health – Nature's Path

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

After Christmas: Let Boxing Day be different

My mind is not noisy with desires…

And my heart has satisfied its longing. Psalm 131

As I write this, deep snow has settled on the evening of December 25^th. The Christmas shopping ritual has just ended. On my car radio, among the tinny carols, I hear Van Morrison repeat a phrase from Poetic Champions Compose: non-attachment, non-attachment.

For those of us like me, who overspent again this year, and felt retail’s hollow afterthought where our spirit should have been, the song rings like an anthem for 2017. Non-attachment is currently best known as a Zen way of thinking about the world without clinging to it, nor to our position in it. Yet the above Psalm, quoted by Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy men, reveals that the idea of non-attachment continues in many other spiritual traditions.

As I quietly step in, brush off the snow and hang up my coat, I find solace in the silence. Perhaps it’s not too late to find a new path for the holidays. I live five minutes from a supermall, and the thought of returning there for Boxing Day shopping tomorrow sickens me. So does the thought of plowing through all the excess food and gifted goodies in my kitchen.

Boxing Day is so named because, for hundreds of years, those who had plenty would distribute their extra food and clothes to the poor. The idea of using this day for the prosperous to accumulate yet more, is relatively recent, a nightmare invented by retailers.

As I turn off the tree lights for the night, a thought comes to me. My local YMCA is collecting food for local shelters and the town food bank. I remember that late on Christmas Eve, I noticed that, though we are one of the wealthiest communities in the country, the box was only half-full. Tomorrow afternoon, Dec. 26, is the time scheduled for the box to be sent out. I can still make a difference!

I shrug off the fatigue I’ve been feeling from a day of too much food, too many gifts, and swing into action. I find a large box of my own, and fill it with tinned soups, stews and all my extra boxed cookies and chocolate. A clear recycling bag enables me to add the clothing I’ve received but don’t need.

I have a new plan for tomorrow now. I’m going to bypass the mall, drop off my donation, and offer to help distribute to the needy. As William Blake, the poetic conscience of the early Industrial Age, wrote:

“ You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.”

Find Life Beyond Work in the New Year

Those who create are like you [God].

They long for the Eternal. -Rilke

Thinking of some New Year’s Resolutions this year? Consider not making any, except for one:

Live forever.

Stated simply, that’s the goal of every creative person — to make something that will outlast the moment, and transcend the repetition of ordinary, work-a-day life. It’s no accident that many of the world’s great artists and musicians have led exceptionally long lives. Beyond this, their creations have transcended time to enchant and inspire generations after them.

To live creatively in the coming year, I think it’s important to see the differences between a resolution and a goal.

Resolution	Goal
-an intention	– an action
– untimed	– linked to a schedule
– without a plan for measurement	– with feedback built in
– stated in vague, general terms	– written and noted in clear, specific language
– is my responsibility to meet alone	– draws on support from many different teachers, mentors and heroes

So how does “Live forever” become specific? It’s the difference between “doing something after work” and “practicing the saxophone for at least an hour every day (3 on weekends) so that I’ll be good enough to join a jazz band next September”.

I was once present at an interview with the hugely successful writer Nora Roberts. She described starting out as a busy mom, with only the kitchen table as her workspace. To beat the endless chores and distractions, she set a deadline every night. She strictly forbade herself to go to bed until she had met a certain number of words. And her page quotient went up every week!

Every night, Nora turned her table into a kind of altar to the writers she admired. She stacked her favourite books around her. She recorded and replayed radio and TV appearances by her favourite authors. When her kids were old enough to go to school, she took classes at a nearby college. There she learned about writers’ conferences, a way to get closer to her role models and to meet those who would one day publish her writing. When it came time to submit herself to the ordeal of rejection letters, she drew on her personal background of spirituality to keep faith in herself and keep creative.

“But I’m not good enough,” you may be thinking, or “I’m too old to start now.” The idea of rejection brings us to the red flag thought that stops so many of us from being creative: “What if I fail?”

In the Western world, many of us have been raised to think of success as a kind of reward program, usually measured by material gain. Yet there are many instances of people such as J. Randolph Hearst and Howard Hughes, who found that, the more they could accumulate in cash and objects, the less happiness and quality of life they could find.

To balance the material weight that seems to tip our life balance, many Westerners have come to consider the East. The Buddhist concept of “non-attachment” to an outcome allows believers to set goals, but to be flexible about how to achieve them. This simple shift widens the lens that can make a set-in-stone goal seem daunting. It puts the emphasis on life as process, the unique unfolding of an individual. For example, it can make a player like Sonny Rollins stop clearing the classical hurdles, and find a music of his own.

Hearing that jazz giant still play, well into his eighties, reminded me that living creatively means living longer. I also recently spent time seeing the works of Georgia O’Keefe, who only began painting very late in life. Upcoming in this space, we’ll be exploring the reasons why creativity is good for your health, including the concepts of stimulus, a proven way to prevent depression and flow, a mental state which enables time to be used for nourishment rather than fatigue.

Do you have a creative hobby that has made a difference in your life? Do you know a long-lived creative person whose story you’d like to share? This blog is open to comments and welcomes positive input. Can’t wait to hear from you!

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.

Why danger can be good for your child

…this danger

is danger of love, of complete love

toward all of life,

toward all lives

-Pablo Neruda (Nobel Laureate)

As parents, we want to keep our children safe. Perhaps no generation has been kept as withdrawn as the current one. Recent research shows that today‘s kids go outdoors 50 per cent less than we did at school age. That percentage is alarming enough in itself, but what if we multiply it by another generation or two? If reduction in nature activity continues at this rate, our long-term descendants might face life as prisoners of the indoors, in a world limited by the frame around their screen.

How has this reduction in physical play happened? One way is that when both parents are working full-time, there is no adult ‘safety anchor’ in the home to make free exploration viable. In many homes this translates into no outdoor play till Mom or Dad gets home. Yet by that time it’s often too dark and parents are too tired to take on anything active. So, like much of the school day, the entire after-school time is spent locked in a seat: a brief break for dinner, perhaps homework and then back to the gaming chair. We are keeping our children confined for most of their lives. But how safe, in truth, is this routine for them?

Because they are so inactive, our children’s generation is facing higher rates of obesity and related diseases then any before. Study after study shows them at an unprecedented risk. So how can a working parent support a child?

1) Trade the certain danger of being an inactive child for what I call the ‘beneficial dangers’ of getting out of a chair.

Examples of this:

Take a night hike with your child, wearing reflective clothing and headlamps to spot interesting nocturnal life.

Sign the whole family up for evenings at the local YMCA or Community Centre. Let each family member pick their favourite activity: from rock-climbing, to swimming, to Tai Kwon Do.

If transport is a problem, keep the exercise close to home with spot-lit trampoline in the backyard.

2) Plan to keep Nature a part of your family’s life (no matter the weather)

When snow lights up the evenings, build an ice rink for skating or simply release your family into the delights of forts, ice sculptures and snowballs. Walking with their parents round the neighbourhood will make them the first to spot changes such as a “haunted house” or Christmas lights!

Make simple purchases (such as cheap rubber boots and plastic capes) to ensure rain outings are possible. Buy these for yourself, too, and learn to enjoy the scent of fresh-washed air.

For times when going out simply won’t be possible, bring the wild to your home. Help your child plan, seed and grow an indoor garden. Consider getting at least one pet for your family. Skills like grooming, feeding and caring for a living creature enable your child to develop emotional intelligence and prepare for important life relationships.

3) Make balance, not indulgence, the first parenting principle for your child.

(Recognize that being responsive to your child doesn’t mean indulging every urge.)

Yes, your youngster will play with his iPad till he collapses at 3am, but he and his teachers will one day thank you for putting it away (and keeping it from him) much earlier. Bedtime stories are a good way to break the gaming cycle and ensure quality time for literacy and family bonds.

4) Limit the time your family members spend alone with devices.

Scheduling is probably the greatest challenge parents face today. So, become an expert at it. Set up regular routines so that it becomes easier to get your child away from a computer. If you just leave him to it, it’s obvious that he will have more and more trouble becoming engaged with other living beings. “Alone together” is a phrase without meaning. If each of you is pursuing a separate virtual world, there will be no togetherness.

5)Access the power of your child’s own creativity.

Be assured, your child’s natural imagination can be your strongest ally in overcoming a videogame obsession.

Plan special outings and new books from the library to read and act aloud, so that you’re offering something interesting as an alternate to technology. My son was spending four hours a night playing video games, till we asked him to act out his favourite books for us. Now it’s the first thing he asks to do when we get home. He gives readings while we do our evening chores, and keeps the family together and well-entertained!

Your input would be most welcome:

I’d love to hear your ideas for loving, non-punitive ways to pull a child back from the virtual towards the natural world. I’d also like to find out what you’d like to see in this space in the future. You can comment, make a request, or simply like us on Facebook.

Nine Ways to Balance your Life, Starting Today

What is life balance and why is it so important?

There’s a lot of talk about balance these days, probably because few of us feel that we’re reaching it. I learned my definition of life balance the hard way, which I’ll tell you about in a moment, but first let me share it with you:

Life Balance is not an accounting formula, a set of rules, or a place you arrive.

Life balance is a process of ongoing communication between all areas of your being: mind, body and spirit.

One cold March day in Toronto, Canada, I arrived at my office. It had been the usual 90 minute commute on bus, train and subway. My husband had dropped our daughter off at her home daycare, while my expectant body worked on nourishing our son, due in May. We had recently bought our first house, and I was vaguely hopeful that I could keep going at work until the last moment. Like many of us, I somehow believed I was indestructible. Yet now I was feeling a little strange… Maybe all I needed was to sit down, for the first time that day. Then something hit me hard, on the cheekbone, and everything went black.

What had knocked me out, I learned later at the hospital, was a cement floor, from my full standing height. It was one of many things I hadn’t seen coming. I hadn’t seen how, day by day, as my moving got slower, I had less time for the things I needed: rest, careful exercise, and the right foods. I hadn’t seen how I, after working as a trained communications expert for 15 years, had lost all communication with my own body. The precious burden I carried was now seriously at risk.

It was while shivering under a thin hospital blanket, not knowing whether or not I had lost my future son, that the first principle of Life Balance came to me:

Balance principle 1: Always focus on what’s most important.

You can imagine the tremendous remorse I felt when I realized that I had been ignoring my son’s needs. In my excitement to earn money to pay for a better home, for his future, I had actually forgotten what I owed him in the present moment. We were both fortunate to survive, and to have a lesson which has kept our life in balance ever since.

Maybe the title of this point seems overly simple to you. Of course we all want to emphasize what means the most – our health, our loved ones. Yet how many of us map out what’s important, and match it to a schedule of how we really spend our lives? I did, after I almost lost my baby, and it’s a process to which I return often.

2: Be aware of the choices you’re making. (Don’t let others profit by taking you off track.)

Advertising is one main reason we lose our focus and then our life balance. That beautiful home in the newspaper that we can’t quite afford might in truth be an ugly picture – one that shows us working far too many hours and disappointing those who need us.

In order to spend less time working, I’ve learned to avoid decisions other people would like me to make. I’ve stopped watching television and blocked ads on the Internet. I don’t go to stores as often as I used too. When I do shop, it’s with a written list and a time limit. If I browse, it’s online, and with a cool head comparing prices and value.

3: Be guided by your principles, not public opinion. (Balance is individual).

Recognize also that there is an inner kind of marketing, when ‘keeping up with the Jones’’ threatens to take over. Make a list of your family’s unique priorities, and the chances are ‘having a car as new as the neighbor’s’’ won’t even make it on.

4: Listen to your body. (Balance is natural.)

Our own bodies, which are equipped to self-heal, make energy from good food and respond to exercise, have never been so abused. The ‘brain work’ that most of us are now doing has trained us to ignore the body’s signals, even to treat it as separate from the mind. Heart disease and obesity are reaching closer each year toward us and our children. Most of the kids I teach at the school board prefer onscreen ‘brain play’ instead of the outdoors. Teach yourself and your offspring to care for their body. As for a loved pet.

5: Act, don’t just read, for health. (Research is not enough)

I teach a regular evening Wellness class at the local YMCA. When I ask people what they’re doing to keep well, most of them say: “a check-up every year and I read the Mayo Clinic website”. There’s nothing wrong with either of these, but both are passive. They are better than nothing, but neither show that the individual is taking charge of her health. She is leaving it in the hands of others. Nor do they show forward planning or adaptability. Life Balance is not a textbook formula or something you can rely on someone else to do for you.

This was identified by such great men as Thomas Edison, who said to his students, “I can teach you nothing”. There is a huge difference between just collecting information and true learning, where we make knowledge our own. Balance can only happen when we take the giant step of making good habits fit our schedule and thus change our own behaviour.

6:Avoid extremes.

It might seem obvious that extremes are the opposite of balance. Yet many of us, when we resolve to bring more balance into our lives, start with an extreme. Here are some examples from people in my area. They may seem familiar.

A woman who is just getting back into fitness classes after fifteen years, decides she will run a marathon, one week from today.

A man who has been prescribed daily heart medication abandons it in favour of an unregulated, unproven homeopathic remedy.

The problem that the above actions share is an ‘all or nothing’ attitude. Force is counterproductive. A body, like a human psyche, prefers its developing needs to be met in flexible, adaptive ways.

7:Plan for life as well as work.

Transfer the discipline and planning skills you use at work to strategize your workouts, nature moments and quality time with loved ones.

8: Connect with your true self every day.

By this self, I mean the being who is part of Nature’s unity. On this level, you are aware of yourself as a creature born with a wondrous body and abilities who deserves to live in health and wellbeing. As Deepak Chopra writes, “Spending time in Nature will give you access to the field of infinite creativity, freedom and bliss.” Find time to fit in a quiet walk every day of the year – before work, at lunch or on the way home as needed.

9: Put your health to good purpose.

We’ve all experienced the joy of giving, and the mutual wellbeing that results. Your health is also a gift you can allow to flow from you to benefit others. As psychotherapists like Dr. Frank Burns have documented, the momentum of taking action can carry you physically out of fear and moping toward strength and health.

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

Tag: health