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.