Are You Awake? - #199

If you befriend a Buddhist, you will learn that the Buddha vowed to sit beneath the Bodhi tree until he became enlightened (woke up).  

Pessoa (Post 198) reported that upon waking up, he needed time to know if he existed.   

Joseph Mauricio spoke for Daily Dharma Gathering on January 2, 2016. His topic: Becoming Awake.

My eyes squinted as I experienced a mini enlightenment flash when I heard Mauricio say, "Thinking is not being awake."

The implication is that while we are in our in our heads thinking, we are not awake. What do you think of this idea?

Being in our bodies, feeling sensations and feelings may be when we are truly awake. This is not my usual state but since working with a Somatic therapist to correct kyphosis (rounded shoulders), I have more awareness of my body sensations - which sometimes are uncomfortable.  Sometimes I'd rather not be awake.

What do you think constitutes being awake?  Do you want to be awake?

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

        

Another Wild Fernando Pessoa Quote - #198

"I'd woken up early, and I took a long time getting ready to exist."*

*Long term readers may recognize the name Fernando Pessoa. Fernando was many authors in one having numerous selves, each with a distinct biography, ideology, and horoscope. This quote is from The Book of Disquiet, Page 31.

Thanks for exploring the mystery of existence :
                                                  Nicky Mendenhall

True or False - Aging Causes Stiffness -- #197

"Age does not cause stiffness."*

According to Burras there are five key reasons why the body hardens and stiffens as we get older. None of these reasons has to do with the aging process itself.

1. Trauma

2. Repression

3. Stress

4. Inactivity

5. Contractive Movement

Burras explains each of these reasons in an article you can find on his website: JonBurras.com. Click on articles and find Aging Does Not Cause Stiffness - it is #13 on the list.

As you get older, do you have more stiffness? What do you think causes it? Do you think Burras' ideas about stiffness have merit? If you have questions, ask me in an email or in the comment section.

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

Image is from booklet that came with my model skeleton last year. I received permission to use it!

Where Do You Look For Happiness? - #196

"The good news is that genuine happiness is not out there in the marketplace to be purchased or acquired from the best teacher around. 

"One of the best-kept secrets is that the happiness we’re striving for so desperately in the perfect spouse, the great kids, the fine job, security, excellent health, and good looks has always been within and is just waiting to be unveiled. 

"Knowing that what we are seeking comes from within changes everything."*


*Daily Dharma, January 16, 2016, B. Alan Wallace, "What is True Happiness?"

Photo: Restaurant in Riquewihr, France. Look closely at the awning for a surprise!

Toss Chocolate Feelings vs. Win Lottery Feelings- #195

Post #194 stirred readers up -  three readers self-described as rebels and refused to discard their chocolate. Does this mean they were afraid of feelings?

I'm going to leap out on a limb* with a challenge for all of us, especially the rebel trio:

Acknowledge the layers of feelings you hold in your body, mind, & psyche. Get to know them. Laugh at their extreme ridiculousness when needed. Honor the pain that fuels them. Do whatever you need to feel and observe feelings.

Please remember, bringing feelings to light doesn't make them true. Doesn't make you a bad person for thinking them. Feelings give you information about a deeper level of self. Feelings are like dreams - don't take them literally.

Zonker (one of Garry Trudeau's main characters in Doonesbury*) won a $23 million dollar lottery.

Reporters ask him how he felt when hearing the good news.

Zonker; "Well, at first I didn't feel anything. I just went numb."

Next panel: "Then I felt a rush of giddiness, followed by feelings of disorientation, queasiness, shortness of breath.

Last panel: "Hunger, rage, sexual longing, vertigo, boredom, and finally a tingling sensation."

That, my friends, is a thorough answer to the question of what you feel. If you can contact as many feelings as Zonker, you are on your way to mental health.

Let me know if you are re-thinking your relationship with feelings or if you have questions. Email me by replying to this message or go to comment section of blog.

Thanks for exploring the mystery of feelings - Nicky Mendenhall

*Influenced by acrobatic squirrels in my backyard.
**Doonesbury, Des Moines Register, 1/15/2016.

Wanna Meditate On Chocolate? - #194

"Understanding one’s emotions is seldom taught at any level."

"You cannot get it from a book."

"One of the techniques I created in a workshop was to tell the students that we are going to do a chocolate mediation. I pass around a box of Sees chocolates and have every person take a piece and hold it in their hand."

"I then have them close their eyes and visualize what it might be like to eat it." 

"After a short visualization of how the chocolate is going to make them feel better I surprisingly tell them to take the chocolate and throw it in the trash." 

"Now the emotions begin. Many people are sad. Some are angry at me for taking away their joy."

"We now have a chance to process their emotions. In order to learn about your emotions you have to have practice feeling them and not just analyzing them."*

Remember that to heal our feelings, we need to feel them  - not act them out.

 Dysfunctional families teach us to disregard the complexity of our feelings. It takes time to really get to know our feelings.

Let me know if you would throw away your See's chocolate. What feelings would bubble up if you did?  Is it difficult for you to know what you are feeling?

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

 *The first seven paragraphs are from an email message I received from Jon Burras, January 9, 2016. Thanks Jon.

Return To Nature (Burras' Book) - #193

"We develop most addictions and many degenerative diseases because we have stored energy in our bodies. When we cannot feel and express what our natural human nature wants us to feel and express, we then store the energy of those feelings in our body."*

Burras names the process of storing the energy of feelings in the body repression.

He continues: "Chronic pain is often the result of repression. This pain is the direct result of our inability to allow ourselves to feel and to have a relationship with our pain."*

"Recovery means being willing to experience your feelings, as intense as they might be, and learn from them. It is not necessary to try to change these feelings; simply accepting them is enough."*

Burras doesn't offer this but my experience has been that accepting less than desirable feelings is very difficult.

Burras believes that if our mind can feel painful feelings, our body will learn that we will not die from them. 

Does this sound like blaming the ill person? Does any of this resonate with you? Do you think the mind and body are this connected? Please let me know by sending me an email or going to comment board.

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

*All quotes from Burras in Return to Nature (2011)

More Burras At Last! - #192

Practically every page I open in Return to Nature, by Jon Burras, offers something I want to share with you. I pick one thing but then think - no this other thing is more important. Time passes and I then pick a topic that is not from the book because it seems less complicated. 

Tonight, you are going to receive a few sentences from Burras that I'm not going to elaborate on but just offer them because time has again escaped me. I hope you will let me know if they are helpful or confusing; it you want to hear more from or not.

Here goes with a quote from Peter Levine that Burras highlights:

"In our exploration of trauma we have learned about the primordial energies (italics mine) that reside within the reptilian core of our brains. We are not reptiles, but without clear access to our reptilian and mammalian heritage, we are not able to be fully human. The fullness of our humanity lies in the ability to integrate the functions of our triune brain.


"We see that to resolve trauma we must learn to move fluidly between instinct, emotion, and rational thought. When these three sources are in harmony, communicating sensation, feeling, and cognition, our organisms operate as they were designed to."

I guess I have to comment! Mostly the word 'energies' excites me. Do you have friends that talk about 'energy'? Thinking that energy is primordial, (with primordial meaning original, primary) and has been with us forever is exciting to me. 

Now time is really up - so let me know if you have any idea what Levine, Burras, and I are talking about! Do these ideas excite you?

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

I feel most creatively alive when....- #191

Roger Housden's  email message greeted me this morning, the first message of a month long e-course.* 

The assignment for today was to use the sentence stub that is the subject of this post and write for ten minutes to see what you can learn.

Here's a few of my answers:

I feel most creatively alive when:
...looking for images to illustrate blog posts.
...thinking of ideas for blog posts
...making something for dinner using odds and ends from pantry
...creating little altars of art for beauty
...preparing for and working with clients
...waking up parts of my body that suffer from somatic amnesia
...having the impulse to do something and actually doing it

Normally I resist these exercises but hey - it's a new year! I actually enjoyed it today. I encourage you to sit down and try it yourself. Change the sentence stub to something more interesting to you if you like or leave out the word creatively.

Email me a few of your treasures.
Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

The image is my Garden Goddess on back deck with her snow blanket.








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