Tag Archives: mind

PROMPT: High School

Posted on by
1
Daily writing prompt
Describe something you learned in high school.
View all responses

A psychology teacher taught us about what he called “the gestalt of expectations.” It’s when one builds an alternative reality in one’s mind (typically a worst-case scenario) and then one acts as though it is a reality, when – in fact – it is not. (Though sometimes it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy situation, which — of course — triggers selection bias in people of the unexamined life.)

It was my introduction to what I would come to know as the most fundamental insight of human existence — i.e. that one’s experience of the world is not the world itself, and while one has minimal influence over the latter, one can have tremendous influence over the former. One can even train oneself to perceive difficulties and sorrows as learning and growth opportunities.

PROMPT: Positive Change

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
Describe one positive change you have made in your life.
View all responses

Daily practice of feeling gratitude. (As opposed to being grateful that one November day a year and wallowing in how horrible everything is the other three-sixty-four.)

Music Mind [Free Verse]

Posted on by
Reply 
a meandering melody
  hijacked my bliss track 
 and, as I drifted in the void,
  my spine straightened,
  my breath slowed,
  and I tumbled -- for a time --
     through eternity.

PROMPT: Fun… Exercise

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
What’s the most fun way to exercise?
View all responses

In the Flow.

PROMPT: Secret Skill

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had?
View all responses

Mind control. I can control my mind with my mind.

[NOTE: I’m not sure what “secret” has to do with it. Anything one blabs across the internet is — by definition — not a secret. Though the skill I mention takes place in a purely subjective realm, so — in that sense — might remain unknown to the general public.]

PROMPT: Confident

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
Who is the most confident person you know?
View all responses

I don’t think that’s a question I can meaningfully answer. I think each person has more confidence and courage in some dimensions of life than in others. A given observer tends to see the person who is the most confident in the areas in which that observer is least confident and think of that person as the most confident — when that person might be quite lacking in confidence in areas to which the observer isn’t being attentive.

It was eye opening to read about Audie Murphy, a man who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for single-handedly taking on a unit of Nazis, a man who had a successful career in film, but also a man who was said to have been tremendously shy and awkward around strangers. It would be all in the context in which one saw Murphy that might make one think he was the most or least confident person around.

Quite frankly, the person who appears the most confident in all aspects of life is probably also the most full of shit.

PROMPT: Negative Feelings

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?
View all responses

Feel them, but don’t feed them. By that I mean take time to be aware of the feelings, but do not let the mind go into its default mode of fixation upon the object informing these sensations and worst-case scenario building. Give the feelings your attention but recognize that you influence your experience of the world and don’t give the mind free reign to build an illusory scenario that it accepts as its reality. (i.e. Remember what Mark Twain said, “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”)

The biggest problem with negative feelings is that the go-to modern strategy is attempted distraction (by vice, by entertainment, by activity, etc.) this leads the body to turn up the heat. If you give the sensations your attention without adding value judgements, it becomes impossible to obsess. For yoga practitioners who’ve done Yoga Nidra (Yogic sleep) the experience will be familiar. One often begins by being attentive to sounds, by giving the sounds attention without judgement, your mind starts to lose interest and it becomes harder for those sounds to distract you throughout the practice. This approach to negative feelings is much the same.

Also, breathwork that extends the exhalation component of breath will shift the balance toward rest and digest activity.

Ultimately, realize that these feelings are just sensations your body and brain use to turn your attention in certain directions. They have no more power than that, other than what one grants them. They are not identical to — or inextricably linked with — the events of the world that triggered them, and — therefore — you get to be the master of, and not the slave to, your feelings.

The next time you find yourself getting bogged down by a negative feeling, give the feeling a minute or two of pure undivided attention, and then think, “This is a wonderful opportunity to learn how my body and mind work.” See what happens.

PROMPT: Superstitious

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
Are you superstitious?
View all responses

No. I’ve trained myself to recognize factors, such as selection bias, that contribute to superstitions. And I try to hold all beliefs only so tightly as they can be shaken away by better understanding, particularly beliefs that aren’t strongly supported by experience and reason.

PROMPT: For a Day

Posted on by
3
Daily writing prompt
If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?
View all responses

A Buddha / Bodhisattva (if there’s one about these days.) Why? To feel how his (or her) subjective experience compares to my own.

Mind Fog [Free Verse]

Posted on by
Reply 
The fog envelopes me.
   I draw vivid pictures 
      on its white surface.

I don't know how I do it,
    But I know why.

It's a craving:
   To fill emptiness,
   To disallow silence.

The fog's texture is
   Subtle, but existent. 

Should I not sketch my story
   On that white surface,
   But rather give it my attention
      then I might see that texture,
      and then see it clearly,
      and - eventually - feel it
          as I glide my hand 
          though space...
   Blind and at ease.