Mindfulness Matters

The adage goes, “You are what you eat.” And this may be the case. It is also the case that, “You are how you eat.” This is the message of mindful eating. You can eat anything mindfully

Mindful eating is catching on. The growing obesity of America, the recent admission that Paula Deen has type II diabetes, and the ubiquity of fast food begs for a different approach. The New York Times has picked up the mindful eating mantle in this thoughtful article. Read it here.

You’ll have the opportunity to do some mindful eating at my Barre Center for Buddhist Studies workshop next week, February 17-19. There is still time to register.

In 2007 the CDC reported that antidepressants had become the most frequently prescribed drug, eclipsing drugs for high blood pressure. 118 Million scripts were written in 2005. This number continues to grow.

I wonder what would happen if more people strapped a snowboard to their feet and got on top of a mountain and slid down? Perhaps fewer prescriptions would be needed.

Snowboarding (or skiing, whichever you prefer) is a natural antidepressant. You are outside enjoying the outdoors, breathing pure mountain air, and if you are in Vermont, engaging panoramic views of the Green Mountains (and on a clear day, the White Mountains of New Hampshire).

Sliding down a mountain at high speed invites you to be mindful, in fact, demands it! If I start thinking about what I am doing or how fast I am going, then what happens next is not going to be pretty. When I can give my attention without reservation to the exerpences of riding, something magical happens. It resembles what I imagine flying feels like — a sense of freedom, ease, and weightlessness. Speed is joyful; carving a turn with mindfulness connects me to the mountain, we are one.

I find there is a paucity of experiences that tell us without equivocation that we are alive, that are thrilling in the way that snowboarding is.

Of course, it’s easy to be mindful when you know what you are doing and have these exceptional circumstances. It’s more of a challenge to engage when the consequences are not so acute — here in now in this ordinary moment. Each moment holds the potential to be thrilling when we become fully mindful. However, snowboarding just makes this blatant. In this way, exceptional circumstances can help build the confidence to find mindfulness in any moment.

And, of course, it just feels good. If you are like most adults, you don’t get enough play.

Snowboarding is not for everyone. The challenge is to find the activities that are right for you, that let you know you are alive, that invite exquisite mindfulness into your life explicitly, that integrate you with nature. If you live in a northern clime, finding enjoyable wintertime activities and remaining active are crucial for combatting the winter blues.

Whatever your activity of choice is, enjoy. Mindfulness won’t be far behind!

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, nearly a Holiday, and according to the Morgan Freeman’s reassuring voice over on a VISA commercial, “The most epic day in America.” That’s a commercial, yet I think he is right. Today is epic and we have a deep unmet need for the epic in our lives.

We lack heroes, reality, drama, and play in our lives. For many, football provides a connection outside of the challenges of the mundane. Sports are one of the few live venues we can consume. The outcomes are uncertain. The games have rules, but unlike reality tv shows they are not scripted, crafted, and, I think, phony. There is genuine competition and this speaks to us.

I think we are starved for heroes. Who can we turn to? Our politicians? Please. While the 110 million Americans watching the game tonight will not be playing, we will enjoy it vicariously thanks to mirror neurons.

And this particular game brings plenty of drama. The overlooked younger brother of the game’s most talented player playing in the house his brother built. The three-time Super Bowl champion seeking his fourth ring (and, by the way, the nemesis of the older brother). It’s Eli Manning versus Tom Brady, The New York Giants versus the New England Patriots, Tom Coughlin versus Bill Belichick.

It’s the underdog versus the established hero — David versus Goliath. It’s a rematch of four years ago when the Giants despoiled the Patriots perfect season by beating them in shocking, unlikely fashion in the Super Bowl. It’s a rematch; a chance for Brady to avenge this loss.

And then there is the personal drama of the Patriots. This season is dedicated to the memory of Myra Kraft, wife of Robert Kraft, who died early this season. The “MHK” emblem on their jerseys is a testament to her. Patriots Football Weekly declared the AFC Championship game victory over the Ravens, “Myra-culous.” When Robert Kraft overspent $173 million dollars for the Patriots in 1992, Myra thought Robert had lost his business acumen. Today the Patriots are worth $1.5 billion.

As the juggernaut of the modern era, they are Goliath. News from the front lines suggests the Giants are the overwhelming local favorite. I imagine in part because the Patriots are the “bad guys” and the Giants, who just barely made the playoffs are the “good guys” — the underdogs. I think they are rooting for Peyton’s younger brother and agains this nemesis, Tom Brady.

As I mentioned yesterday, I will endeavor to watch with great interest and without hope. I will enjoy this spectacle as play and relish the unfolding impermanence. We can be mindful of a football game when we not only give it our attention, but watch without craving or aversion. Good luck with that! We will have the opportunity to watch the arising of desire and aversion and when they show up, if we can be mindful, we can give them a kiss on the cheek and let them go.

Enjoy yourself tonight!

T. S. Eliot gave us these lines:

I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing;

there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

This sounds like an invitation to mindfulness, an invitation to realize the radical transformation that comes from setting aside preconceived ideas, such as those bound up by hope. We may not be ready for thought unless we’ve trained our minds in mindfulness. Our love may be tainted by selfish attachment.

First order of business—be still. Ahhh. What a relief, just the possibility of getting to stillness, even if for a moment. And now, “wait without hope.” Isn’t that pessimistic? I venture to say, no, it is not pessimistic. Optimism is good, hope can get in the way.

In contradistinction to most of my friends who are rooting for the Giants, I “hope” the Patriots win the Super Bowl tomorrow, but of course this is an idle emotion. It informs me subjectively, but has no vector in the world. Wouldn’t it be better to acknowledge my desire, to understand its context, and to wait without hope? Yes, I think so. Then I can watch the spectacle unfold with pleasure and equanimity. If I cling to hope, I make myself vulnerable to disappointment, anger, and frustration.

The weekend of 17-19 February, we will explore questions raised by Eliot and other great thinkers, ones that the Buddha has ventured to answer. We’ll use poems like this one, metaphors, and science to move towards a direct, experiential understanding of what it means to live an awakened life. Continuing education credits (12) are available. You can register for the course here.

Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/mindfulnessmatters/2012/01/is-the-self-a-metaphor-come-to-the-barre-center-for-buddhist-studies-and-find-out.html#ixzz1lQKheZtW