We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
– Albert Einstein
With spring continuing to open to us the wonders of new life – I offer a few words around the power and privilege of each of us for enjoyment and influence.
About enjoyment:
Let us remind ourselves to enjoy the spring’s unfolding beauty, which can remind us to enjoy all of the life we’ve been given. We can give greater attention to this present moment: enjoying its richness, loosening preoccupation with “self,” seeing and accepting things as they are, and even feeling gratitude for things as they are. I think of the directive-for-our-own-good in Scriptures: “…in everything give thanks…” I Thessalonians 5:18
In March I was privileged to attend a workshop presented by Ron Siegel who shared this definition of mindfulness: an awareness of present experience with acceptance. [I’ve spoken of mindfulness previously; for more, see below.**]
He shared that the mind is powerful enough to affect the body: for enjoyment or not, for good or ill. We know of the placebo effect where, when we think we’re being helped by some intervention, most of us consistently improve. Interestingly, Siegel shared the effectiveness of various placebos: two pills are more effective than one, a larger pill more than a smaller pill, an active placebo (one that mimics the common side effects of the drug under study) more effective than passive placebo (such as sugar pill), injections more than pills, and surgery most powerful of all.
At the Wikipedia entry for placebo (Latin word for “I shall please”) we read: “Those with Alzheimer’s disease lose the capacity to be influenced by placebos, and this is attributed to the loss of their prefrontal cortex dependent capacity to have expectations.[127] Children seem to have greater response than adults to placebos.[128]
Mindfulness and the placebo effect call me back to some keys to enjoyment: gentle expectation of benefit, and child-like openness to whatever is happening (possibly instead of “why ever is this happening?”).
About influence:
We can influence this moment – by choosing to be aware of what might be enjoyed (dwelling on “what is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing…” Philippians 4:8), and by accepting what IS in this day.
We can influence our world in positive ways by being kind and loving to ourselves and others. I appreciated the lovingkindness meditation practice at the workshop (you also are invited to experiment with mindfulness meditations at Siegel's mindfulness-solution web page; there's no cost to play or download the audio files) that consists of applying a compassionate approach first to self and extending it to others, by repeating --
“May I be happy, may I be peaceful, may I be free from suffering, may I be free from fear, may I let go (or, whatever phrases particularly resonate kindness for you)…
May my loved ones be happy, peaceful, free from suffering…
May all beings be happy, peaceful, free from suffering…”
(This meditation has various names: a “metta” Buddist practice, a Christian prayer of “blessing,” good intentions, warm wishes.)
Mindfulness develops compassion for ourselves as we open to our own pain, as we see that everyone else also has pain, and as we see our interconnectedness. I find this idea most winsome, and it seems consistent with what I am leaning into in other areas (accepting my whole person rather than squashing my shadow self, to name just one) and consistent with others' writing. In his book “Prayer,” Frank Laubach wrote these words in 1946, “Every thought tends to become true in proportion as it is intense and as it is long dwelt upon. Thoughts result in deeds an
d deeds make history. Our thoughts leap across space and appear again in other minds, in proportion as they are intense and long dwelt upon. Thoughts are contagious. ‘What you whisper in secret,’ said Jesus, ‘shall be shouted from the housetops.’ Yes, even your thoughts shout, though others may not know it is you who are shouting!”
May we be influencing our moments and world as we shout lovingkindness to ourselves and each other. And may we find enjoyment in the beauty of this moment.
I close with some thoughts of poet Mary Oliver. May they aid us in seeing and enjoying the world’s wonders.
Why I Wake Early
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who made the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety – 
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light –
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
~ Mary Oliver ~ (Why I Wake Early, 2004)
** [There’s so much info available on the how-tos and benefits of mindfulness that it’s difficult to know where to begin. But here’s a few resources:
- http://www.mindfulnet.org/ claims to offer “everything you need to know about Mindfulness on one website”
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, originator with U Mass Medical School’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs has gobs of material and links here
- An article “Mindfulness Matters: Can Living in the Moment Improve Your Health?” includes a few doable suggestions at NIH News in Health
- Find a brief overview of research on the benefits of mindfulness at “Connecting bodymindsoulspirit" on my NaturallyYours web site; and can check out some of the posts on my blog: Oct 7, 2009 post addressed the topic of boosting immunity by monitoring our thinking, or this one on intentionality Aug 12, 2009 post]
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