The Think FLEXibly Blog
Some ideas anyone can benefit from. Our blog is intended to provide current and future clients some ideas and resources that we think are great.
Author: Michael Decaire In honour of Star Wars day (May the 4th be with you!), FLEX is featuring a look at mindfulness trainings in popular culture throughout the month of May. And the series continues ...
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. - Yoda (The Phantom Menace, 1999). Like a true teacher, Yoda provides us with a few different ways to interpret this statement. In essence, there is more than one lesson here. Lesson One The first is the idea of "autopilot" or as I like to refer to it the "chain of thoughts and emotions". As human beings we are surprisingly unattuned to how our behaviours, thoughts, or emotions arise. Most of the time we are swept up in a chain of events, where the previous moment dictates the next one and the current moment dictates the next. At very few points do we step out of this chain and simply observe what is truly going on in this moment and make an informed decision on how to proceed on the basis of that information alone. This is one of the anchors of mindfulness training and is also the primary component of many other successful psychotherapies (e.g. CBT & REBT are text book chain breaking exercises for you therapist folks). An example: A student who has exhibited poor behaviour at school tells me that he "hates" his teacher. We explore why he feels this way and he relays that he is "angry" that his teacher has given him several lower than expected marks of late. That anger is further explored and is connected to a "fear" that he will not make the honour roll this year. This is in turn linked to another "fear" regarding overall performance and then eventual success. In the end, we have a lot of actions, interpretations, emotions, and behaviours that are connected to each other with very little conscious examination of this "chain" having occurred prior to therapy. Mindfulness practice provides an opportunity to do a couple of things here: (1) Observe the chain - Simply observing one's thoughts as they arise during either a formal mindfulness practice (e.g. sitting and meditating) or an informal one (e.g. mindful moments throughout the day) can provide valuable insight into what preceded the current moment and what resulted from that thought, behaviour, or emotion. This insight can be quite valuable as it may allow us to recognize when these "triggers" happen in the real world and then we can ... (2) Break the chain - Being aware of the chain may allow us to step outside of this previously unconscious series of events. Simple awareness of the triggering events, thoughts, or behaviour can provide the opportunity to make a deliberate decision to act or respond in a different manner. It does not mean that we will always make that choice or that we will not experience a strong emotion, but the likelihood that we can act in a manner that reflects our own decisions (and not the chain's) is higher. Recognizing the chain is the first step. It is my hope that you will choose to return here in a few days to pick up the next lesson from this great Yoda training. Who ever said there was nothing redeeming about The Phantom Menace! - Michael Author: Michael Decaire In honour of Star Wars day (May the 4th be with you!), FLEX is featuring a look at mindfulness trainings in popular culture throughout the month of May. And the series continues ...
No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try. - Yoda (The Empire Strikes Back, 1980). Pretty much everyone has heard this quote. At the same time, most have probably assumed it is synonymous with saying "don't accept defeat" or that persistence will pay off in the end. While I do not claim to have the inside scoop on Yoda's motivations, I suspect that the intention here was not to infer the concepts of effortlessness and non-judgement. Effortlessness is not synonymous with laziness, but instead relates to a lack of narrow intention during mindfulness practice. If you anchor yourself on "trying" to do something there is a possibility of failure. Either way, the result of trying is undoubtedly that it worked or it did not work. An opposing way to look at this would be to simply acknowledge or observe that this happened, it did not, or something in between occurred. There is no judgement here, this is simply an observation or reflection of what happened. An example: If my mind is busy and I am finding the thoughts overwhelming or distracting I may choose to do a sitting meditation where my attention is at least part of the time on my breath. If I "try" to keep my attention on my breath the entire time I will undoubtedly fail and may very well perceive the meditation practice as a failure as well. If I simply "do" a mindfulness of breath practice I will be sometimes have my attention on my breath and I will sometimes not. This exact example is one of the first barriers I observe when training my clients mindfulness (e.g., "I tried that, it did not work"). When conceptualized in a framework of "try", the fact that I was not always able to sustain my attention on my breathing inherently implies that I failed. When conceptualized within a framework of "do or do not", I am simply acknowledging what happened in the present moment. Now, some of you are likely saying this is simply an argument in semantics and that what I'm really doing is choosing to not judge myself (which is also an important mindfulness lesson), but the key here is effortlessness versus intention. If I simply "do" something and observe what happened there is no possibility of failure. If I "try" to do something and I do not succeed then I have undoubtedly failed. In the end, I'll admit there is a bit of a semantics argument going on here. Still, we examine and describe our world and experience in words. A shift in how we interpret these experiences is the anchor of many therapies and is undoubtedly part of a mindfulness practice. I have personally found that having a good "vocabulary of mindfulness" is one of the keys to my personal training and is often how I transmit these tools to my clients. This can come from a mindfulness teacher, therapist, or a self-help book, but as you will see over the rest of this month, it can also come from the world around us (and from a galaxy far far away). Do or do not return in a few days for another pop culture mindfulness training. - Michael Author: Michael Decaire In honour of Star Wars day (May the 4th be with you!), FLEX will be featuring a look at mindfulness trainings in popular culture throughout the month of May. We will start off the series with some trainings from one of the original pop-culture Mindfulness gurus, Yoda.
Named must your fear be before banish it you can. - Yoda (The Empire Strikes Back, 1980). Many people mistakenly believe that mindfulness practice and mediation is about clearing your mind of strong emotions. This would suggest that there is some active attempt to suppress or push away these types of thoughts. Placing too much active energy towards any aspect of meditation is really the opposite goal in mindfulness and will undoubtedly lead to frustration (just another emotion to attempt to gain control over!). Instead, mindfulness practice has a lot more to do with simply observing one's emotions as they rise and fall during a formal meditation practice or less formally when we go about our day. Being able to simply observe these emotions can be facilitated by labelling. Recognizing that something is simply a positive or nourishing thought, a negative or depleting one, or by a more specific label (e.g. a judgement thought, anger, or fear) allows us to step away from the emotional experience itself and facilitates an observer role. With no real effort, this can lead to eureka moments that can consciously guide our future behaviour (e.g. Hmm look at that. This happened and then I felt this way), may allow one to step out of a chain of strong emotions, or may simply prove to be just an interesting exercise in knowing oneself a bit better. Join us back here in a few days with a few more wise teachings from Yoda or feel free to contact our team to discuss how Mindfulness training may also be able to help you manage strong emotions. - Michael |
DisclaimerThe information provided on the Think FLEXibly Blog is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered as therapeutic advice. |