You Are Not What You Think

In the practice of Calm Abiding (Samatha) Meditation, the instructions are very clear. You pick a focus point to settle the eyes on, focus your attention on the breathing and the body. As you begin to gain your internal awareness, you can begin to work with the mind and the body on a much deeper and more profound level. 

One of the first things you realize is that your mind is a mad, runaway train and in some ways you are crazy! This is a wonderful realization. Your mind is just like a gland; it is constantly secreting thoughts. Before I began practicing yoga and meditating, I thought that my thoughts defined who I was. Once I learned to recognize my thoughts and monitor them as they came and went, I began to realize I was something much vaster and greater then just my thoughts. 

At some point in practice you come to the painstaking realization that you are the culprit. You create the stress in your life. That’s right. You can no longer be a victim and you have to grow up and stop blaming other people for your present situation. This comes from the realization that for most of your life, you have been identified by your thoughts. You believed your thoughts are who you were. You were wrong.   

You become empowered when you realize you are not your thoughts, but are able to recognize and monitor your thoughts. This is the awakening to consciousness that can catapult you right out of clinging to your stress into a life of empowerment. 

 

Now this all sounds rather wonderful, but it requires diligent practice. Your mind has been driving that runaway train your whole life and loves to convince you that you are your thoughts, that you are your stress. Your mind will perform all kinds of tricks to get you to cling and hang onto to your stress. 

On a daily basis, I forget this and then I remember it again. I forget and then remember. This remembering is what allows me to let go, cultivating acceptance and happiness in my life. Every time you sit and meditate or practice at Empowered Yoga, you are constantly cultivating this ability to let go. In classes, teachers will instruct the students again and again to become ‘present’ through their breath and their body. Every time you become present and let go of thoughts, your ability to live from a more authentic and happy place becomes realized.

Suffering, an Inconvenient Truth

The classical description to the first noble truth deals with birth, sickness, old age and death. These are four things that will most certainly happen to each and every one of us. It is a truth of human life. 

If I were to ask people if they suffered on a daily basis, most of them would look at me funny. If I asked them instead if they experience stress, they would say “Of course I do". We will use the word stress instead of suffering. 

At Plexus, before beginning our personal training relationships, new clients go through a health and fitness assessment. One of the questions we ask is “How would you rate your level of stress on a daily basis?” This allows us to know something about the individual’s lifestyle and how their mental fitness is. 

Many people in 2008 live with a fair amount of stress. Where does stress come from? I like to break stress down into two categories: Physical Stress and Mental Stress. These two are interdependent and ultimately are affecting each other. Let’s take a closer look at some examples.

Physical Stress - We can inflict negative stress on our bodies by eating unhealthy foods, eating too much food at once, drinking too much caffeine and alcohol, sitting in the same position too long, not exercising, exercising too much (yes you can do this), poor posture, neglecting the feet, bathing in the sun too much, and the list goes on and on. 

Mental Stress - The mind can experience stress when it internalizes things, takes things too personal, overworks and over thinks, clings onto the past like a broken record, fantasizes about the future, or meets the moment with preconceived notions of what they want to happen. And again I am sure we could go on and on. 

Is there a way to learn to reduce stress? The cultivation of the present state of mind allows us to get in touch with the body and mind. I know when I get in touch with the present moment and I am experiencing stress, I typically discover that my mind is grasping or clinging onto something. This is the Second Truth of human life: We suffer because we grasp and cling to things trying to concretize them within our minds. 

Ice cream Sandwich

This morning my daughter Leia came into the living room with tears in her eyes holding an ice cream sandwich. Sara followed her in asking me to tell Leia that she could not have it. Sara asks me to do the dirty work because Leia will listen to me more than her. I told Leia now wasn’t the right time to be eating ice cream and redirected her attention to something else and in seconds Leia let go of the thoughts of eating the ice cream sandwich. A brilliant observation of the mind!

 

I paused for a moment and realized how cool that was. Leia was truly suffering when she realized that there was a possibility that her desire to eat the ice cream sandwich was not going to be fulfilled. When we look at Leia’s suffering it comes from grasping to a thought again and again eventually bringing tears. A simple parenting trick of redirecting your child’s attention helps teach them to “let go” of the thoughts and move on to the next thoughts or experience. This ability to let go of thought is an innate part of the human mind. Leia displayed it wonderfully this morning with the help of some trick parenting.

 

Letting go is the hinge within the Four Noble Truths of the Buddhist Philosophy. The four truths are: Suffering, Causes of Suffering, release from suffering and cultivation of non-suffering state.  I will focus on this for the next few blogs

Concretize

I had to look this one up. It is to make something hard like concrete. I was listening to a Dharma (truth) podcast the other day and the lecturer used this word. I really like it because it gives such a strong visualization of what happens within us when we hold on too tightly to something. I was a construction worker during high school and I was responsible for mixing concrete and pouring it. You add water to the concrete solution and then it hardens and becomes solid and non-porous.

The human body is roughly 75% water depending on your age and the amount of water you drink. It is common for people to become more and more dehydrated as they age. Did you know our brains are 75% water? Most headaches can be attributed to dehydration. Lean muscle tissue contains about 75% water. Blood contains 83% water, body fat contains 25% water, and bone has 22% water. When the body is dehydrated it dries up and begins to concretize like concrete. Research has proven that severe dehydration creates havoc for our bodies in the long run.

Our minds work a lot like this: Just take a moment to sit back and watch your mind. A thought will come in and then it will turn into another thought and another, and so on, just like a story. You can think of the mind as flowing as water, moving from one thought to another. The mind can also latch onto a thought and concretize it. This means that this particular thought will come up again and again. It has hardened and becomes a repeat thought or part of your memory. This feature of the mind is what allows us to accomplish tasks and empower ourselves. Unfortunately, it can also keep us stuck in unhealthy and habitual patterns.  

Here is a little exercise in awareness. The next time someone says to you “This is really hard,” look up and observe their facial expression. You will be surprised to see that their face is a face of anguish or stress. It is as if they are those negative thoughts and feelings and concretizing them. As they are pulled from their comfort zone, they freeze, like concrete. The mind tends to concretize around fear and the thought that produced that emotion. The more often we concretize around things we would categorize as difficult—the harder it is to deal with life’s ups and downs.  

When you experience a task that requires you to sweat, think outside the box, or get your hands a little dirty, I refer to it as a challenge.  Accepting a challenge requires courage. The word courage comes from the Latin root “cor” which means heart. It is within the moments that we are challenged that we need to stop and recognize the thoughts and emotions for what they are. It is a shift from identification to observation; the concretizing can subside with observation within minutes. Using identification however, we can many times become paralyzed like concrete for hours, days or even a lifetime.

This is something I am continually working on. I’m trying to recognize where I am hardening when I need to soften— lifetime contemplation for all those on the path to empowerment!

Seasonal Runner

I am a seasonal runner. I start running in the spring and put the shoes away once fall arrives. I began running a month ago and it just seems to become more challenging each year to get going. I am starting to feel the rhythm with my breath and my stride and already thinking that maybe I just have to keep going throughout the winter. Aging often brings greater challenges!

For the last few weeks, I have been running first thing in the morning. The alarm goes off anywhere between 4:30 and 5:30, depending on my day. I don’t mind getting up early and it has been interesting to recognize my mind waking up. There are thoughts that pop up and say, “No! Stay in bed—run later,” or “Go check your e-mails first,” or “You have a long day today. Maybe running is not the thing to do right now”. It is pretty interesting to see the thoughts for what they are, just thoughts. There really is nothing to a thought until we invest our attention into it and start believing that it is real or solid. 

The last few weeks those thoughts have not been real. I just see them for what they are. I notice them and even give the thoughts names like lazy thought, excuse thought, or complaining thought. I shift my awareness to my body, sit up in bed and place my feet on the ground. I pause for a moment and take a deep breath in and then begin moving. As I am getting dressed, I just pay attention to putting my pants on, lacing up my shoes, etc. I step outside and begin running. Once I finish my run, I acknowledge the fact that a simple thought almost held me back. Fortunately, I saw it for what it was: just a thought.

You can apply this exercise to any thought that might be holding you back. See it for what it is and shift your awareness to your body and/or your breath. The thought loses its power if it doesn’t produce action! This process takes practice, but once applied, it really works!

Basic Meditation Instructions

Anyone who has ever sat down and meditated, has also come to the conclusion that the mind can be very erratic. The ancient yogis use the phrase “monkey mind” to describe the mind and how it jumps from thought to thought, like a monkey swinging from branch to branch. One of the biggest mistakes one can make is to think that you are going to be in wrestling match with yourself until you tame your damn mind. This kind of attitude will leave you frustrated and tense. It is very important to understand that you are not going to shut your mind off or attain some supernatural state. You are just going to sit and be with whatever it is that arises. The instructions are very clear within the basic meditation process. The ego wants to make the meditation process more complicated then it is. Here are some basic instructions to get you started: 

• Take a comfortable seat. You can be in a chair or sit on the floor. If you are sitting on the floor, ensure that your knees are not higher than your hips. Your spine should be aligned, with your shoulders dropped and relaxed. Your ears should be centered overtop of the shoulder. 
  
• Find a point that you can rest your eyes on. 

1. If you are sitting on the floor, let that point be four feet in front of you. Make sure not to drop your chin when looking down at the floor. 
2. If you are sitting in a chair, focus your eyes straight ahead. Again, make sure your spine is properly aligned and you are maintaining an S-curve with your vertebrae. Poor posture will cause mental laziness and affect your alertness. 

• There are many meditations that have you close your eyes, but for this one keep your eyes open. It will help you stay alert and reduce sleepiness. 
  
• Now bring your attention to your breathing. Keep your mouth closed and breathe through your nostrils. 
  
• Focus on the way the air comes through your nostrils and down your throat, filling the lungs. Follow the breath as it leaves your body in the reverse order. 
  
• When your attention wanders from observing the breath—you have fallen into focusing on a thought – maybe even a stream of thoughts. 
  
• No big deal. Just recognize that you have left the present moment—label the thinking as thought and come back to an inhale. 
  
• Repeating this process of losing your focus on the breath and coming back is what creates a stronger and more stable mind. 
  
• Judging yourself or being hard on yourself when you are lost in thought will only cause more thought. Learning to touch thought with your awareness and return to your breathing will cultivate the ability to let go. 
  

The process of letting go of thought and coming back to the present moment can be viewed as a repetition. The more you catch yourself (repetitions) and come back to the present moment, the more your mind will become familiar with the present moment. This will create mental and emotional stability. 

Begin with 10 minutes a day—optimally in the morning upon awaking. This is when your mind is the most placid. You will also begin noticing that your mornings are less rushed and you feel more peaceful. Work towards 15 minutes or more and meditation will surely change your life! 

Pure Potential

The word spiritual comes from the Latin prefix, spiritus, which translates as breath. The central theme of spiritual practice is coming back to the present moment. You develop a relationship with what you experience when your attention is focused on something other than thought. The breath is the anchor of this process and is intimately connected to your state of mind. Even using the word spiritual can get in the way for many people. Some of the most spiritually advanced people I have met in my life don’t actually consider themselves spiritual or care to think of it as such. They are just good people who see beyond concepts. I love these people because there is no pretentiousness in who they are.  

We have all heard the statistic that the average human uses 7-9% of their brain. What is possible with the other 90%? Some say humans like Einstein, Jesus Christ and the Buddha tapped into the greater depths of their brains—explaining their superhuman feats. I am sure we could create a list of people who have been superhuman and all of them would tell us the same thing. Their feats, discoveries and superpowers came from a place beyond their own thought. If this is the case, why doesn’t every human being cultivate this power? 

When we draw our attention away from our thoughts and onto the breath, we become anchored in the now. As our minds start to become more placid, paradoxically we become more alert and attentive. Meditation is an exercise that strengthens our ability to stay in this state of presence. That is right—meditation is an exercise that strengthens our ability to connect to our basic essence as human beings. View meditation as lifting weights for the mind. The more often you return to the present moment, the more connected you become to your pure potential. Your pure potential is beyond concepts, thoughts and words. In Zen they call this state, “No mind”

Research shows that when people are meditating, they tend to move from a mind dominated by Beta waves (Busy) to a mind of Alpha and Theta waves (creative and relaxed). Research has also shown that activity between the right and left hemispheres of the brain balances out, thus we begin using both sides of the brain.  I’ve never met anyone who said “I just can’t seem to think enough.” I do meet people who tell me they just can’t seem to stop thinking so much. When the mind is flooded with too much thinking, stress and lack of clarity can become the theme for your life. 

Another misconception is that you have to sit to meditate. Ideally, this would be best, but you don’t have to do this to start. I meditate all the time. Driving in the car, washing dishes, listening to someone talk in a conversation. I love to meditate when I run. I will bring my attention to my breath and when it wanders to a thought, I am aware of it and return to focusing on the breath. You can do it! Before you move onto another website or your next task, try it. Bring your attention to the breath. Breathe in through the nose and feel the air come through the nostrils, down the throat inflating the lungs. Pause at the top of the inhale, exhale slowly feel the air as it leaves the lungs. Notice how you feel after doing this just once. Congratulations! You have just meditated! Now try incorporating this into other activities and you will begin noticing settling changes throughout your day.