Moment of Mind
Hey all, it’s tough times for the body. I invite you to take care of that body. This week I’m including a series of straightforward practices to exercise attention. Here are a few to explore:
Pranayama breathing basics with AJ
Single point focus with Rev. angel Kyodo williams
Mindfulness of sound with Mindful Schools R.A.I.N practice from Tara Brach
The method I share in my Mindfulness 101 workshop, recently simplified, is called StAAR. Sensory stability – noticing what feels the most constant, and stable in the senses (the bottoms of your feet, the in and out of the breath, if you’re moving the motion of the body, changes in light, the beating of the heart, the ground, sounds, etc.) Attend – returning to that sensory stability as thoughts and emotions fluctuate Acknowledge – compassionate witnessing thoughts and emotions that may be charged Return – going back to stability of the senses.
I invite you to try the links above and notice which one feels easiest for you to do. Then, if you feel up for it, notice which one is most supportive in exiting identification with a feeling, a thought, or a belief. Identification just means a belief that “this feeling-thinking experience IS me”. “I am cranky” = who I am is lost in crankiness. “I am angry” = anger has become who I am. “I am happy” = happiness is me. These are identification statements. You get to experience crankiness, anger, and happiness. You are much bigger than all emotions combined. You’re the presence that experiences these emotions.
If you try on the different practices, or if you have another contemplative practice, notice when does the hold of a feeling, thought, or belief loosen? The point isn’t to use the practices all the time every day…it’s to start seeing that these temporary feelings, thoughts, and beliefs aren’t the core you. They are thought-feel experiences. They’re normal storms. Valid fluctuations. This isn’t to bypass them or ignore them. It’s to notice and honor them. The practices don’t make all “bad” emotions go away so that there’s a forever experience of only “good” emotions. Nothing does that, sorry.
Mindfulness is often described as attention training, for good reason. Nearly all meditation practices I know about (and there are so many – I only know about a fraction) train attention through use of various anchors.
It’s called an “anchor” because the mind is nearly always in motion. Like a boat (attention) in a windstorm (emotions and thought patterns) the brain creates thoughts, emotions, and generally stays busy and attention can get lost in the storms.
The brain is narrating experience. It’s that busyness that often contributes to stress because the mind also attempts to stop the storm, to attempt to control it. This is part of why our brainbody system develops coping mechanisms. We often call these coping mechanisms habits. Sometimes they’re also called addictions, although I consider that branch of habit as more related to trauma, which is a subject for another day.
This busy-mindedness arises within what we call presence, or awareness. To continue the analogy above, the ocean floor that the anchor rests on is presence, or present-awareness. I have started to think of presence as the “core” self, that’s constant and stable. It doesn’t move or change the way thoughts, emotions, and beliefs do. It doesn’t age. It’s the you that knew you were you when you were little, and stills knows you are you now. It’s the you before, between, and behind the mind chatter. And while this is beyond my ken, it’s also not the body. Some people might call it spirit. Some call it life force. Presence is the descriptor that matches my experience most closely.
The point of attention training is to realize, or deeply experience, this presence as the core you. To remember. To unwind limiting beliefs. To see through the cloud of the chattymind’s negative beliefs, or overly confident beliefs, that by nature are not securable.
Before the age of around three years old, the brain hasn’t yet built an identity. You’re just the presence that you are toddling around in a human body. The commonly accepted idea of “you”, or the psychological identity concept, is comprised of learned thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. It’s an avatar of the body and the core you combined. Just like you can’t get wet in the word water (thanks Alan Watts), the full you is much more than this concept of you.
The brain is continually building identity layers in relation to the body and social interactions. The identity is a necessary evolutionary process to support the body learning to navigate in social and physical settings. Identity is important for our growth. Identity is also what makes us each unique. The vast beauty of life is expressed through endless diversity. Understanding presence isn’t about deleting identity (some spiritual circles seem to aim at that). It’s about noticing when identity has become confining. And seeing the presence aspect of our full self that gets hidden.
Because so much of the psychological identity is built based on changing social and physical settings, the brain has to continually revise what “me” means. This is part of why trauma in children can be so challenging. For example if you have a parent that is abusive, the brain can internalize that abuse as “it’s my fault” or “I’m worthless and should be abused.” This is a major aspect of the identity my brainbody system built that I continue to see deeper layers of the more I understand presence. It’s not true that I am the things that happened to me, regardless of the very creative beliefs the mind weaves. I’m much more than that. And also those events shaped this brainbody in major ways that can be honored.
This is the brain creating a “me” through associations with provided resources, and lack of those resources. The same is true at the societal level. When a group in society marginalizes/abuses another group say for differences in neurotype, skin color, hair texture, body size, ability, gender, etc. And on the flip side, the brain can also build identity around “I deserve these benefits because I’m better than….” These are both sides of the psychological identity coin.
The brain has been conditioned into believing that these continually-in-motion thought-feel experiences are us. And that’s endlessly anxiety provoking because you can’t make a thought stay still. You can’t hold onto an emotion. You can’t control aging. All relationships change. All jobs change. Borders of nation states change. Policies and laws change. Beliefs change.
Growth can be destabilizing to whatever identity composite the brain has built. So when our relationships change, when we age, when our jobs change, when there’s a pandemic, when there’s injustice, when there’s wars – all of this affects the brain’s building of identity. The brain attempts to hold things constant, to create continuity amid fluctuations, because this is what it learned is required for safety. To survive we need to know where we can reliably get food and water sources for example. However, by the time we’re adults the brain has learned a bunch of behaviors that protect the identity’s safety – not the body’s safety. Coaches call these “limiting beliefs.”
I think mindfulness practices are organized around attention strategies in relation to the body or mind, because this can be one way, among many, of realizing that space of being aware as the core you. This can support more stability over time, less reactivity. It doesn’t mean any of us stop being a jerk sometimes. It can mean we’re more aware, and more willing to clean it up. It can increase accountability.
The practices can re-train the brain to wield attention differently and let presence emerge. There are a broad array of what I call nervous system supports (the nervous system is a whole brain-body system – you can’t separate the brain from the body which is why I say brainbody). For example, time in nature can return the brain to a “soft focus” attention. Creating mindfully with the hands is part of art therapy for stress reduction. Dance therapy and creating music also support attention training. Gratitude journals can redirect attention to supportive emotional states. Being physically active shifts a bunch of physiological factors that also support attention resets related to mental health (with the caveat that the more sedentary time degrades those gains). Social connection, and particularly storytelling, can support the brain in returning to presence. There’s many more.
So, I invite you this week to try on, if you haven’t already, one of these core practices to touch into the core you – the awareness that you are – as a support for the body. Our brains are working overtime right now. I walk through a circuit of sensory based anchors in the Stress Less With Sensory Awareness e-course if you want to explore sensory supports. If you want a deeper dive, email me and let’s talk about emotional capacity coaching. I’d love to hear what you notice.
Much love, Tia
Love for Your Inner Science Activist Nerd
Since it’s February in the United States, which is Black History month, and as I observe reports of racism at the borders with people attempting to flee Russia’s imperialist attack, I thought I’d share a resources for remedying systemic racism. “Systemic” means systems such as policies or laws that are part of institutions such as education, policing, economies, land use, housing, and so on.
The Othering and Belonging Institute last week shared the first of its kind Structural Racism Remedies Project. This is an ” open-source, searchable repository of policy-based recommendations for addressing structural and systemic racism or advancing racial equity drawn from a vast array of published material.” One hat I wear is as a community health strategist and systemic racism is in every institution…negatively impacting community health along the way. This compendium organizes recommendations along three big areas: expanding or reforming existing programs or policies, creating new programs or initiatives, and process-based recommendations related to data collection, monitoring or training for any of the above. In the classes I teach to undergraduates, we look at what strategies can shift health outcomes for whom, over what timeline. This compendium will help researchers, decision makers and practitioners better understand what’s been tried and tested, and support emerging areas. How does this relate to mindfulness? The only changes I’ve seen, in any area, require awareness. In my opinion we can’t shift societal oppression without the inner (society starts with us) and collective work happening at the same time.
For the international readers, Black history month was established first as a week of honoring the African American diaspora by Carter G. Woodson on the second week of February. That week was chosen because it honors the birthdays of Frederick Douglass (Feb 14) a prominent abolitionist, and Abraham Lincoln (Feb 12) who, despite his faults, passed legislation effectively ending slavery. It’s continued to expand (for which I’m grateful) because the history of Black people on this continent is US History. If you’re new to the topic, I recommend the series by Anti-Racism Daily. MasterClass, in honor of Black History month, has a series on The History You Weren’t Taught in School that you can explore at any time in the year.
Get Your Park Groove On
If you haven’t yet visited Metro’s newly open Newell Creek in Clackamas County, Oregon, near downtown Oregon City at 485 Warner Milne Rd, Oregon City, I recommend it. It has mixed vine maple and big leaf maple forest, a cedar grove, and riparian zones along the creek. We saw robins, woodpeckers and many hummingbirds on the walk this weekend.
The park has bike-only paths and shared paths so know that you’ll likely share the trail with cyclists. There’s a decent sized parking lot at the entrance, with ADA accessible parking, bathroom, picnic area. The trails have enough of a slope that those who use mobility aids may want to take it slowly. I predict this place will be incredibly wonderful in the summer when the maple provides extensive heat from the shade. Beware that the local residents are ignoring the “no dogs allowed signs” and apparently not remembering their doo-removal bags, so watch where you step.
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