Posts Tagged ‘mindfulness’

Seek, Find, Embrace: The Power of Openness

Posted: October 24, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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An open mind can seem like a vague term. Yet closed-minded is very succinct and easy to understand. It can be confusing to learn that openness to the world is the key to finding what we seek in life. But it is straightforward that being closed-minded towards the world is to live a limited, suffocated life.

“The mind is everything. What you think you become.” — Buddha

I find myself in a battle against being closed-minded regularly. Some practices that help me keep my mind more open than closed are:

  • Reading philosophy
  • Meditating
  • Studying humanism
  • Journaling
  • Practicing yoga

I have cultivated enough awareness to at least know the concepts of open vs closed-mindedness which I am grateful for. I still have much work to do to keep myself open-minded in moments of test and choice, but then again, who doesn’t?

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” — Albert Einstein

Photo by Chris Barbalis on Unsplash

Close-Minded — having or showing rigid opinions or a narrow outlook.

Open-Minded — willing to consider new ideas; unprejudiced.

Photo by Levi Bare on Unsplash

Having an open mind generally involves curiosity, willingness to learn, and embracing new experiences. For me, I find having an open mind correlates with positivity, productivity, or at the very least neutrality regarding thought, perception, emotion, and action. Day to day if/when I find myself slipping into negative or detrimental thoughts, perceptions, emotions, or actions; there is a good chance I’ve concurrently slipped into closed-mindedness.

I feel like being closed-minded is the default setting in our human nature. Hard-wired into us as a survival mechanism from caveman times. It also seems like we are becoming more closed-minded in the algorithm-dominated modern world of digital echo chambers and rage-bait. An open mind is a rich soil for evolution and growth. A closed mind is a rich soil for egocentric withering.

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thankfully, fostering an open mind is simple, easy, and completely within our ability to control. This is nice because living can be complex, difficult, and at the mercy of external situations enough as it is.

  • Mindful breathing exercises
  • Guided meditation
  • Journaling
  • Getting out into nature

The above list are some of my go-to’s that have been very helpful and enriching for me. But in the name of micro-tasking, start by just trying any small, simple new thing or by doing something you already do just a little bit differently.

Starting with our existing routines and habits, even the most mundane ones, is a practical way to open our minds. Try holding items with a different hand, eating breakfast for dinner, taking a different route to work, or watching a foreign film with subtitles. These small modifications can be surprisingly effective first steps toward a more open-minded perspective.

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” — Wayne Dyer

We need to be more open-minded. The world needs more open-minded people. Being open-minded is the foundational paradigm for learning, connecting with people, discovering new opportunities, and living a fulfilling and meaningful life.

It’s simple but not easy because we are going against the grain of human nature. It’s natural to be closed-minded when we already have what we need to survive. But we don’t want to just survive, we want to thrive. Regardless of our definition of what thriving is to us individually, the first step on our path there, begins with having an open mind.

Stillness in Motion: Embracing the Paradox of Existence

Posted: October 10, 2024 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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While our experiences are constantly in flux, a core sense of self exists, a presence that remains constant. Our external experience of life and the world is like a river, fire, or busy urban intersection. Our internal presence, awareness, consciousness, soul, or being; are the ground beneath those things.

The river flows fast and slow, the fire rages and flickers and the intersection goes from bustling to quiet, but the ground is solid, unmoving, unchanged, unnoticed but without it what goes on above it couldn’t exist.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” — Heraclitus

Is this unchanging “simple being” who we are? Is this the answer to the question; “Who am I?” I’m pretty sure the answer to that question isn’t our ego, job title, hobbies, credit score, or proficiency with Excel.

The enduring self or our consciousness as the witness to our thoughts hasn’t exactly been part of the zeitgeist. However, the juxtaposition of getting and looking older externally, but feeling the same as we did when we were young internally, is a commonality shared by all people who reach old age.

“You are not a body, you have a body.” — Wayne Dyer

What is that within us that doesn’t age? Our body decays and our mind declines, but there is something about us that is ageless and timeless. We all share it. We all know what it is when we see ourselves in the mirror as we get older. We know we are older, but we also know there’s a part of us that doesn’t feel older. A constant presence underlying our experiences. Something within us that we can see, touch, or feel that seems to stay the same as everything else changes.

“There is a feeling of presence that transcends thought. This is your own essence, your Being.” — Eckhart Tolle

We inherently know this enduring self or consciousness exists. Notwithstanding, modern life distracts us from it, aiming our attention outward. We have numerous daily concerns, and virtual propaganda adds unnecessary layers of thought on top of what we need to survive. On top of that, our minds can be out of control thought-producing machines. Adding stress and suffering to our existence, by confusing us into emotionally identifying with our thoughts, rather than passively witnessing them.

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How do we combat this? Where attention goes, energy flows. We have to take some time or make some time to habitualize the cultivating our inner awareness and connection to our unchanging presence. The simplest, easiest, and most time-tested way of doing this is through mindfulness.

Mindfulness has become an overused catch-all buzzword in recent years. Mindfulness is no magic wand. It is simply the practice of paying attention to the present moment without judgment. Mindfulness is most commonly associated with meditation. The guided meditation sessions I engaged in daily can be classified as mindfulness meditation. I love and wholeheartedly recommend meditation to anyone and everyone.

Mindfulness isn’t limited to a traditional meditation practice. However, mindfulness is a way to turn everyday tasks and activities into meditative experiences.
  • Mindful Eating: Pay attention to the taste, texture, and aroma of your food.
  • Mindful Walking: Focus on your senses as you walk, noticing the sights, sounds, and sensations.
  • Mindful Showering: Pay attention to the feeling of the water on your skin and the sensations in your body.
  • Mindful Chores: Bring your full attention to the task at hand, whether it’s washing dishes or cleaning the house.
  • Mindful Drawing or Painting: Focus on the sensations of the brush or pencil and the colors you’re using.
  • Mindful Writing: Pay attention to the flow of your thoughts and the feel of the pen on the paper.
  • Mindful Music Listening: Listen to music with full attention, focusing on the sounds and emotions it evokes.
  • Forest Bathing: Spending time in nature, immersing yourself in the sights, sounds, and smells.

Keyword in all of these activities is either focus/attention. Where our attention goes, energy flows. Paying extra attention or deeply focusing on the different aspects of one of these activities helps us forget about external distractions, quiet our internal thought stream, and cultivate the connection with the constant presence within ourselves amidst the ever-changing stream of our life experience.

“You are not a thought, you are the awareness of thought.” — Mooji

Amidst the ever-changing currents of life, our deeper self remains constant and unchanging. By practicing mindfulness, we can reconnect with this inner presence, transcending the distractions and noise of modern life. Whether through meditation or mindful daily activities, we can cultivate a deeper awareness of our timeless self. As we turn our attention inward, we nurture the connection with our true being, allowing us to navigate life’s flux with greater peace and clarity.

“One must first know oneself to grow beyond oneself.” — Abraham Maslow

Discovering Our Potential by Cultivating Personal Power

Posted: October 1, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash

“Your life is a message to yourself. What is it saying?” — Ram Dass

Personal power can come across as a nausea-inducing cliche. The collateral damage of the toxic positivity movement of retro self-help gurus and modern influencers. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. A concept as important and helpful as personal power, like most good things, seems fated to be used as a tool to take for the few, rather than give to the many.

Self-control and self-discipline don’t have much if any of an eye-roll factor. They may have an ick factor for the general folks. Ick factor as in, “ick I don’t want to deploy self-control/self-discipline in this situation, I’ve earned my treat.” I know I’ve been that way more times than I would care to count or remember.

“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.” — Seneca

Personal power isn’t a buzzword because it isn’t a one-and-done, miracle-cure, magic pill. Personal power is the result of the process of living life, utilizing self-control one step at a time, and deploying self-discipline one choice at a time. It is a gradual process, not an instant achievement. It is a process we are either strengthening or decaying with our actions until the day we die.

We all exercise personal power more than we think in our day-to-day lives. Regardless of background, age, sex, economic status. If we all as a society, as a species, didn’t possess a high level of personal power then we wouldn’t have societies or cultures period. So when talking about personal power, self-control, and/or self-discipline the first thing to do is often the most overlooked which is to give ourselves some credit.

But we know internally, silently, when we’re alone, when we look at ourselves in the mirror that we can do more and be better. Not in some pie-in-the-sky way, but measured against our past actions and against our future goals. I know I can’t be the only one who has felt and feels that way. It’s not that I’m trying to be Superman or what influencers pretend to be on social media. It’s when I do the right things, give the right effort, and consistently take the right action but then fall off and seemingly forget how to do it and that I did it.

“Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.” — Alan Watts

So what do we do? How do we get better? We know we have to do, try, take action, and put forth effort but we as humans need to be taught everything. We would be crawling on all fours, urinating, and defecating ourselves if we weren’t taught to walk and potty trained. So something like growing one’s power through self-discipline and control needs to be taught and unfortunately, schools would rather teach us algebra and dodgeball. So it’s up to us to teach ourselves. Luckily there are philosophical ideas, spiritual concepts, and humanistic approaches that can provide us with simple, pragmatic steps for growth. Simple, not easy…as is life.

Personal power is often thought of and referred to as an external thing but it is completely created from the inside out from doing internal work. We can’t control if we influence other people or situations. But we can control what we do to cultivate our inner strength, our inner peace, the strength of our character, our self-control, and our self-discipline. This is the Stoic Dichotomy of Control. Our pursuit of self-mastery is always within our control. Stoicism has been an immense help to me in introducing me to the concepts of what is within and what is outside of our control.

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” — Epictetus

Pursuing external personal power may have an eye-roll factor, but pursuing internal self-mastery is as universally noble of a purpose and life’s work as there is, since there is nothing harder or more complex for the average person like myself to seek. Philosophy can help create awareness and identify what we need to focus on. Journaling was probably the first productive habit I cultivated as an adult and is a Stoic exercise that helps us to reflect and look ahead through the lens of timeless principles.

Photo by Levi XU on Unsplash

Spirituality-based practices like meditation and yoga can guide us along the way by also giving us things to do to cultivate self-control and self-discipline on the path. Mindfulness meditation has been a lifesaver for me over the past decade and a half. Self-improvement can turn to self-punishment early and often. Day-to-day living can be a challenge. Meditation has helped me cultivate greater awareness and compassion for myself in the face of internal and external challenges.

Habitualizing a consistent yoga practice has taken a tremendous amount of self-control and self-discipline over many years for me. I find regular yoga practice helps my body feel the way regular meditation practice helps my mind and heart feel. Feeling good through consistent, active action rather than passive escapism is a path to self-mastery and personal power.

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” — Gautama Buddha

Ultimately cultivating our personal power starts with the humanistic belief in our inherent goodness and potential. Stoic journaling and resilience combined with Buddhist mindfulness as well as the Taoist principle of getting into and being in harmony with nature is a combination that works for me. I find these concepts and practices help level out the disjointed nature of modern living for me. This allows me to find stillness and space within myself to harvest beneficial habits of thought, perception, and emotion internally which produces the right action externally.

The journey is different for everyone. We all have to walk our path. But some timeless principles and paradigms will outlive us all that can make life a little less complex, a little easier, and help us harvest our personal power a little more. Doing so can make our individual lives and the world we live in a better place.

“Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” — Lao Tzu

Taming the Thought Beast

Posted: September 17, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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Hearing that we don’t think, rather that thinking happens to us, sounds weird at first.

After all, if I’m not in control of my thoughts, then who is?

Do you breathe?

Or does breathing happen to you? What happens if you try to stop breathing?

Do you dream?

Or does dreaming happen to you? What happens if you try to stop dreaming?

Do you blink?

Or does blinking happen to you? What happens if you try to stop blinking?

Are we living? Or is life happening to us?

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” — Marcus Aurelius

Why are we like this?

Many of the things causing problems for us as human beings in the modern world are survival mechanisms baked into us through evolution. Many first-world problems can be whittled down into a mismatch between our ancient brains in a modernized world. Once upon a time, it was not only a good thing but a necessity for our brains to constantly scan for threats and opportunities. Our constantly overthinking neurosis is partially why we as a species have survived as long as we have.

“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them.” — Epictetus

Constant thought streams have been a problem for me like they are a problem for pretty much everybody. Most people, however, are so identified with their thoughts that they don’t even realize they are having thoughts. According to spirituality teachers like Eckhart Tolle, most people believe their thought streams are their lives. That is living to them. Their thoughts, their emotions, their life situation. That is life. That is their identity along with their name and their job, maybe their hobbies and taste in pop culture.

“Identification with the mind is the root of all suffering.” — Eckhart Tolle

Breaking free from identifying with my thoughts, even for just a second, was a special experience I’ll never forget. It was a hard lesson that there is no singular awakening or epiphany that changes one’s life forever. It takes a series of small choices, micro-tasks, and seemingly insignificant actions repeated habitually until they are automatic which creates lasting change.

“Peace is every step. The path is the goal.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

Meditation and mindfulness have been lifesavers for me.

To calm then quiet the mind, to detach from the ego and be in the silent space of the present moment is worth the lifetime of practice it takes to master. To be able to stop thinking, even briefly, then drift back into thought because that’s what we habitually do, but then pull ourselves back out of thought and into the stillness of the present moment, over and over and over again helps to create mental and emotional space that is needed for our ability to survive and thrive in the modern world.

“The mind is the place where we become conscious of ourselves and the world around us.” — Aristotle

I needed to create the space between stimulus and response first.

I needed to awaken and become aware that I am not my thoughts, I am the witness of my thoughts first. From there, I have been able to plug philosophical and spiritual wisdom into that space to help guide my thoughts, perceptions, emotions, and actions in more beneficial and productive directions. I read self-books and listened to personal development audiobooks and podcasts for years with little to no effect because I was so identified with my ego-centered thought streams that little to nothing would get through. It’s like there was a detrimental forcefield covering my mind and spirit.

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Wayne Dyer

Break the vicious cycle first.

I recommend doing something to break, slow down, interrupt, or stop the constant thinking first. After you break the cycle of constant thinking, you can fill the cracks with wisdom and beneficial knowledge, tactics, and strategies to habitualize what in essence is an entirely new way of living that goes against the grain of human evolution, a life without constant thinking.

I’m no master or guru.

I struggle with this mightily. Depression has been a part of my life for over half of my life now. When my mother died I needed to utilize hallucinogens to stop the combination of grief and depression from swallowing me whole. That is what broke the cycle of constant negative thoughts and emotions.

What I do.

My meditation and mindfulness practices helped to deepen and widen those breaks and make creating space slightly easier. In those spaces I continue to plug in philosophy study, spiritual practice, journaling, yoga, nature bathing, a mood support supplement stack of theanine, ashwagandha & St John’s Wort, reading nonfiction books, listening to personal development podcasts, nightlife socializing, heavy weight lifting, cardiovascular exercise, learning about psychology and human nature, and eating to live rather than living to eat while still indulging in the sweet treats of life.

What you can do.

Those activities may work for some, maybe not for others, the specific activities don’t matter what matters is that they are beneficial actions and force one to focus their mind on what they are doing in the present moment to either execute proficiently and/or to enjoy oneself fully. Philosophy and spirituality practices might turn some people off, and that’s fine, what’s ultimately most important here is one’s individual agency. Everything I listed is practical, not wu wu or exclusively for the rich and privileged.

Viewing philosophy and spirituality through the lens of humanism is what has helped me to accept rather than resist these ancient wisdoms that have become self-help tropes. The human experience is not unique to us in the modern world. The philosophies and spiritual practices that are ancient to us now were created in real-time to help humans exist with less self-imposed suffering.

Our constant thinking is self-imposed suffering brought about through evolving internally to overcome external challenges. That same evolutionary potential can allow us to overcome our internal challenges using these external tools of wisdom that can guide us to; manage our thoughts and explore our inner peace by giving us a deeper understanding of our minds so that we have a better chance of thriving in the modern world.

Reach Out, Rise Up: The Power of Asking for Help

Posted: July 25, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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It can be so hard to ask for help. In real life, not in terms of asking people to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications.  

To need help is like the Big Bad Wolf blowing down a house made of straw. Knowing that one needs help is like blowing down a house made of wood. To ask for help, to be vulnerable, and to reveal our internal shortcomings to the external world; can be like trying to blow down a house made of bricks. 

Although I (like all other living things) have needed lots of help at various points in my life, I have been unwilling to ask for help more often than not. There’s an internal assumption that I should be able to pick myself up by my bootstraps, put my nose to the grindstone, be a man, and do it myself. There is also societal pressure that lionizes this kind of thinking. 

We think to ask for help is to be and to admit weakness.

It’s one thing if we know internally we are weak, but to admit it outwardly by asking for help? I for one have chosen many times to suffer in silence and isolation than to have to admit to myself or others that I am an imperfect being. 

The terms self-improvement, personal development, and self-help naturally mean that we should be able to help ourselves. Reading books, watching videos, taking courses, and attending events with these labels can lead one to believe that we can, should, and will solve all problems, obstacles, or issues by ourselves. 

Listening to self-help audiobooks during my commutes led me to study spirituality and philosophy. Philosophy and spirituality often intertwine and one can be confused for the other. I’ve found that viewing all philosophical and spiritual teachings through the lens of humanism helps me apply the lessons to my life without adhering to or being attached to any kind of potential religious or metaphysical doctrines. 

“We must help one another, and among those who are willing to be helped, are those who must be instructed.” – Epictetus 

Stoicism views asking for help as a sign of wisdom, that you understand what is within your control and what is not. When you reach your perceived limit of what you can control and need help, it is the wise and the correct thing to do to ask for help. 

“Don’t be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you are wounded and can’t climb up without another soldier’s help? So what?” – Marcus Aurelius 

The concept that it is not just the right thing to do to ask for help, but it is our job as a human being to ask for help helped me out a lot. Stoicism pushes the concept that we as human beings have to purpose to fulfill while we are alive, a service to provide to the world and our fellow man. A purpose beyond survival or making and spending money? Sign me up. If asking for help is a part of that, consider it done. 

“A giver of gifts is the one who advises, a giver of gifts is the one who shares knowledge, a giver of gifts is the one who points out faults. He who does all these to a friend is a giver of gifts.” – The Dhammapada (Buddhist text)

Spiritual philosophies that I’ve studied tend to focus on the internal, the individual, and the immaterial. However many spiritual teachings do emphasize compassion and our interdependence with our environment and other living beings. This has been a big help to me, as a person who was more of an antisocial loner type for many years but kept finding that way of living; limiting and directly hindering my happiness, fulfillment, and ability to achieve my goals. 

“He who walks alone walks in vain.” – Guru Nanak (Sikhism founder)

Studying spirituality coupled with a meditation practice has helped to dissolve the inner walls I had built up that detrimentally separated me from the world. Those metaphorical walls are built by and with the ego. It is selfish and ego-centered to think we can accomplish anything of substance alone, that we don’t need help, or that to ask for help is to admit weakness. Our ego convinces us that we are so special and superior to not need help and that asking for help is a bad thing.

“All beings are afraid of pain. All beings love life. All beings are the same as you are. Remember this always.” – Buddha

Ultimately, the decision to ask for help is a personal one. It requires courage, vulnerability, and a willingness to let go of the ego. By understanding the philosophical and spiritual underpinnings of interdependence and compassion, we can begin to dismantle the barriers that prevent us from seeking support. Remember, asking for help is not a sign of weakness but a testament to our strength and humanity.

Let’s embrace the idea that we are interconnected, so we can begin to break down the walls of isolation and create a more supportive environment for ourselves and others. By acknowledging our interdependence and embracing the courage to ask for help, we can unlock new possibilities for personal growth and happiness.

Through our choices, we can challenge detrimental societal norms. Together, we can create a culture where asking for help is seen as a strength, not a weakness.

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