Mindfulness Training

Mindfulness is a popular word today. Google it! I got 654,000 search terms. At Work/Life, we use it to evoke a state of calm awareness that helps us to stay awake in the middle of chaos and painful experiences.

So many of us are blinded by anger or have learned to unconsciously block out the thoughts and feelings that help us connect to reality. Our tech has trained us to bury our eyes in our electronic devices. Having coffee with our best friend and an unpleasant subject comes up, oops it’s time to check our messages. Sitting in a class lecture or business meeting and we aimlessly zone out, thinking about just about everything else but the agenda of the class or meeting. This is “normal.” When we fall prey to uncontrolled distractions, obsessive thoughts, unproductive compulsive activities, we waste our lives, one minute at a time.

It’s not that we haven’t noticed, and it’s not that we aren’t trying, but somehow, staying focused, being present to whomever we are with, or just feeling calm, clear and free of distraction is no longer available to us.

“Remember that life and death are of supreme importance. Life passes quickly and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed! Do not squander your life!” zen master Dogen.

Mindfulness Practice #1 Don’t waste your life!

This is not a matter of religious believe or orthodoxy. Life is a precious experience that we didn’t ask to have and once in it often don’t know what to do with it. What we are experiencing much of the time is anxiety, boredom, desire for something else and a hunger for something different. Or maybe, we’re just flat our down and dull. Ask any random sample of people you meet. If their willing to share their inner thoughts most spend there time wanting to be somewhere else, doing something else, having something else. It is the rare person who is really calm, joyful and satisfied, most of the time.

THE GUEST HOUSE

“This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor…”

from Rumi: Selected Poems, trans Coleman Barks with John Moynce, A. J. Arberry, Reynold Nicholson (Penguin Books, 2004)

Mindfulness Practice #2 Strive to attain Equanimity

If you find someone who is calm, fully engaged in life, and enjoying life even when things aren’t all working in their favor, chance are they have a set of practices that help them get there and stay “in the zone.” These people are genuinely happy, don’t need chemical substances to have fun, and are resilient to setbacks and bad breaks. Their not walking six inches off the ground, floating above the crowd. They are fully grounded in reality and deal with the day to day issues that we all are. What they have is not a gift but a practice. A discipline that makes life just a little easier for them because their struggle is not with the world, they work to tame their own inner demons and rarely blame others when things aren’t work out. In fact, many of them welcome challenges as guests and accept adversity as an opportunity to grow and learn something new about themselves.

Equanimity is a deep state of acceptance of what is and resignation to the situations and circumstances that are out of our control. We take responsibility for making do with whatever comes our way and not wasting time complaining or claiming victimization. We’re not looking for excuses, we’re looking within ourselves to find our inbuilt resources to continue to be joyful and engaged even when we’re up against the most challenging situations in our lives. We learn. Either we have the toolkit to make it work or we have a new opportunity to build one.

Most often if we dig deep, we can find a way. If not, that’s ok too!