Category: life balance

The Gift of Sleep

Sleep

A day with the Earth.  No other voice. 

And now, in the last hour, her presence grows stronger.  Instead of fading into darkness, the Earth makes herself felt deep within me.  In what meditation calls ‘the still centre’, the hollow just below the navel, I feel filled and fulfilled.

Earth’s stillness becomes my stillness.  Her silence, my calm thought. 

Natural as a mother’s young who nudge toward the safe place she creates, sleep will follow.

 

The above words write themselves, after I spend a day alone and never switch on the news in any sound form.

In the current pandemic, many of us have trouble finding sleep.   Fear escalates and speeds away rest, bringing nightmares instead.  It seems as though we can’t help it.   Yet, after working in communications for many years, what I’ve found is that we can choose not to hear many of the voices who cause fear.

‘News’ is not the equivalent of truth, but something manufactured, designed to keep us as listeners, helpless in the face of what is presented as insurmountable.   Radio and TV announcers are trained to put the kind of urgency and emphasis into their delivery which heightens our fear and dependence on them.

When I quit the communications business after fifteen years, the first thing I did was to cut myself off from TV and radio.  What we hear has a direct line to the brain, one that I don’t want to offer to sources I have learned not to trust.  The Internet has now shown that the advent of fake news even taints the word as text, with many news and social media feeds being heavily biased.  More and more, silence becomes the cleanest option for sleep hygiene.   If we need updates, local health announcements on email are more specific to our individual health and lack artificial drama.  Even these, I allow to access my thoughts in a sparing and controlled way.  For example, I avoid news reports at times when my sub-conscience is most vulnerable, such as when I first wake up, or in the hours leading to bedtime.

I’m not suggesting that we all bury our heads in the sand.   But in our news-saturated time, most of us do the opposite: we let ourselves become defenseless in the presence of those who seek to profit by launching more and more fears into our psyche.

If there is only one message I can give to those who share this pandemic situation with me, it is: let’s be more selective about what allow into our minds.  No one should rob us of the rest that renews.

We sit patiently and allow muddy thoughts to clear.                                                                        Life then lives itself in us.                                                                                                                                                              –quote adapted by William Martin from the Tao te Ching                                                                                                                                                                                   

Relearning Attention

This year, summer’s been so warm, and has lasted so long into autumn, that many of us are dazed. Winter and the fast pace of work are hitting us harder than ever before. At times like these, we are savaged by multiple attacks on our attention. The pace escalates, until we feel ragged, incapable of the true, deep concentration that lets us live as the creative people we are. When this feeling strikes, we can turn to great artists or writers to help us cleanse our tattered minds and relearn attention.

At night I gaze at you …

I waken new, newly clothed,

Washed by your hands, laundress…


Pablo Neruda, Nobel Laureate
from Ode to the Moon of the Sea

These lines leave me with a deep sense of calm. Yet Neruda’s life was almost constantly turbulent. He was often threatened with imprisonment, even death. A poet must find a quality of attention that goes deeper, sees further than ordinary life. For years I wondered how a political fugitive, an exile, could achieve this. Yet today we can identify with those on the run in a new way. As never before, social media and constant online availability threaten concentration, privacy and the ability to think as an individual. How one can relearn attention, and cleanse electronic or political waste from the mind? The answer has become vital. Below, I share some real life experiences, followed by Five Ways to Cleanse your Mind.

I believe that Neruda’s work can teach us much more than how to write well. As his relationships with government, high society and clergy shattered, he forged a new connection. In the quote above, he describes “being washed by your hands, laundress”. He is not writing about a woman. What sustains him is a profound relationship with the world around him. I believe that in the same way, focusing on Nature can restore our attention, can help our minds reclaim the territory we have lost.

If we recognize that the territory of our personal, thoughtful minds is being eroded, we can take steps for reclaiming this place.

For example, my very Internet-active daughter recently mentioned that she was taking a hiatus from social media. I was surprised, but know of several other people who are doing the same. Many are taking a month-long spiritual journey through the Camino area of Portugal, and cite Internet silence as one of their key reasons for choosing this (pilgrims in these remote mountains must adopt a state of non-connectivity). In Michael Harris’s recent book, The End of Absence, the author describes a similar experience. After noticing how brief and distracted his encounters with friends had become, he took a timed vow to switch off from constant online communication.

My own personal ‘media cleanse’ happened for similar reasons, but in a time before Facebook, Twitter et al. I was working in public relations for the government. Each day began with a flood of information. I had to read, watch or listen to every media item that involved my employer, a provincial ministry. At first, I found it exciting, but it was not long before I began to sense that attention is finite. It is a skill that becomes blunt, like a knife from overuse.

Gradually I noticed my brain closing up, a kind of defense mechanism in self-protection from the daily onslaught. Often, I had to address issues by writing a media release or a speech for the Minister. I found my responses began to yield less and less of my own thought and energy. They became minimal, rushed, rote reactions, like many of the tweets of today.

The deadening of my attentiveness slowly spread to affect all aspects of my life. I shut down, not just at the mind level, but emotionally and sensually as well. I stuck it out for financial reasons, but I was moving through my life like a non-participant. When I was finally declared surplus as part of a large job-cutting move, my attention span was almost non-existent.

It was like stepping off a treadmill. For the first time in 15 years, I had the freedom of my own mind. But what would I do with it? I could barely function.

My body was giving me the answer. I craved sleep and silence, the silence of the mind. I cancelled the TV subscription and stopped reading all but the shortest non-fiction pieces. I read Ted Hughes’ poem, Do not Pick up the Telephone, and unplugged mine.

As with any type of cleanse, I felt depleted. Yet one morning I woke up with a surge of energy, a powerful hunger for the world. I went out barefoot, because every pair of shoes I owned had heels too high for striding. No longer chained to a desk or screen, I wanted to know what was outside. To my amazement, everything was beautiful. I walked as far as I could, then came home to write what I’d felt.

Since then, I have begun every day the same way, except that I wear hiking boots now. Even in bad weather, I never regret the outing. It trains my eye for distance and stirs activity in my brain. I’m better able to drive, read, write and teach. I do use a cellphone and the Internet, but I take breaks at least every two hours to find silence (also to remember I have limbs to move!). My body led my mind out of the trap and I might need that kind of help again.

The blunting effect is not restricted to professions involving the media. Burnt-out young mothers and teachers need to remind their charges: “Stop calling my name all the time! You might wear it out.” Medics, lifeguards and first responders are plagued by time-consuming, often invalid demands. Unnecessary claims on our attention diminish us, and render us less effective.

Five Ways to Cleanse your Mind

1) Recognize that your mind is a territory, subject to invasion.

  • Be aware of the amount of time you spend “surfing the Net” and messaging.
  • Are these people important to you? Do you really want their beliefs to become your own?

2) Guard your personal thoughts as you would any money or property.

  • Start keeping a record of your own ideas and how much time you spend enhancing them.
  • Shift the balance of your time from downloading the opinions of others to creating your own response.

3) Recognize that emotion is a direct path to your brain. Don’t let others use it for contagion.

  • Every break counts. Try to stop the rush of outside thoughts whenever you can.
  • Make the most of down time, however short. 

4) Claim your right to silence (and media silence), longer and more frequently.

  • Close doors on noisy roommates or texting-bullies.
  • Be selective about what enters your attention.

5) Find Nature wherever you can.

  • Live beings, even the presence of plants, can help us reclaim the original territory our minds have lost.
  • Work to balance the virtual environments you inhabit with genuine, live habitats and real people.

HOW TO CREATE A NEW HEALTH IDENTITY: Taking Charge

“Nothing has more power to transform than awareness.” Deepak Chopra, 2012

Nature and Identity

Can Nature help form a new identity, free of the fears and sufferings of our family’s past?  Many so-called “inherited” ailments are no longer necessary, made out-of-date by new findings in science.  Yet, because we are descendants, the psychological hold on us may still be strong.  Before we look at how a Nature connection can assist health, let me tell you about an unexpected encounter I had with a University of Toronto medical professor, who, over forty years had seen health trends in countless families.

Taking charge of my own health

I consulted Dr. Rodger Hines while I was a mature student at the university.  After too many late nights studying with coffee, I was convinced I had a stomach ulcer.  By way of introducing myself, I mentioned that I had many relatives with similar problems.  To my astonishment, he replied:  “So I expect you’ll have “indigestion” printed in gilt letters on your family crest.”

My first reaction was embarrassment, then a touch of resentment that he might be poking fun at us.  I had expected him to order tests, repeat visits, a life-long prescription.  Instead, he made me take charge of my own health.

To sum up:

– Doctor Hines suggested that I explore my family’s attitudes to illness, especially to symptoms I might currently be experiencing.  He urged me to act as an impartial observer, a “reporter” whose health profile might be quite different from the vision I had formed from my family’s past.  At first, I didn’t like the idea of separating my identity from my family.

– Then he explained that I was looking for clues to what I now think of a ‘self-created health identity’(quite possibly mistaken or outdated).  As a way of connecting with my family, I might have subconsciously adopted suffering from the past.

– I soon found links between stories I had heard in childhood and symptoms I had considered chronic and “a part of who I am” for most of my adult life.

– The doctor put the ball back in my court by telling me to find a new way of feeling close to my family, one that did not involve my reliving events from their medical past.  I found the courage to follow this approach when I realized that if my symptoms were unnecessary, I might find a way to avoid passing them on to my own children.

I’m happy to tell you that haven’t had chronic indigestion since that med-free consult with the exceptional Dr. Hines (sadly now deceased), and it’s been over twenty years.

FOLLOW-UP:  If you would like to expIore your own health identity in this way, I’ve prepared a toolkit, which I can gladly provide for you to fill out privately.  I use myself as a “how-to”example of how to question assumptions about one’s own health, but I’ve met many others who’ve shared this experience.  Rob Hawke, author of Kicking Cancer’s Ass, tells how he overcame his inherited family belief that the diagnosis of cancer he received could only be fatal. He has moved way past the “terminal” deadline, and now spends his time helping others with similar diagnoses.

Since Rodger Hines handed me back responsibility for my own health, I’ve spent very little time in doctor’s offices.  I have, however, spent a lot of time with Nature. This leads to the next section of this topic, Nature and Identity.  If we find, by exploring and research, that the health identity we’ve created for ourselves is outdated or even mistaken, we need to shed that false identity and find a different one.  The first key way Nature can find new aspects of our identity is first to help us lose it.  In our next session, we’ll look at some techniques and strategies for doing this, and for finding a new sense of self in Nature.

For now, I’d like to share with you a piece I wrote in response to someone who suddenly did lose their identity as the result of an accident.  His story helped me to visualize the inherent strength and health we each hold within us, independent of any name we might be given.  (Continued… )

To discuss this topic further, contact us on Facebook

WHY WE NEED NATURE: 5 Fundamental Concepts

The Nature of Your Body

The body itself is a screen to shield and partially reveal

the light that is blazing inside your presence.

 

Each of us is born into Beauty,

But we need to be walking in a garden to see it.

-Rumi  (OHBW, p.27)
Imagine your body as an eco-system.  You marvel at its streams and waterfalls, would never dream of pouring poison into the play of its waters.  The longer you spend inside this place, the more you become aware of a delicate balance between parts, of how easily you might tear the carefully strung web.  Where you seek to nourish, you might weigh down and destroy.  You learn to touch carefully here, to tune your senses to a rhythm you could once barely perceive.

Or perhaps you prefer the image of your body as a treasured pet.  A pony, for instance, that you longed for as a child.  You clean and polish the bright skin so it will gleam like your dreams. You set free the strong spine and limbs to massage themselves often with joyful movement, never allowing sad stasis to take hold.  Together you and this loved creature dance as one being, as the interplay of two kinds of life.  You begin to feel that within his strength, there is a vision as creative as your mind’s, that his beating heart will carry you much further than you could go alone.

The lovely quotes at the start of this chapter are from the 14th century Sufi poet Rumi, whose words effortlessly lift the human body into unity with Nature and the spiritual power within. For thousands of years, aboriginal tribes and religious groups have sent members into the wild in the belief that this would be a growth experience for them.

Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and many other prophets have gone into outdoor isolation for a time.  They found a truth that was solitary, but would later benefit the world.  The coming-of-age Nature ritual has also been an important part of an adolescent’s life in many cultures, often with the young person’s name changing afterwards to reflect a truer understanding of the self.  Yet, as the Australian aboriginal “walkabout” proves, the transformational power of Nature can take place at any age.

From these examples, we learn that from many different world cultures, some have gone into Nature to contemplate spiritual unity.   In each case, Nature has the effect of therapy, and these people emerge not always as visionaries,  but often as empowered individuals with ideas that nourish their lives and those of their people for generations.

WHY WE NEED NATURE: 5 Fundamental Concepts 

These are the core ideas which have supported me in making my own Nature connection.

  1. We need to pay attention to our physical selves and the world around us to survive.

Despite technological changes in our outward manner of living, ours is not an Artificial Intelligence.  We have not evolved beyond our fundamental physical state.  We are creatures whose growth and wellness needs Nature as a reference point.

2. Psychologically, If we ignore our need for Nature,we develop a deep-seated unease.

If we remain unable to make meaningful contact with our natural needs and environment,  it will impact wellness and eventually health.

From instinct, we still reach toward our natural environment according to the drives we are born with.

As Michael Hyatt recently put it: “We are hard-wired for contact with Nature.”

3. Opening one’s life to include a relationship with Nature can assist healing and the achievement of lasting wellness.

This needs to be done gradually and according to one’s own pace.   It does not require rejecting your doctor, religious faith or medication.

4. At times of crisis, rather than becoming self-destructive, we can turn to unity with Nature to fortify our self-care.

As we move closer to understanding Nature, we learn to better appreciate and care for our own bodies, thereby becoming proactive about our health and wellness.

5. We can learn from people who have a powerful personal connection with Nature, such as aboriginals, prophets and nature writers.  We can then adapt what we learn to form our own unique, personal relationship with the Earth.