TBD

TBD on Ning

              I am starting a new thread here mainly for purposes of my own catharsis. It is my intention, at least at this point, to make regular contributions. Of course, if anyone else has anything to add, they are more than welcome. If you have any input, please contribute.

              Over a year ago I decided to deal head-on with my self-diagnosed adult attention disorder, (ADD). The inability to stay focused was becoming too stressful. I found myself sitting around watching the clock tick, yet I couldn’t keep “on task” with any project I started. Nothing was getting done and just starting something was becoming depressing.

              The smart thing to do was probably to get professional help, so instead I decided to try to heal myself, at least as a first try. Cognitive therapy and pharmaceuticals (UGH) might be the approved way to go but I decided to try meditation first.

              18 months and countless self-help books later, I still can’t bring myself to a regular, formal meditation program. But, along the way, I discovered informal mindfulness. Yes, I know it is the “Fad” right now. It is hard to navigate modern social trends without “tripping over” somebody extolling the benefits of mindfulness.

              Let me add my voice to the chorus.

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Sometimes mindfulness seems to conflict with some of the ingrained values of our culture. We are taught from birth that success requires an effort of 110%. But success is not always the same as contentment.

I agree. Sometimes seems like a 1-sentence summary of our culture's value would be : "He who dies with the most toys wins." (I first became aware of that saying back in my teens when I saw it on a bumper sticker; sometimes I feel like getting my own bumper sticker that says, "DYING WITH THE MOST TOYS = MISSING THE WHOLE POINT.")

Exactly

"You can destroy your now by worrying about tomorrow."  -  Janis Joplin

Why would anyone volunteer to undergo suffering? That's just what undue worrying is.

Indeed:

"...[N]o scientific evidence has yet been found to support the notion that suffering is ennobling."
~~from We Are Our Brains by D. F. Swaab

 "If we learn to open our our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher."  -  Pema Chodron

Without getting "preachy" here, I will just refer the reader to an article on communications listed below. Says it way better than I can.

https://www.mindful.org/stop-wait-go/

"The Navajo teach their children that every morning when the sun comes up, it's a brand-new sun. It's born each morning, it lives for the duration of one day, and in the evening it passes on, never to return again. As soon as the children are old enough to understand, the adults take them out at dawn and they say, ' The sun has only one day. You must live this day in a good way, so that the sun won't have wasted precious time.' Acknowledging the preciousness of each day is a good way to live, a good way to reconnect with our basic joy." ~ Pema Chödrön

What a great way to look at how to live!!  

It's a bit more morbid, but Carlos Castaneda describes a perspective that achieves the same "live every day fully" philosophy in his Don Juan series (another SW native American tradition.) Visualize death as an entity constantly at your side. Your own personal grim reaper, if you will, only he is your friend , reminding you not to waste a moment because you never know when he will reach out and take you.

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