Twelvefold Lower-Belly Breathing

     “Twelvefold Lower-Belly Breathing is the quickest and most effective way for our awareness to enter and inhabit our empty, open, primordial ‘core.’ It is this use that makes it so helpful for any kind of Pure Awareness practice and to address physical and emotional ill-health of all kinds. … in traditional Tibet, this practice was considered the only doctor you needed with you in long, solitary retreats.”

       Reginald A. Ray. "The Awakening Body. Somatic Meditation for Discovering Our Deepest Life." Shambhala, 2016.
       I recommend first reading this exceptionally valuable book, and then practicing the author's guided meditations: www.shambhala.com/theawakeningbody

Courtesy of Buddha Doodles www.buddhadoodles.com

Many Causes of Trauma & PTSD

     Individuals vary in their sensitivity (vs resilience) to trauma. There's a much wider variety of possible sources of trauma than most of us suspect.

     “While some people are able to recover from trauma on their own, many individuals do not. 
     Tens of thousands of soldiers are experiencing the extreme stress and horror of war. Then too, there are the devastating occurrences of rape, sexual abuse and assault. 
     Many of us, however, have been overwhelmed by much more ‘ordinary’ events such as surgeries or invasive medical procedures. Orthopedic patients in a recent study, for example, showed a 52% occurrence of being diagnosed with full-on PTSD following surgery. 
     Other traumas include falls, serious illnesses, abandonment, receiving shocking or tragic news, witnessing violence and getting into an auto accident; all can lead to PTSD. 
     These and many other fairly common experiences are all potentially traumatizing. The inability to rebound from such events, or to be helped adequately to recover by professionals, can subject us to PTSD – along with a myriad of physical and emotional symptoms.”

       Levine PA. "In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness." North Atlantic Books, 2010. 

The Scream by Edvard Munch

"Pendulation" - the Core of Somatic Practices

     “As you release tension in (successive parts of your body during somatic meditation), you are softening the boundary between the darkness of your body and the brightness of your conscious mind, between the limitless unconscious and the bounded conscious mind; in so doing, in a most gentle and natural way, you are also softening the barrier against feelings and experiences you may have been avoiding, denying, or repressing. 
     So it is that you may find various feelings, images, or memories coming up – if so, just welcome them. If they become a little too much, then relax and let the practice go for a while or for today; there is no rush. Assimilate what you need to and then, when you feel ready, return to the practice. 
     In Ten Points practice it is quite rare to run into anything that feels overwhelming, but it can happen. Accessing our larger, as-yet-undiscovered feeling life through the body is the safest of all ways to do it, but you do have to go gently and follow the guidance of your body; it will let you know how much is enough and how much is too much. 
     In fact, much trauma therapy is based on this very principle (Peter Levine's "pendulation"), of helping folks access difficult feeling through the body but in a gentle, step-by-step, gradual manner, moving a little forward into sensation, stepping a little back as needed, giving their conscious awareness plenty of time to become familiar with, assimilate, and integrate unconscious material.”

       Reginald A. Ray. "The Awakening Body. Somatic Meditation for Discovering Our Deepest Life." Shambhala, 2016.

What was once rigidly frozen can thaw, soften & ...

Mindfulness Practice, Emotions & Recovery from Trauma

     "... while the biological flight or fight response is natural and instinctual, when this response is blocked—as happens in trauma—the organism constricts. ... if the constriction from the trauma continues, rage, terror, and helplessness can build up, 'triggering immobility and inward collapse' and 'emotional numbing, and other forms of psychological disassociation'. ... mindfulness practices are well-suited to the process of mind–body healing, especially in relation to trauma.      

     The human cortex comprises six layers:

          Layers 1–3, referred to as 'top-down', are responsible for the matching of current experience with prior learning. 

          Layers 6–4, termed 'bottom-up', are responsible for the awareness of sensory input from our experiences. 

     Mindfulness practice attempts to dissolve the top-down constraints (layers 1–3) and strengthen the input from the bottom layers (layers 6–4), allowing awareness to be shaped by the flow of information merged from the two layers. 
     '... when this bottom-up input is strengthened, it has the capacity to stand up to prior learning that so often constrains us. We are not imprisoned by our prior judgments and come to experience the world with fresh eyes.' "

       Belinda Siew Luan Khong. "Mindfulness: A Way of Cultivating Deep Respect for Emotions." Mindfulness 2011; 2: 27–32.

Marc Chagall

 

What is Moral Injury?

     Donald Trump, before his election bragged that he wouldn't loose a single follower if he pulled out a gun in Times Square and shot someone. Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Phillipines, repeatedly brags about having murdered several suspected drug dealers, and encourages his people to do the same. Trump and Duterte have a lot of supporters at home and abroad. 
     How do you feel when you hear about such things?

     "The sorrow, grief, and rage you feel is a measure of your humanity and your evolutionary maturity. As your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal."       Joanna Macy

      “… moral injury is an essential part of any combat trauma that leads to lifelong psychological injury. Veterans can usually recover from horror, fear, and grief once they return to civilian life, so long as ‘what’s right’ has not also been violated.”
        Jonathan Shay. “Achilles in Vietnam. Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character.” Scribner, NY, 1994.

     "Moral injury is 
     • the damage done to one’s conscience or moral compass when that person perpetrates, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that transgress their own moral and ethical values or codes of conduct
     • disruption in an individual’s confidence and expectations about one’s own or others’ motivation or capacity to behave in a just and ethical manner
     • the inability to contextualize or justify personal actions or the actions of others and the unsuccessful accommodation of these … experiences into pre-existing moral schemas
     • a deep soul wound that pierces a person’s identity, sense of morality and relationship to society."
       The Moral Injury Project - Syracuse University http://moralinjuryproject.syr.edu/about-moral-injury/

     See also: "Ignoring 'Soft Skills' & Moral Injury": http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2016/03/ignoring-soft-skills-moral-injury.html

Alexia Foundation http://www.alexiafoundation.org/stories/tradition-womens-rights-and-circumcision-in-guinea-bissau-africabr

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

Burnout BEFORE Admission to Professional Schools?

     "... burnout is when physicians feel emotionally exhausted, depersonalised (ie, cynical & detached), and ineffective; when they feel 'an erosion in values, dignity, spirit, & will'."

        Ronald M. Epstein, Michael R. Privitera. "Doing something about physician burnout."

        www.thelancet.com Published Online September 28, 2016 

        http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ S0140-6736(16)31332-0 

     An excellent podcast: https://resident360.nejm.org/content_items/1423

     But what percentage of students entering health-care (& other professions) have ever paid appropriate attention to their "values, dignity, spirit, & will"? How much does our society, or for that matter professional school admissions committees, actually value these self-reflective, spiritual matters? 

     I suggest that very few in our society care deeply about this: http://www.johnlovas.com/2016/11/the-power-of-self-knowledge-and-self.html

     Even within professional schools, a corrosive segment of both students & faculty ("hidden curriculum") are actively hostile even towards standard courses in the humanities: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/07/soft-skills-undervalued.html

     But neglecting inner poverty does become debilitating sooner or later: http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2016/12/06/Delusion-of-Self-estrangement