muscle relaxants, post-op analgesics) major surgery can be performed completely painlessly. (Rausch V. Cholecystectomy with self-hypnosis. Am J Clin Hypn 1980; 22(3): 124-9.) Tai chi is practiced using the least amount of muscular energy as possible. Elderly tai chi teachers are far more powerful than their much younger and much physically stronger students. The former can effortlessly hurl the latter backwards at much greater speeds than can be explained based on muscular effort. Tibetan monks can generate sufficient heat from their near-naked bodies, that they can dry wet bedsheets outdoors in sub-freezing temperatures (tummo). Many meditators can enhance warm energy flow throughout their bodies simply by becoming still and relaxing for a minute.
     Acupuncture is thought to unblock energy, allowing it to flow normally in a system where disease is understood as blockage or stagnation of energy (qi).
     Interestingly, one definition of hypnosis is "a deeply relaxed state, with increased suggestibility and suspension of critical faculties." Bobrow RS. The witch in the waiting room: A physician examines paranormal phenomena in medicine. Thunder's Mouth Press, NY, 2006.

      A relaxed (unarmored) body and an open mind (psychological flexibility) appear to be key ingredients for optimal health, healing, wholeness. An open mind has nothing to do with gullibility. A closed mind imposes severely limited possibilities.
     Mindfulness involves mind-body practices designed to gently, progressively relax the body and open the mind.

Enthusiasm, Energy, Zest for Life - What does all that Mean?

     We think of having enthusiasm, vitality, "a real zest for life" as equivalent to being perfectly well-adjusted, healthy and happy. But the sobering fact is that more often than not, we feel less than enthusiastic about things as they are. Why? Is this depression - something wrong with me?
     As we mature, we naturally transition through very different priorities - what made us happy (or sad) when we were 5, may have the opposite effect of us now, and vice versa. So our requirements for meaningful fulfillment continuously change, becoming deeper, more nuanced & expansive - a gradual shift from egocentricity ("me, myself and I") towards allocentricity & ecocentricity (the biggest picture we're able to engage). This is normal, healthy maturation - don't try to medicate it away - celebrate it, investigate it!

     See also: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/search?q=chasing

 

Massimo Ripani   http://travel.nationalgeographic.com

Investing finite resources: Time & Energy

     In my youth, I had an amazing amount of energy. In retrospect, had I known better, a good deal of it could have been invested more wisely. However knowledge, and the psycho-social-spiritual developmental stage at which one can enact and integrate the knowledge, can be decades apart.

     Some of us work pathologically hard "so people will like me." Paradoxically, this very striving can alienate the very colleagues, patients, friends and family whose love & respect we crave. But since work may be our only well-rehearsed, trusted connection to the world, we keep pouring more and more of ourselves into our profession - even though at some level we realize that "doing more of what doesn't work, doesn't work!" We tend to have inadequate training, aptitude, interest & trust in inter- & intrapersonal "soft" skills.

     “Mulla Nasrudin was outside on his hands and knees below a lantern when a friend walked up. ‘What are you doing, Mulla?’ his friend asked. ‘I’m looking for my key. I’ve lost it.’ So his friend got down on his hands and knees too and they both searched for a long time in the dirt beneath the lantern. Finding nothing, his friend finally turned to him and asked, ‘Where exactly did you lose it?’ Nasrudin replied, ‘I lost it in the house, but there is more light out here.’”

     Kornfield, J. Feldman, C. Soul food. Stories to nourish the spirit and the heart. HarperSanFrancisco 1996.

     Of course it's never too late to take the less well-lit, but rich, essential path to mature adulthood. It comes through a mindful examination of one's personal and interpersonal life. 
     Hollis J. “Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life.” Gotham Books, NY, 2005. 

     “It’s better to limp slowly along the right path than walk stridently in the wrong direction.”
         Marc Aurel

foosfotos   www.dpreview.com

Quality of Life

     Movement on the quality of life “continuum toward an experience of integrity & wholeness may be thought of as healing, (while the movement) toward suffering & anguish (may be thought of) as wounding.”
     Mount BM et al. Healing connections: on moving from suffering to a sense of well-being. J Pain Symptom Manage 2007; 33(4): 372-88.

     “The key to self-development … is the experience of … a state of relaxed concentration in which the individual neither freezes out of fear nor clings due to desire. … the free flow of vital energy within the body and between the body and the universe.”
     Sayama MK. “Samadhi. Self-development in Zen, swordsmanship, and psychotherapy.” State University of New York Press. 1986.