Who's in Charge? Are you Sure?

     Whether we see basic drives as the will to survive personally & as a family line; survival of the fittest within the human species; or survival as a species among other species; it boils down to surviving personally by whatever means, mating, raising & defending our offspring so that they too can do the same. 
     The sense of "me & mine against the world" dominates. Fear, anxiety, possessiveness, aggression, sex, competitiveness, time-poverty, goal-orientation, etc are inherent. We not only share all these with sea lions, wolves, & other animals, but are driven by these primitive reflexes far more than we tend to realize. This is literally natural, adaptive - a residual evolutionary set of survival skills. The problem however is that most, if not all of these are inappropriate in today's world, and thus cause us a great deal more harm than good.
     Mindfulness training (MBSR) & practice helps us to clearly see our own mind in action, free ourselves from acting out these primitive reflexes, and thus allow us to make much wiser behavior choices: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2017/10/where-do-you-wish-to-stabilize-on.html
     Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a secular derivation of Buddhist Mindfulness- or Insight-Meditation. To gain a clearer, more in-depth, direct understanding of how & why MBSR, and to a large extent all the other Mindfulness-based Interventions (MBIs) work, one needs to become a serious, consistent practitioner of meditation. 
     Furthermore, serious secular meditation practitioners, clinicians & teachers (even famously anti-religious ones like Sam Harris) tend to eventually study the Buddhist roots and regularly sit silent Buddhist meditation retreats. This new book is a very clear, enjoyable, contemporary investigation of Buddhist Mindfulness- or Insight-Meditation: 
     Robert Wright. "Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment." Simon & Schuster, 2017.
    "Wright leads readers on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how & why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age. At once excitingly ambitious & wittily accessible, this is the first book to combine evolutionary psychology with cutting-edge neuroscience to defend the radical claims at the heart of Buddhist philosophy. With bracing honesty and fierce wisdom, it will persuade you not just that Buddhism is true—which is to say, a way out of our delusion—but that it can ultimately save us from ourselves, as individuals and as a species."
     NOTE: two or more truth claims, from different psycho-social-spiritual perspectives, can be equally valid. Serious meditation practitioners, whether secular or religious, as well as monks & mystics of any of the world's wisdom traditions tend to transcend apparent paradoxes that others might (mis)perceive as irreconcilable black-and-white dichotomies.

Katie Hoffman      "Over My Head"      www.katiehoffman.com

Where Do You Wish to Stabilize on the Spectrum?

     On one extreme end of a continuum, one feels alone, afraid, anxious - struggling to survive. The environment feels harsh. Relationships feel adversarial, "cut-throat" competitive. Everything feels like "do or die", "every person for themselves." All threats feel life-threatening and evoke equally powerful reactions - "fight, freeze or flight."
     We've all known rough & tumble characters who can't hold back from saying exactly what's on their mind, nor even restrain themselves from physical aggression, regardless of consequences. Such consistent reptilian reactivity puts a huge strain on all relationships, jobs, civilized society, and perhaps most of all on one's own quality of life!
     In this universally common level of consciousness (with a wide range of intensity & consistency), even an innocent remark - a mere slight to one's self-concept (ego) - can feel life-threatening, and therefore provoke disproportionately powerful "fight-freeze-flight" reactions, which to objective observers will seem extremely inappropriate. And yet, most of us have more than one "button", that when pushed, reliably triggers immediate inappropriate reactions which we regret later. 

     Van Der Kolk writes that if your past environment & genetics have trained ("conditioned") you to feel chronically frightened & unwanted, then your brain is specialized to manage feelings of fear & abandonment ie life feels like a chronic struggle to survive, and naturally, you'll tend to be in survival mode which is rarely if ever appropriate in modern times.

      If, on the other hand, you've been conditioned to feel safe & loved, then your brain is specialized to explore, play & cooperate, so you'll naturally spend most of your time near the opposite end of the continuum ie life feels like a pleasant, interesting adventure, and you'll be behaving appropriately, and at times even wisely, regardless of circumstances. Bessel Van Der Kolk. “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.” Penguin Books, 2015.

     In this qualitatively different, universal but usually fleeting level of consciousness, we experience peace, ease, equanimity, clear awareness, timelessness, stillness, silence, effortlessness, loving-kindness, and joy.

     My first dog had been mistreated before we got him at 2 months of age. For the first few weeks, he was terrified, hid under furniture, and would urinate in fear from almost any stimulus. Gradually he learned to trust us, became very loving towards us, but was aggressively protective. When we once left him in a kennel over a weekend, his feelings were so hurt that on our return, it took about half an hour before he could even look at us.
     My second dog was treated well by the people who gave him to us, again at 2 months of age. He was happy & friendly with everyone, including strangers who came to our door, greeting all with enthusiastic affection. Once he was eating from his dish in the backyard, and a little kid around age 3 accidentally ran right into him - not advisable for a stranger to do to a large dog. All my dog did was lift his head, look at the child, then continued eating. He had no concept of fear, anger or violence. We had to give him away, and did so to a friend who lived about a block from our place. They never tied him up, yet he never tried to return. Not only was he not offended, but was perfectly happy with the new owners.

     Unlike animals, our minds can instantly & effortlessly shift from survival to wisdom mode. The more skillfully we train to perform this shift, the more our mind stabilizes in this far more evolved wisdom mode or level of consciousness. 
     See: http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2017/10/14/Two-Ways-of-Being
       and: http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2017/10/28/Communication-Basics

 

Katie Hoffman      "Nana’s Garden"      www.katiehoffman.com

Wisdom - Scientific Research Overview

     "Wisdom is an ancient concept that has gained new interest among clinical researchers as a complex trait relevant to general physical and mental health, well-being, happiness, life satisfaction, personal mastery, and resilience. (Referenced) studies suggest that wisdom is a useful construct with important implications for individuals as well as society. 

     The concept of practical (as opposed to theoretical) wisdom has been discussed since the times of Aristotle, but is used in recent years to refer to knitting together the cognitive, social, and emotional processes involved in everyday decision making i.e., actual decisions and choices one might make rather than the abstraction of a ‘wise’ person. Erikson (1959) proposed the last stage of psychosocial development culminating in wisdom. Beginning in the 1970s, Baltes and others initiated empirical research on wisdom, focusing on cognitive abilities. Subsequently, several investigators drew attention to the importance of emotional regulation, and Vaillant, Cloninger, and Blazer stressed the potential role of wisdom in well-being.

 

Defining wisdom:

     Based on a review of empirically based definitions of wisdom published in peer-reviewed journals, mostly from western countries, we identified six most commonly included components of wisdom: 

(1) general knowledge of life and social decision making - ability to give good advice, life knowledge, and life skills; 

(2) emotional regulation - affect regulation and self-control; 

(3) pro-social behaviors - e.g., empathy, compassion, altruism, and a sense of fairness; 

(4) insight - the ability and desire to understand oneself and one's actions at a deep level; 

(5) value relativism (tolerance for divergent values) - being nonjudgmental and accepting of other value systems; and 

(6) decisiveness - the ability to make quick and effective decisions.

 

     Current thinking in wisdom research considers the entity of wisdom not as a collection of distinct traits, but rather as a higher-order construct that includes various domains such as prosocial behaviors, emotional regulation, and others listed above. Thus, overall wisdom is greater than the sum of its parts in terms of its utility to the self and the society. 

     In a separate survey study using the Delphi method, international researchers in the field agreed that the components mentioned above were key to defining wisdom. Finally, a mixed-methods study of wisdom in the Bhagavad Gita, a scripture written in India several thousand years ago, suggested that most of those components had also characterized the ancient Indian construct of wisdom. The same seems to hold true for the Books of Wisdom in the Bible and documents in most other religions. Whereas the relative emphasis on specific components of wisdom has varied across cultures and times, there have been more similarities than differences among different postulated concepts of wisdom over the centuries and around the world, suggesting that there is an underlying biological substrate of wisdom that influences and is influenced by life experiences.

Putative neurobiological basis:

     By examining the neurobiology of consistently identified components of wisdom, one can begin to hypothesize how such a complex human characteristic may be orchestrated within the human brain. Accordingly, we reviewed studies focusing on neuroimaging / brain localization and neurotransmitters associated with individual components of wisdom. Prefrontal cortex and amygdala seemed to be the main brain regions related to all of these components. The prefrontal cortex figures prominently in emotional regulation, social decision making, and value relativism, primarily via top-down regulation of limbic (amygdala) and striatal regions. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates calculated, reason-based decision making, whereas the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is implicated in emotional valence and prosocial attitudes / behaviors. Reward neurocircuitry (ventral striatum, nucleus accumbens) also appears important for promoting prosocial attitudes / behaviors. 

     We also approached the putative neurobiology of wisdom by examining behavioral effects of localized brain damage. Severe damage to the above-mentioned areas, especially the prefrontal cortex, either through trauma or disease, results in a loss of personality characteristics associated with wisdom. A number of cases have been described, starting with the well-known case of Phineas Gage, in whom damage to frontostriatal and frontolimbic circuits resulted in loss of behaviors listed as components of wisdom. A noteworthy example is the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia, with brain atrophy restricted to anterior portions of the prefrontal lobes, which is associated with dramatic changes in personality as the patients become impulsive, socially inappropriate, and emotionally inept, with behaviors antithetical to wisdom."

       Thomas, M.L., et al., "A new scale for assessing wisdom based on common domains and a neurobiological model: The San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE)." Journal of Psychiatric Research (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2017.09.005

 

Katie Hoffman      Boy (Crystal Stare)      www.katiehoffman.com

Mere Respite - OR - Self-Transcendence?

     “I believe that love that is true and real, creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And then the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face, like some rhino-hunters I know or Belmonte, who is truly brave... It is because they love with sufficient passion, to push death out of their minds ... until it returns, as it does, to all men ... and then you must make really good love again. Think about it.”

     Ernest Hemingway's character, in the 2011 movie "Midnight in Paris."


     “With right view we are aware of what is happening in the present moment. We are experiencing nature happening. There is no body, no person.”

     Sayadaw U Tejaniya. “Where Awareness Becomes Natural. A Guide to Cultivating Mindfulness in Daily Life.” Shambhala, 2016.

The Elusive Sense of Being Fully Alive

      “The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity – activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny of man.” Ernest Becker

     "if all of us would make an all-out effort to contemplate our own death, to deal with our anxieties surrounding the concept of death, and to help others familiarize themselves with these thoughts, perhaps there could be less destructiveness around us." Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

     “Facing one’s own death when still alive offers the best preparation for being able to live well the actual moment of death. The potential for such practice is that it enables one to live without the deadening effects of the fear of death. Only once death has become a natural part of life will it be possible to go beyond the influence of existential fear and thereby come fully alive to life as it unfolds in the present moment.”
       Analayo. "Mindfully Facing Disease & Death: Compassionate Advice from Early Buddhist Texts.” Wisdom, 2016. 

     See also: http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2017/07/03/Solving-a-Tough-Paradox

                 And: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2017/05/743-existential-loneliness.html

Visitors by Robert Pope   http://robertpopefoundation.com/

Fear of Death - even among Healers

     "Consistent evidence suggests that physicians who treat terminal patients experience many difficulties. The contact with terminal patients reminds them that death is a universal human phenomenon and thereby evokes their own concerns about dying. Because they are unable to keep these patients alive, as is the mission of their profession, they tend to develop feelings of general hopelessness and personal failure. Moreover, it is emotionally wrenching to absorb the loss and separation implicit in the deaths of people one has cared for. These difficulties may lead to psychological exhaustion, impair their professional functioning, and affect the physician’s attitudes toward death in general and their own death in particular.
     Exposure to the death of significant others somehow leads one to a greater acceptance of death, both as a universal phenomenon and as a personal event. This possibility is supported by our finding that increased age was related to less fear of personal death. 
     Fear of death, and not acceptance, is behind the reduced reporting (of death anxiety by some physicians eg surgeons). While such 'repressors' admit to less death anxiety on self-report measures, they produced stronger physiological reactions (assessed by galvanic skin responses) to the threat of shock than 'sensitizers'. Repressors are not 'low anxiety' individuals, but, on the contrary, are highly vulnerable to anxiety-arousing stimuli."
       Hamama-Raz Y, Solomon Z, Ohry A. "Fear of Personal Death among Physicians." Omega 2000; 41(2): 139-149.


     "... death was one of the prominent aspects of dukkha motivating the Buddha-to-be to set out on his own quest for awakening. ... for the Buddha, the decision to 'renounce the world' and undertake the life of a wandering ascetic was, then, an attempt to resolve the existential problem of 'being toward death' ... his goal was to conquer death within life.
     Having reached the deathless through full awakening, one is no longer affected by the mortality of one's own body or that of others'."
       Analayo. "Mindfully Facing Disease & Death: Compassionate Advice from Early Buddhist Texts.” Wisdom, 2016.

 

Visitors by Robert Pope   http://robertpopefoundation.com/

Elephant in the Room

      “I like to behave in an extremely normal, wholesome manner for the most part in my daily life. Even if mentally I’m consumed with sick visions of violence, terror, sex and death.” Courtney Love

      "Death is an inescapable fact of life that, nonetheless, most people avoid contemplating too directly. When mortality is salient, it can arouse experiences varying from distress and anxiety to a sense of urgency and a search for meaning. Although there are various ways to cope with this existential concern, ranging from hopelessness, to denial, to seeking symbolic immortality, it seems clear that the consideration of death affects people intensely, whether or not such contemplation is made consciously. Indeed, work within terror management theory suggests that mortality salience is a potent motivator of human behavior, even when thoughts of death exist outside of focal attention."
       Niemiec CP, et al. "Being Present in the Face of Existential Threat: The Role of Trait Mindfulness in Reducing Defensive Responses to Mortality Salience." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2010; 99 (2): 344–365.

     “We all have lessons to learn during this time called life; this is especially apparent when working with the dying. The dying learn a great deal at the end of life, usually when it is too late to apply.” Elisabeth Kubler-Ross      
       Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, David Kessler. “Life Lessons. Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living.” Scribner, 2000.

 

     “Buddhist psychology offers models of the process and structures of the mind. It shows how flight from the existential inevitability of loss, pain, and death leads to delusion, which is a subtle and pervasive refusal to face reality. Instead, we attempt to find and hold on to something that is concrete and substantial. This common mentality is one of grasping, which leads to attachment and creates an accumulation of habit-energies, preferences, and behavior patterns that support the illusion of an enduring self that can escape impermanence. Buddhist psychology sees this self as a defensive structure that lacks foundation yet dominates the ordinary mind.”
       Caroline Brazier. “Buddhism on the Couch. From Analysis to Awakening Using Buddhist Psychology.” Ulysses Press, 2003.

     “There is no one ‘treatment of choice’ for trauma [or IMHO, existential terror], and any therapist [or IMHO, religious / spiritual guide] who believes that his or her particular method is the only answer to your problems is suspect of being an ideologue rather than somebody who is interested in making sure that you get well.”
       Bessel Van Der Kolk. “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.” Penguin Books, 2015.

     ideologue: an adherent of an ideology, especially one who is uncompromising and dogmatic; an impractical idealist; an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology.
     religious exclusivism: the doctrine or belief that only one particular religion or belief system is true.