How to Train an Elephant (book)

[FeeHutch]

So anxiety.
Well it has been a useful week to practice being mindful about anxiety. My husband who has a chronic condition has had a flare up which as his condition progresses becomes more worrying. Also we are totally and utterly broke (which is an odd thing to type on a nice laptop but such is the world we live in eh?)

I can be mindful of accepting that which I can not change and also of the fact that sitting and stewing over both his health and our financial situation won't change either. Also we have paid the bills, have a roof over our head and food in the cupboards so it could be a lot worse. I am finding peace in that.

So this week (46! only 6 to go goodness!) mindful driving or rather mindful as a passenger for me. This will be interesting. So many times I am on the bus or tram, staring out the window and not taking anything around me in at all.

[Steve]

Hi all

Fee, I do admire the strength you draw from our mindfulness practice and its great that you can share with everyone how this is helps you deal with life - its a great imspiration. I hope this gives you richness in the heart if not the pocket.

This week I have noticed that much, if not most, of my thoughts have an element of anxiety in them, whether worrying about future events or mulling over the past, its nearly always present.

The book advises that deep breathing is a powerful antidote to anxiety and also suggests turning away from thoughts to experience, eg breathing or loving kindness. Becoming aware of anxiety needs to be followed up with finding a way to prevent this making you more anxious. This ties in with the 'Hardwiring Happiness' book that I am reading (see separate topic) which recommends noticing good things in your life (eg by being mindful of simple pleasures), then experiencing these, ie taking a moment to explore the experience and how it feels and then letting this good feeling sink into you (I find a great way to do this is to shut my eyes and savour the experience as in a mini-meditation). The loving kindness bit can creep in here too as you have to let yourself experience the good feeling (sometimes this is not easy as your head tells you that you cannot feel good when you have lots of problems).

This provides a great way of counterbalancing negativity in your life (such as anxiety) and gradually strengthening your brain pathways for inner strength and happiness. So, if I find my self feeling anxious, I can move away from this by choosing to experience goodness instead. As always, practice is required (but this is more rewarding than not trying).

Next week mindful driving. This is another opportunity to stop living on autopilot and instead choosing to experience the present. As I've mentioned before, I find it useful to choose at the beginning of a journey something to look out for as I go along. A particular colour is a good one (it is amazing where you see all the different places a colour is present and all the different shades), or noticing trees, or people's expressions or whatever suits you.

Best wishes for a good week (or at least experiencing good moments).

Steve

[FeeHutch]

Thanks Steve I hope you have a week of great moments too

[Steve]

Good morning all

Mindful driving: I managed to be a bit more mindful - in particular noticing trees etc on my usual commute that I have never noticed before. More importantly, driving is a good example of something we tend to do on 'autopilot' and where we tend to react to situations (typically getting cross with hold-ups, other drivers etc) rather than responding and, in many cases, just accepting the situation (fuming behind the wheel in a traffic jam does not get you to your destination any quicker but simply stresses you out and puts you in a bad mood - much better to take the opportunity to observe and enjoy the view). The deeper meaning is to realise that much of the way we live our lives is similarly on 'autopilot' and applying the mindful driving approach to the way we 'drive' ourselves through life. I keep trying to do this but its still VERY easy to slip back to autopilot, to slip back into your familiar rut and to continue reacting to events (especially cross words from your spouse etc) rather than staying in control of your response and directing your attention to positive things much more than the negative.

This coming week is on food, in particular, being aware of the huge number of people involved in something reaching your plate. We've just acquired 2 piglets which will enjoy their time with us but will be feeding us next Spring. This close connection with your food helps my family realise where it comes from rather than just being a package on the supermarket shelf.

Steve

[FeeHutch]

I tried to be more mindful of my walks to and from school this week. Most of the time I didn't wear my iPod so I could be more aware of the sights and sounds around me. It never ceases to amaze me how much I just don't see most of the time.

My daughters have been fascinated with the changing season, the colour of the leaves on the trees and how they collect on the ground, the low winter sun and a million other things that I haven't even thought about for a while. They keep me mindful

Reading this weeks chapter about food, the phrase 'no man is an island' came to mind. None of us can live a totally independent and contained life because everything down to the water we drink relays on other people. The other thought was that this is a week about gratitude and also the ego. We are just one tiny link in a huge chain. It is a thought I find comforting and a little disconcerting!

[Steve]

Sorry for the delay in posting this – our internet connection has become intermittent when they tried to upgrade it.

Last week we were being mindful of food. It's easy to gulp down food without thinking or be distracted by talking to someone or reading at the same time but when I did remember to be mindful it struck me what a complex world we live in – all the different people, stages, countries, transport etc involved in each ingredient (and some meals have many, many ingredients). Its amazing to think of all the time and steps involved in something growing, being looked after, harvested, preserved, processed, packaged, sold in a store, prepared and served and with transportation steps between most of these stages (how many miles do some ingredients travel before they reach our plate?!).

It then made me appreciate the relative simplicity of ingredients taken straight from the garden, but even then, there are many stages: buying seeds, sewing, tending, harvesting, preparing, cooking etc.

As the book says, this makes us realise how reliant and interconnected we are with a myriad of things and people. Our lives depend on so many different intertwined things its mind boggling.


This week its awareness of light in all its forms. This is a huge topic – the TV program on Light and Dark (last Monday and tonight) shows how fundamental light is to everything we know from the microscopic to the cosmology – again mind boggling. Although much of what we sense from light is via our eyes, I am intrigued by how light (and other electromagnetic waves) is 'sensed' or affects other pats of us (eg feeling the warmth of sunlight, the interaction between light and our skin, eg sunburn, Vitamin Deficiencies, seasonal affective disorder etc etc).

Should be an illuminating week

Steve

[Steve]

While my internet connection is working, a further post:

We're reaching the end of the year – only a few more weeks and chapters to go! Does anyone have any ideas for next year. I'm amazed at the number of 'reads' this topic has received (the highest of all topics by far). This is partly due to its longevity but we have also averaged 168 hits per week which is pretty high. I wonder if we should continue next year. One option would be to go through the book again (which would cater for new people and allow those who have already been through it to refresh/re-visit the topics). Another option might be to find another source of regular mindfulness topics – I think there are some others out there. My feeling is that a new task each week is about the right frequency (although there have been many weeks when it might have been beneficial to extend the task for another week). I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has any ideas or thoughts on this. Fee? Anyone else? What do others think?

Steve

[FeeHutch]

Hello!
Sorry I'm late I was away last weekend and have surgery planned for Friday.

I can't believe we are nearly at the end now and will certainly give some thought to what we can do next.

[FeeHutch]

Late again and I have to confess after a difficult week I haven't managed to pay much attention to light. Did anyone else have better focus?

This week (49!) is about paying attention to the stomach, in particular sensations of emptiness or fullness. This strikes me as looking at mindful eating from the other end so to speak. Normally I find I concentrate more on the eating process when I pay attention rather than the sensation of the food in my stomach.

[Steve]

Hi, i'm late too. Ongoing internet problems....

As I'm fascinated by light anyway, it was easy for me to be mindful of light and its involement in almost everything we do and the many many aspects we experience of light. I am still in awe of the fact that all energy we use is ultimatley derived from light from the sun - and the very nature of light has yet to be understood (sometimes it acts like a wave and at other times like particles). The affect of light on us is also amazing, warmth, colours, artworks, seeing the world around us, changing our mood, dazzling bright lights, romantic candle light, starlight, moonlight...... I visited some light sculptures yesterday which were amazing and then had to walk down steps in almost pitch black using my feet and other senses to 'see' the pathway.

This week is being aware of one's stomach. As I currently have some problems in this vicinity and am having to treat it kindly to avoid exacerbating the problem, this is timely!

Have a good week.

Steve