This will be brief. I concluded last night's post with an exercise for watching thoughts. I just played around with this exercise and found these adjustments may be more beneficial and enjoyable.
1) Find a timer. If you have a smart phone or something with the ability to set up multiple alarms - great! If able, set 8 alarms. First one at 3 minutes, second at 4 minutes, third at 7 minutes, fifth at 8 minutes... See the pattern? We want the alarm to notify us after 3 minutes of letting our mind float to wherever with whatever thoughts we had. After the 3 minutes use the exercise I described last night to step back your thoughts to discover how each thought had a previous thought that influenced the thought that followed. Do this for the next minute until the 1 minute alarm sounds. Then allow your mind to wonder again for the next 3 minutes. At the 3 minute alarm step back your thoughts for the following 1 minute until the 1 minute alarm. Rinse and repeat. Do this sequence 3-4 times and notice how you feel before during and after this exercise.
You'll begin noticing that many thoughts occur yet most of these thoughts are filtered out of our awareness because we do not see them as important or they do not evoke a strong enough emotion to hijack our attention. The hijackers with strong emotional baggage then appear to come out of nowhere leaving us feeling like victims to this emotional state. Doing this exercise will increasing allow you to see that all thoughts are connected, though often unconsciously, and that by seeing the creative process behind the end product (results we want or don't want) we can be proactive in how we feel most of the time. Ownership is essential.
Ok, so that wasn't as short as I intended nor was it what I had planned to post about. Oh well - have a great day!
Sincerely,
J
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
You say po-ta-to ... I say po-tat-o
In yesterday's post I began by briefly touching on mind chatter followed by consciously (or unconsciously) guiding what I've decided to call the thought stream. To attempt to remain consistent I'll be referring to "thought stream" as the flow of thoughts in whole - the greater process. "Thought patterns" on the other hand will be definitive components and characteristics of the thought stream; having the ability to be arranged and tweaked to produce an intended and resourceful thought stream. The stream is composed of and directed by patterns that create a sequence of events; a personal processing system for filtering stimuli and assigning meaning. More on this another day.
Yesterday's post then concluded with the natural tendency of the mind to break things down into pieces and classify them as good or bad. This process is dualistic thinking and dualistic thinking has many advantages and limitations.
Good and bad (dualistic) thinking has the advantage of providing us with the ability to process information and make a decision with a preconceived result. If you see a car is coming and you want to cross the street a common response would be that walking in front of the car is a bad idea. In this case dualistic thinking is an absolutely wonderful tool and without it we would likely cross the road for a limited number of times before being flattened by oncoming traffic. Using the cross walks, looking both ways and being aware of traffic is then a good thing. So dualistic thinking is a very valuable tool in this example. Now let's say that your mind is strongly dualistic, breaking down each choice into good or bad and it's served you well for years. Over time you've conditioned yourself to know how to cross the street without being aware of the thought stream. Suddenly you're faced with a change. You now need to cross the street immediately (maybe there's an emergency); the cross walk is 50 yards away and a car is coming. A strongly dualistic mind will create a great degree of nervous tension in breaking the rules and navigating away from the personal protocol for safety - even in this state of urgency. Clearly breaking the rules will be resourceful in this emergency, yet it feels uncomfortable. To the degree our minds operate dualistically and unconsciously it will feel uncomfortable to make the resourceful adjustments to respond most efficiently and appropriately to the event in this moment and both the problem and solution will remain outside of ourselves.
The remedy to this type of unconscious dualistic thinking is the conscious neutral mind. The conscious thinker sees the thought stream flowing from conditioning and then makes adjustments in the thought patterns to change the flow of thought to create the desired outcome. The neutral mind assists this process by allowing the changes to take place because the neutral mind is much less attached to previously held truths. While the dualistic mind needs badly to analyze and break things down into good or bad, yes or no, true or false, right or wrong types of responses; the neutral mind neutral mind retains a great degree of objectivity that adjusts to each particular situation uniquely.
How do we cultivate our neutral mind? It is in my opinion a product of expanded awareness. When our awareness expands to allow us to see and experience our responses as predominantly a product of our conditioning and past situations, we have the chance to consider more openly that what we have always held to be true may indeed only be a piece of the puzzle. And that other seemingly conflicting ideas are also in their own right a necessary piece of that same puzzle. Just as the right side of the body is codependent of the left side. Then how do we expand our awareness? By paying attention and redirecting our attention when our minds begin to take on typical thought patterns.
Try this exercise in awareness of thought. Give yourself 5 minutes of quiet time without external disruption. Set a timer to keep this exercise brief, focused and effective. Close your eyes and over the next five minutes let your mind do whatever it wants. Do not guide the mind with any type of mantra and be only slightly aware of the breath. You want the mind to do whatever it wants over the next 5 minutes. When your timer goes off notice what is on your mind at that moment. Then ask yourself what thought came before the present thought. How did the previous thought transition into the current thought when the timer went off. Then step back one more thought. What thought lead into the thought that lead into the last thought. Keep stepping back a thought at a time to see how each previous thought transitioned into the thought that followed. This is an interesting exercise and can demonstrate how thought patterns can powerfully create a thought stream of unintended direction. Notice anything interesting?
In my next post I'd like to dive into the awareness piece a bit more. If you found anything I posted here interesting or have something to share please comment. If you took the time to try the 5 minute exercise I'd love to hear how it went.
Have a pleasant evening.
Gratefully,
J
Yesterday's post then concluded with the natural tendency of the mind to break things down into pieces and classify them as good or bad. This process is dualistic thinking and dualistic thinking has many advantages and limitations.
Good and bad (dualistic) thinking has the advantage of providing us with the ability to process information and make a decision with a preconceived result. If you see a car is coming and you want to cross the street a common response would be that walking in front of the car is a bad idea. In this case dualistic thinking is an absolutely wonderful tool and without it we would likely cross the road for a limited number of times before being flattened by oncoming traffic. Using the cross walks, looking both ways and being aware of traffic is then a good thing. So dualistic thinking is a very valuable tool in this example. Now let's say that your mind is strongly dualistic, breaking down each choice into good or bad and it's served you well for years. Over time you've conditioned yourself to know how to cross the street without being aware of the thought stream. Suddenly you're faced with a change. You now need to cross the street immediately (maybe there's an emergency); the cross walk is 50 yards away and a car is coming. A strongly dualistic mind will create a great degree of nervous tension in breaking the rules and navigating away from the personal protocol for safety - even in this state of urgency. Clearly breaking the rules will be resourceful in this emergency, yet it feels uncomfortable. To the degree our minds operate dualistically and unconsciously it will feel uncomfortable to make the resourceful adjustments to respond most efficiently and appropriately to the event in this moment and both the problem and solution will remain outside of ourselves.
The remedy to this type of unconscious dualistic thinking is the conscious neutral mind. The conscious thinker sees the thought stream flowing from conditioning and then makes adjustments in the thought patterns to change the flow of thought to create the desired outcome. The neutral mind assists this process by allowing the changes to take place because the neutral mind is much less attached to previously held truths. While the dualistic mind needs badly to analyze and break things down into good or bad, yes or no, true or false, right or wrong types of responses; the neutral mind neutral mind retains a great degree of objectivity that adjusts to each particular situation uniquely.
How do we cultivate our neutral mind? It is in my opinion a product of expanded awareness. When our awareness expands to allow us to see and experience our responses as predominantly a product of our conditioning and past situations, we have the chance to consider more openly that what we have always held to be true may indeed only be a piece of the puzzle. And that other seemingly conflicting ideas are also in their own right a necessary piece of that same puzzle. Just as the right side of the body is codependent of the left side. Then how do we expand our awareness? By paying attention and redirecting our attention when our minds begin to take on typical thought patterns.
Try this exercise in awareness of thought. Give yourself 5 minutes of quiet time without external disruption. Set a timer to keep this exercise brief, focused and effective. Close your eyes and over the next five minutes let your mind do whatever it wants. Do not guide the mind with any type of mantra and be only slightly aware of the breath. You want the mind to do whatever it wants over the next 5 minutes. When your timer goes off notice what is on your mind at that moment. Then ask yourself what thought came before the present thought. How did the previous thought transition into the current thought when the timer went off. Then step back one more thought. What thought lead into the thought that lead into the last thought. Keep stepping back a thought at a time to see how each previous thought transitioned into the thought that followed. This is an interesting exercise and can demonstrate how thought patterns can powerfully create a thought stream of unintended direction. Notice anything interesting?
In my next post I'd like to dive into the awareness piece a bit more. If you found anything I posted here interesting or have something to share please comment. If you took the time to try the 5 minute exercise I'd love to hear how it went.
Have a pleasant evening.
Gratefully,
J
Monday, December 20, 2010
Lost and found ... in thought
Ever find yourself lost in wonderment - thinking deeply about a topic or daydreaming yourself away to some other place? Maybe your asking yourself deep questions like, "what is the meaning of life?" or "why am I here?" Maybe you replaying the morning events or simply thinking about what you're going to have for dinner. These thoughts are what many call mind chatter. They tend to run on autopilot; driven by a sequence of events (internal and external) that create a thought stream leading to internal dialogue, physical sensations and emotions followed by external responses, actions and behavior. As we know some of these internal and external manifestations are pleasant while others are far from what we want. Take for example hunger. You're sitting at your desk just before lunch and your stomach begins to growl. You'll likely have a stream of thoughts, images and sensations that will soon follow. One stream of thought might create a sense of urgency to eat. This pattern may then create a sequence of internal responses that create external responses such as irritability, anxiousness, etc. Why? Because we're focussed on what we don't want - to be hungry! On the other hand your stomach may growl in the same way and you may go in another direction with your response. This time when you feel the hunger pangs arrive it reminds you that your lunch break is drawing near. You get excited because it reminds you that you were meeting friends for lunch, packed your lunch to save money and reward yourself with something big or pay down debt; maybe you're just looking forward to biting into a burger. The internal stimulus was the same in both situations - your stomach growled to let you know you were hungry. However the first thought process focussed on what you didn't want (to be hungry) while creating responses that were uncomfortable. The second thought process focussed on what you did want (to enjoy what you wanted to do with your hunger) creating excitement.
There's a natural tendency to break things into categories such as good and bad. This is sometimes called dualistic thinking. Dualistic thinking is how most of us operate on autopilot. And unfortunately the autopilot for most of us is rather limiting and inhibits our neutral mind.
In my next post I'll discuss dualistic thinking and the autopilot in greater detail.
Wishing you joy,
J
There's a natural tendency to break things into categories such as good and bad. This is sometimes called dualistic thinking. Dualistic thinking is how most of us operate on autopilot. And unfortunately the autopilot for most of us is rather limiting and inhibits our neutral mind.
In my next post I'll discuss dualistic thinking and the autopilot in greater detail.
Wishing you joy,
J
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Getting there...
Hello,
Thanks for stopping by! I'll have this blog up and running soon. The purpose of this blog is to create an interactive web forum of ideas, support and sharing with those looking to create more peace and enjoyment in their lives. Great levels of peace and enjoyment arise from something that is commonly called the neutral mind. While difficult to describe, it is that place we sometimes slip into where we experience the happenings around us and within us with greater clarity and objectivity.
I look forward to this blog experience and encourage others to share their experiences as well!
Gratefully,
J
Thanks for stopping by! I'll have this blog up and running soon. The purpose of this blog is to create an interactive web forum of ideas, support and sharing with those looking to create more peace and enjoyment in their lives. Great levels of peace and enjoyment arise from something that is commonly called the neutral mind. While difficult to describe, it is that place we sometimes slip into where we experience the happenings around us and within us with greater clarity and objectivity.
I look forward to this blog experience and encourage others to share their experiences as well!
Gratefully,
J
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