Hello Everyone -
Hoping you are all well and happy!
As you can imagine, I am VERY busy these days - working virtually through the telephone and ZOOM. It’s still a difficult and strange time, but it also seems to be a rich time for reflection and reassessing. Mindfulness certainly helps!
What I would like to share with you today, is actually the very essence of Mindfulness, - and how transformative and enlivening it is when we become more familiar with the Natural State of Our Mind.
Our mind is usually filled with thoughts and feelings that can seem non-stop - (the hamster wheel)! We’re not always sure where they’ve come from, whether they are even relevant, or of any value - but there they are, one after the other!
Thoughts and feelings - basically cognitions and the emotions triggered by them, are so much a part of our lives - constant, on-going, so incessant that we seldom stop to really consider what they are and where they come from. And - unfortunately - we often automatically/unconsciously take them to be the truth!
They not only clutter our mind, block our creativity and absorb our energy, but they can also be the driving force, “the gremlins”, behind the decisions and actions we take! They can be the designers of the life we live.
It becomes even more relevant to understand thoughts and feelings when they create, and maintain, states - such as anxiety and depression.
When we look closely, we can see how they trigger each other in an on-going pattern, to the point where we can feel overwhelmed and think the only option is medication (or some other substitute) - just to get some calm and peace of mind.
In contrast to that, we can actually live in a more fresh, spontaneous way!
In fact the basic nature of our very own mind is open, spacious and bright.
It is alert, vivid, and is the vast awareness - within which - thoughts, feelings, perceptions, sensations etc. etc. arise!
Our mind is actually a wide open space - with its own inherent qualities! Just stop reading for a moment - I’ll wait - and just look at your mind itself. Not the content - but the mind itself. You can spend a moment or two just experiencing how open, without boundaries, and spacious it is - to all possibilities!
It is lovely to become more familiar with it, to realize that beyond passing thoughts, feelings and other experiences, it is unchanging and is fundamentally who you are.
We can realize how much less vulnerable we are to passing events (both internal and external) when we are connected and grounded in our authentic nature and experience of truly being ourself.
A good analogy for our mind, and all that appears within it - is the wide open sky and the clouds and weather conditions that pass through it.
Clouds, rain, lightning etc. are temporary situations - they arise, have their moment and dissolve, while the sky itself remains unchanged.
The point of Mindfulness - the slowing down, being present, becoming more awake and aware of what is happening moment to moment (as opposed to being driven by automatic pilot), is really - to experience and live out of that open, spacious, creative mind.
There is clarity and freedom, out of which we can CHOOSE how we want to experience whatever occurs in our environment. We can respond rather than react, in a way that is fresh, new and exactly right for the moment at hand - the living moment itself.
Otherwise, all we have to draw on is what and how we have lived in the past. Much of our experience is valuable but we can also be re-playing old patterns drawn from our conditioning, drawn from fears and beliefs, or drawn from something we just heard or saw on the news.
When actually, all our resources - our insight, intelligence, creativity - ready to be applied to this unique moment, may remain inactive, unused. These are the very resources that could give us confidence, understanding, skill and a sense of mastery in life, but are eclipsed by the non-stop activation of thoughts and the feelings they generate.
Everyone is talking about chains of infection of the virus, but there are also chains of infectious thoughts. We need to quarantine our mind every now and then - to protect it, to give it rest, and even to allow it to rehabilitate and recover.
That quarantine for our mind, is just to be still.
To take time to experience the beauty, the peace, the constancy, the stability of the mind itself.
This is why we practice - why we take 15 minutes - or more - each day, to settle, to become more grounded in being who we actually are, to reconnect with our inner strength, our open free mind. We can be fully awake - and decide how we want to respond to environmental events. Clouds are temporary conditions.
Clouds do not control - actually have no impact at all - on the Sky!
A lovely thing to do from time to time, is to set up a longer Retreat for yourself. Whatever is possible - a day or half-day each month, or even an hour on the weekend, to make time for stillness, for reading, reflecting and even writing, to restore yourself and connect with all your gifts!
I will be offering a Mindfulness Evening this Wednesday, November 25th, from 7 to 9 p.m. Registration is now open and may be completed by e-transfer of $35. to: [email protected]. Registration closes on Tuesday at 4 p.m., at which time you will receive the link for the Evening to be held on Wednesday. Receipts for insurance purposes will be provided.
Come with questions, come with reflections! We will practice together and consider how Mindfulness can bring more peace, more clarity, empowerment and love to whatever arises in our own unique world - moment by moment!
Keep Well! Keep Happy!
If you are interested in posts I’ve written previously, since the beginning of Covid, you can find them at my website: lyndaryanchildandadultpsychologist.com. Click onto Blog.
Keep Very, Very Well!
Lynda
“When we live in Awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere”.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Hoping you are all well and happy!
As you can imagine, I am VERY busy these days - working virtually through the telephone and ZOOM. It’s still a difficult and strange time, but it also seems to be a rich time for reflection and reassessing. Mindfulness certainly helps!
What I would like to share with you today, is actually the very essence of Mindfulness, - and how transformative and enlivening it is when we become more familiar with the Natural State of Our Mind.
Our mind is usually filled with thoughts and feelings that can seem non-stop - (the hamster wheel)! We’re not always sure where they’ve come from, whether they are even relevant, or of any value - but there they are, one after the other!
Thoughts and feelings - basically cognitions and the emotions triggered by them, are so much a part of our lives - constant, on-going, so incessant that we seldom stop to really consider what they are and where they come from. And - unfortunately - we often automatically/unconsciously take them to be the truth!
They not only clutter our mind, block our creativity and absorb our energy, but they can also be the driving force, “the gremlins”, behind the decisions and actions we take! They can be the designers of the life we live.
It becomes even more relevant to understand thoughts and feelings when they create, and maintain, states - such as anxiety and depression.
When we look closely, we can see how they trigger each other in an on-going pattern, to the point where we can feel overwhelmed and think the only option is medication (or some other substitute) - just to get some calm and peace of mind.
In contrast to that, we can actually live in a more fresh, spontaneous way!
In fact the basic nature of our very own mind is open, spacious and bright.
It is alert, vivid, and is the vast awareness - within which - thoughts, feelings, perceptions, sensations etc. etc. arise!
Our mind is actually a wide open space - with its own inherent qualities! Just stop reading for a moment - I’ll wait - and just look at your mind itself. Not the content - but the mind itself. You can spend a moment or two just experiencing how open, without boundaries, and spacious it is - to all possibilities!
It is lovely to become more familiar with it, to realize that beyond passing thoughts, feelings and other experiences, it is unchanging and is fundamentally who you are.
We can realize how much less vulnerable we are to passing events (both internal and external) when we are connected and grounded in our authentic nature and experience of truly being ourself.
A good analogy for our mind, and all that appears within it - is the wide open sky and the clouds and weather conditions that pass through it.
Clouds, rain, lightning etc. are temporary situations - they arise, have their moment and dissolve, while the sky itself remains unchanged.
The point of Mindfulness - the slowing down, being present, becoming more awake and aware of what is happening moment to moment (as opposed to being driven by automatic pilot), is really - to experience and live out of that open, spacious, creative mind.
There is clarity and freedom, out of which we can CHOOSE how we want to experience whatever occurs in our environment. We can respond rather than react, in a way that is fresh, new and exactly right for the moment at hand - the living moment itself.
Otherwise, all we have to draw on is what and how we have lived in the past. Much of our experience is valuable but we can also be re-playing old patterns drawn from our conditioning, drawn from fears and beliefs, or drawn from something we just heard or saw on the news.
When actually, all our resources - our insight, intelligence, creativity - ready to be applied to this unique moment, may remain inactive, unused. These are the very resources that could give us confidence, understanding, skill and a sense of mastery in life, but are eclipsed by the non-stop activation of thoughts and the feelings they generate.
Everyone is talking about chains of infection of the virus, but there are also chains of infectious thoughts. We need to quarantine our mind every now and then - to protect it, to give it rest, and even to allow it to rehabilitate and recover.
That quarantine for our mind, is just to be still.
To take time to experience the beauty, the peace, the constancy, the stability of the mind itself.
This is why we practice - why we take 15 minutes - or more - each day, to settle, to become more grounded in being who we actually are, to reconnect with our inner strength, our open free mind. We can be fully awake - and decide how we want to respond to environmental events. Clouds are temporary conditions.
Clouds do not control - actually have no impact at all - on the Sky!
A lovely thing to do from time to time, is to set up a longer Retreat for yourself. Whatever is possible - a day or half-day each month, or even an hour on the weekend, to make time for stillness, for reading, reflecting and even writing, to restore yourself and connect with all your gifts!
I will be offering a Mindfulness Evening this Wednesday, November 25th, from 7 to 9 p.m. Registration is now open and may be completed by e-transfer of $35. to: [email protected]. Registration closes on Tuesday at 4 p.m., at which time you will receive the link for the Evening to be held on Wednesday. Receipts for insurance purposes will be provided.
Come with questions, come with reflections! We will practice together and consider how Mindfulness can bring more peace, more clarity, empowerment and love to whatever arises in our own unique world - moment by moment!
Keep Well! Keep Happy!
If you are interested in posts I’ve written previously, since the beginning of Covid, you can find them at my website: lyndaryanchildandadultpsychologist.com. Click onto Blog.
Keep Very, Very Well!
Lynda
“When we live in Awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere”.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
