One of the practices in Primal Tao (Tao of Nature) training is working on our daily attitude towards ourselves, our surroundings, and towards others. We call it the practice of KAN – Kindness, Appreciation and Now. Frequently, we do not realise how much of our perception of the world comes from our own thinking and acting in this world. We do not realise that everything we think, say and do has as much of an impact on others as it does on our own selves. Therefore, when we treat others with Kindness, automatically we create an inner and outer environment ripe with opportunities for joy, happiness, gratitude, compassion etc. It simply makes us feel good about ourselves and the world around us. Anyone who’s ever done a small favour to another human being, knows that feeling and its wonderful consequences. There are reasons to believe that we used to experience it much more frequently and it is only the modern pace of life and the stress that it creates that seem to cause the disappearance of this great habit. The cultivation of Appreciation is another delightful strategy of influencing our own mood and changing the mood of others. Just like there are always many challenges that our life comes with, there are also wonderful things that we can and should remember to be grateful for. No matter how small, it is of the utmost importance to acknowledge to ourselves all our little achievements, accomplishments of others, the daily comforts, relationships and opportunities that we are blessed with. Understanding and feeling thankful for the “good” things in our life is one of the most powerful tools to find peace and contentment with what is. When practiced regularly it creates an effortless ability to find simple enjoyment and pleasure of living in whatever circumstances we happen to live in. When we remember to focus more on the present moment, when we manage to stop thinking for a second about what happened yesterday and what will happen tomorrow – this very moment is the only time when we experience life as it is. This is the only time when we have a chance to fully enjoy our body, our mind and our surroundings because usually, most of the time we are “somewhere else” – not here and now. Many physical and mental activities that cause unusual focus of attention (like extreme sports or engagement in creating art) can be very addictive because the feeling of being present and fully alive is second to none. Practicing Now helps us to create a habit of remembering to concentrate on this moment and using it as well as we can. Both Kindness and Appreciation tend to require a measure of being present Now and using them together gives the most significant results. ...
Vipassana – again… (memories from the past)
Vipassana – again… This time my destiny led me to the birthplace of Buddha – the town of Lumbini in Nepal. A small place visited by Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world ( there are estimated 350 million Buddhists worldwide ). A relatively small area became a construction grounds for Buddhist monasteries representing different branches of Buddhism. From Japan and China to Sri Lanka, Thailand and Tibet. It was not the Buddha’s place of birth that was the main reason for my visit though. I came here to take part in yet another experience of Vipassana meditation. While many who had come here would enjoy the beautiful temples and monastery gardens, my journey will take me more “inside”, to the fertile gardens of my own mind. It was time to do some pruning and weeding! The fact that I would not be spending much time admiring what’s outside was readily reflected in the stark architecture of the Vipassana meditation center where I was to spend the next ten days. Actually, the place looked more like a prison than anything else.. The purpose of it being – not allowing the distractions of the outside world to weaken the focus on the world inside.. Vipassana – it is not an experience for everyone. Not everyone is inclined to test his or her body and mind with the severity of silence and intense inner work, meditating ten hours a day for ten days straight. The first few days are always difficult but the results of this tremendous effort can be as surprising as the intensity of the effort itself. Intensity that is difficult to compare to anything else. Ten days of absolute silence, nearly continuous meditation and observation of the many inner processes taking place in each and everyone of us, reveals the truths and realizations about ourselves that sometimes we wish we didn’t know. And all of this takes place in the company of twenty to hundred and twenty silent people who just like me, try to learn something about themselves, figure out why they are the way they are and why their life is unfolding the way it does. It is not very often that we have an opportunity to ask and answer ourselves questions like these. It is not very often that we have the time and environment to go this deep inside. Perhaps it is why many European Vipassana centers are booked full well in advance and every year new centers are built all over the world… ...
Appreciation
Every day I try to remember to appreciate every moment. Every day I try to remember how lucky I am. Every day I try to remember what a privilege it is to have food, water, roof over my head, shower, refrigerator, health, freedom, education, family, friends, time and much, much more! Every day I try to remember not to get irritated by the little inconveniences that life provides from time to time. Every day I try to remember not to complain and feel sorry for myself just because I forget that the little moment of unhappiness I happen to go through is not the center of the entire universe! I try and try, day after day, over and over again until it becomes a habit. Until it becomes something completely natural. Until I fully realize there is nothing missing. And when my expectations, ignorance, self pity and sense of entitlement are gone, all that is left is APPRECIATION. ...
Eustress and Distress – Yin and Yang of health cultivation.
There are many different aspects of our health and well-being. Mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, social, environmental. Our cognitive and intellectual abilities. Our physical functionality. Our mental and emotional attitudes, patterns, habits, conditioning. Our social interactions and exchanges. Our environmental influences: the water we drink, the food we eat, the place we live in, the area we are surrounded by, attitudes and expectations around us. They all influence our physical and mental condition. We all have our strong and weak sides. Sometimes our strength is our mind, or memory or mental agility. Sometimes our weakness is our lack of physical stamina or flexibility or strength. Or the other way around. There is a vast number of possible combinations. Usually, we are inclined to do the things that are easy for us. Things that we’ve trained ourselves for in the past. Unfortunately doing only what we are already good at will only lead to further imbalances. Just like only doing the crossword puzzles will not be enough for the mind, a little bit of yoga or tai chi or weight lifting might not quite do it for the body. We need to address our whole being in a complex way. Develop our creativity, push our limits, and find new challenges. So, let’s start learning about ourselves. It is important to assess our predispositions, cultivate our strengths and really focus on improving our weak areas, achieving much more sustainable balance overall. It is often difficult to admit to ourselves that we are lacking in some areas of our lives. The first step is to acknowledge that there are aspects of our being that can use some work and improvement. In the physical realm, we are often tempted to prioritize activities we already feel comfortable with. For example, we’ve already achived a measure of coordination or flexibility and we tend to dismiss the need for some strength or speed work to be done, finding numerous reasons and explanations for not doing it. The same goes on in the mental sphere of our development. If we’re good at math we frequently like to excuse ourselves from being familiar with more abstract areas of knowledge. We often argue that we can not master everything and it is true as long as it doesn’t become just an excuse not to challenge and develop our adaptive capabilities. At this time and age, most people are familiar with the concept of stress and the negative consequences that can come with it. Unfortunately, very few of us have ever heard of Eustress – the positive stress which stimulates, motivates and generally contributes to the development and strengthening of our abilities to function in the most effective and optimal way. A well documented and researched example of Eustress is the influence the physical exercises have on our body development. Gradual and systematic training leads to a harmonious growth and development, improvement of many biological markers, and positive changes taking place on the mental and physical level. Regular mental training leads to a similar efficiency and an accelerated ability to absorb, process, interpret and utilize new data. All of these findings point out to the realization that we should not be avoiding challenges in our lives. Self-imposed challenges prepare us for the challenges that life will surely present us with sooner or later. By regular practice of things that are difficult for us we inevitably become better equipped for dealing with them at the time of need. It is obvious that if we experience difficulties with our joints, special attention needs to be directed in that direction. If we experience lower back pain issues, we should take an extra close look as to what the causes could be. If we feel overwhelmed by some mental tasks we need to face, this ought to be an area of a special interest for our training. As soon as we begin to practice this kind of perspective, we realize that the opportunities for work and improvement are very abundant in all aspects of our life. As soon as we begin to implement the knowledge of how beneficial the difficulties can be for us – a new realm of possibilities opens up! Do you notice the blessings that come with every challenge you face? Are you aware of the opportunities coming with every challenge? ...
A simple thing to remember.
How many times a day do we expect something from our children, spouse, family, friends, coworkers, bosses, or the world in general?! How many times we are deeply disappointed when our expectations are not fulfilled right away?! I want my partner to be like this. I want my children to behave like this. I want people to be like this. The question is: what do I give? What is My behavior? How can I expect something from others when not doing it myself?! It is not a difficult concept. The consequences of its applications are remarkable though. It doesn’t mean that the world will automatically follow your lead. However your understanding of others can vastly improve. Try it. Before you look for purity in someone else – first find it in yourself! Before you look for kindness in someone else – first find it in yourself! Before you look for understanding from someone else – first find it in yourself! Before you look for generosity in someone else – first find it in yourself! Before you look for selflessness in someone else – first find it in yourself! Etc etc. to be used daily ...
Relativity of perception. Challenges and opportunities.
It is often difficult to call something “positive” or “negative”. What we call bad is frequently the result of misunderstanding and not following the natural order of things which results in what we generally refer to as ” negative” occurrences. For example: “bad weather”, rain, being tired, cold etc. Complaining about it is like complaining about the fact that we have to breathe. Without these things we simply wouldn’t be able to survive. Imagine that it is sunny and warm all the time. Without rain, the area could quickly turn into a dry, hot desert. What if we don’t do any physical work? We would end up with a weak and underdeveloped body. If we always insulate ourselves from the environment, trying to maintain a comfortable temperature all the time, any sudden change becomes too much for our immune system and we get ill very easily. How come we do not appreciate the gifts of life given to us everyday!? The”bad” or “negative” is nothing but our perception of a lack of harmony, being out of sync with God, Tao, our Inner Voice, our True Nature etc. What do you see around you? Good or bad? Positive or negative? Do you understand why difficulties happen in your life? Do you take advantage of these challenges to work on your own strengths and weaknesses? ...
Get yourself unstuck
This morning I was sitting and drinking my hot lemon water. It was still a bit dark outside as I was looking out of the window, enjoying the moment of quiet contentment. I looked at the window sill that had something on it that I could not recognize. A shape of an object I could not identify. Intrigued I was staring at it and straining my mind to no avail. I just couldn’t figure out what it was. It was too dark in the room and my brain couldn’t make out anything out of it. I decided to shift my body to the left and right, providing my vision with a slightly different angle and an enhanced depth perception. It took seconds for me to realize I was looking at a half opened, glossy book reflecting the window light outside. It seemed so obvious and simple that I couldn’t understand how I had not seen it a minute ago. Sometimes when we are stuck, we need to change the angle a little bit, change the perspective on the situation we are having difficulty with. It is like looking at something from the distance. I look and I don’t know what I am looking at. What is it? No recognition. The brain is trying to process it, to remember but it can’t. It is stuck. In order to move on, I need to adjust, to change my way of looking at it, interpreting it. Sometimes all it takes is taking a couple of steps to the side, climbing a little higher or stooping down. Suddenly we realize what it is we are looking at and we marvel at our inability to see it just a moment ago. When stuck – change something. It doesn’t have to be a big change. You are not trying to completely change the situation. Just your way of looking at it and understanding it. Practice it on small things in your life first. Small challenges are your great chance to train and develop the ability to find solutions. ...
How our mind “makes future happen”
Today I want to share with you wonderful ideas of Tomas Hanna on the role of mind and mental attitude in shaping our life and well-being. In his recognition of vital importance of psychological and mental processes on health and well-being, Hanna follows in the footsteps of Hans Selye, an Austrian-Canadian endocrinologist who formulated the concepts of stress and researched its effect on human system. While Selye was focusing mostly on endocrine response to stress leaving aside neuromuscular aspects of organism’s stress adaptation, Selye’s outstanding contribution was, among others, in singling out two kinds of stress: the one that is potentially harmful for the body (distress) and its “healthy” counterpart, the one that causes about body’s adaptation and strengthening (eustress). It was Selye who first expressed this empowering insight into nature of stress: “Adopting the right attitude to stress can convert a negative stress into a positive one”. The following excerpt from Thomas’ Hanna’s book further expands Selye’s concepts on importance of mental attitude in cultivating one’s health, well-being and shaping one’s life events. Hanna’s research and reasoning is so complete and so in line with what I inherently believe about the power of mind to manifest material reality, that I will just paste pieces of text here without any interpretation or addition on my own. The text is taken from Chapter 12 of Somatics, titled “Expectation: the role of mental attitude”. To read this chapter and the rest of the book, go get the book on any of the ebook stores, it’s available for immediate download. You can also read parts of the book on Google Books ” Expectation is not only a prediction of the future, it also directly contributes to making it happen. This proactive role which expectation plays is crucial to our well-being. Consider the placebo effect. This curious word is Latin. It means “I shall please,” and it was taken from the liturgy of the Catholic Church, in which the priest said, “I shall please the lord . . . ” Later, it came to be applied more generally to any attempt to flatter or please another person. By the nineteenth century it was being used by physicians to refer to any ineffective substance given as “medicine,” not to cure, but merely to please, the patient. Soon, however, physicians began to notice an odd thing. These substances, which were not supposed to have any effect, actually succeeded if the physician cajoled the patient into believing it would. If the patient expected that the sugar pill would help, it did. This is the placebo effect. F. J. Evans conducted a series of carefully controlled studies in pain reduction, which compared the effects of morphine to the effects of a “worthless” placebo pill. The findings were startling: The placebo was 56 percent as effective as a dose of morphine. l What could cause such a powerful analgesic effect? Only one thing: expectation. Almost the same results were obtained in comparing placebo effects with those of aspirin (54 percent), codeine (56 percent), and Darvon (45 percent). It was extraordinary to learn that the placebo effect was constant. No matter what the analgesic drug, the effectiveness of the placebo was always proportional. But, as the information poured in, physicians learned that the placebo effect was not at all limited to pain reduction; it was found in studies of adrenal gland secretion, angina, asthma, blood cell counts, blood pressure, cancer, the com- mon cold, the cough reflex, diabetes, emesis, fever, gastric secretion and motility, headache, insomnia, multiple sclerosis, oral contraceptives, parkinsonism, pupil dilation and constriction, respiration, rheumatoid arthritis, seasickness, ulcers, vaccines, vasomotor function, and warts. Such a list constitutes a massive confirmation of the somatic viewpoint-that human consciousness is an integral part of the human body’s self-regulation. … Because the placebo is so prevalent in clinical medicine, a science called psychoneuroimmunology has emerged. This promising research area presumes something that not too long ago was deemed impossible: that the immune system is not isolated in its functions, but has a working relation with the central nervous system. In addition, emotions, attitudes, and other conscious states trigger certain neurotransmittors which, in turn, affect the immune system- hence, the young science’s name, psychoneuroimmunology. The working thesis of psychoneuroimmunology is that a state of consciousness, such as an expectation, can cause changes in both the central nervous system and the immune system. This is essentially the somatic viewpoint: that the attitudes and beliefs we have about our bodies and our health vitally affect the ongoing state of our bodies and our health. If we expect our bodies to be resilient and healthy, then they will tend to remain so. On the other hand, ex- pectation may be predicated on the myth of aging; that is, a belief in inevitable structural breakdown and functional loss. In this case, breakdown and loss will eventually occur. The prophecy becomes self-fulfilling: What we expect to happen does happen. If we are at a certain age and feel within our bodies certain discomforts, how we interpret them becomes crucial. If we take them as a sign of serious disease and breakdown expected at this age in life, then we are accepting and giving in to a presumed fatality. To anticipate pathology is, functionally, tantamount to intending it. This unleashes dangerous reactions in the brain and in the immune system, dangerous because apparently the mere feeling of “giving in” to an ailment immobilizes our self-healing capacities. Professor Ian Wickramasekera is a medical research scientist. In his general analysis of the placebo as a conditioned response, he says the following about this aspect of negative expectation: This analysis may be particularly relevant to chronic diseases and functional disorders such as low back pain, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, and cancer, in which the long-term and intermittent reinforcements of the unconditioned disease process, injury, or dysfunction increase the probability of negative conditioned effects that sustain the disorder. In such cases, the chronic intermittent activation of the disease mechanisms by unconditioned physiochemical causes may lead to increasingly strong aversive anticipatory responses that inhibit the motor system even when the unconditioned stimulus is inactive. It is a well-established fact that intermittent reinforcement by unconditioned stimuli will make a maladaptive response maximally resistant to improvement. This statement makes it clear that the myth of aging is not merely a belief about the diseases of aging; it can also be an active cause of these diseases. Thus, by responding to bodily discomforts with intelligent awareness and positive countermeasures, we can directly prevent such a “disease process, injury, or dysfunction” from becoming a permanent condition The word “age” means, quite simply, “a period of existence”. Moreover, even though “age” means simply “a period of existence,” it refers more broadly to that which characterizes a period of existence. It is particularly interesting when it becomes a verb -to age – for then it means “to grow old.” What, we should ask, does it mean “to grow old”? “Old,” in its Latin root, alo, and in its ancient Germanic form, aft, means – quite surprisingly – “to nourish” and “to bring up.” More generally, alo means to strengthen, increase, and advance. It means to become taller and to become deeper. In its root meaning, then, “to age,” and to get older, means “to grow up.” In view of the etymology of “old,” it is fascinating to note that “growing old” has come to mean exactly the opposite of the original meaning of “old”: that is, “old” has come to mean worn out, deteriorated, decayed, dilapidated, and no longer useful. Thus, in plumbing the meaning of the simple but curious word, “age,” we come upon a fundamental ambiguity: “To age” means either to grow, increase, and become both taller and deeper or to decrease, decay, wear out, and become decrepit and discarded. It is most provocative that a word as basic to human life as “aging” can mean either of two opposite possibilities: growth or degeneration. It suggests that what is characteristic to the period of existence of a human’s lifetime is neither programmed nor predictable. It implies that the direction of human life is not fixed but open. If we think of the coming years of our life as a continuing process of advancement and strengthening, it is more than likely we shall experience just that. And it is just as likely that a constant, daily expectation of wearing out and becoming decrepit will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. … We see in this situation an extraordinary truth about human life: Whether we will grow or degenerate during the course of our lives is a question not of known fact but of expected possibility. Time, as the currency of life, is always futurity; it is not yet spent. How we expect it to be spent predetermines the plan for its expenditure. Once we realize that the investment we make in our lives is the same as any other investment, we may adopt a very different attitude about what possibilities we expect for our future years. I do not think it improper to say that what we invest in life determines how much we get out of it. It is a question of whether we think that our lives are at least as important an investment as, for example, real estate or stocks. It is my observation that many humans do not value their personal bodily future as highly as they value the future of their material possessions. The human who knows that his or her being is growing is a human who usually has the strength and endurance to prevail over the defeats and stresses and traumas that occur in each and every life. Such a person knows that the inevitable pains and dysfunctions occurring in the body are not “inevitable signs of degeneration,” but typical adjustments that all bodies go through in regulating and readapting themselves for the future. ” With such thoughts for the day, I wish you to spend it nicely! ...
