a breathless world

Patience is in short supply these days because we've been culturally trained to be impatient.  Then corporations can charge to appease our impatience.  With 2-day shipping from Amazon; with faster and faster internet service so the websites load faster and you can work faster; with microwave ovens to warm or cook your food faster; with pressure cookers so you can skip soaking your beans or watching the pot while you cook; and with wrinkle-free fabric so you no longer need to iron.  There are even self-cleaning windows now.   And you probably know that animals' growth rates are being pushed to the limits with grow hormones and special feed so they can be brought to slaughter faster and make money for their corporations faster.

But remember that the Concorde, the fastest plane ride over the Atlantic, failed; and that our push to get children to read, write and do math two years before their minds are actually mature enough, only leads to teachers' and children's frustration (read a recent post on that). Doing so many things faster and faster is not always the better.  There is a limit to the monetary rewards when we become strung out emotionally and healthwise. There is a limit to how fast we can live, and it's showing - what with all the stress and anxiety in our culture. 

We need leisure time.  Our minds need a break.  We need slow segments in between all that speed.  Hence the popularity of meditation, but also retreats, pampering spas, and resort vacations with nothing to do but veg out at the pool.      

Joel Salatin, the sustainable farmer philosopher I mentioned in a recent post, said that between 60 and 70% of his new farming apprentices are now  disillusioned corporate drop-outs in their late twenties and early thirties.  What race are you trying to win?  Slow down, smell the roses, and give yourself a break.  It's better for you.

the problem with convenience

"There is a problem with convenience," sustainable farmer and author Joel Salatin said during his keynote address at an event the other night, "because life is about being bothered."   

The convenience of take-out or mail order meals takes away the "bother" of learning how to create a delicious meal from scratch, knowing what exactly goes into your meal (and hence your body), and where the ingredients actually come from. The convenience of buying all your groceries at the supermarket prevents you from asking deeper questions about the provenance of those supermarket eggs and the "bother" of buying them from a sustainable farmer, or keeping chickens yourself.  The convenience of single-use plastic bags hushes over the inquiry into the environmental plastic scourge we as a culture have created, and the "bother" of bringing your reusable bags with you every time you go shopping.  

But sitting on the beach all day long is only fun for so long.  If everything in your life is "convenient" all the time you're not living deeply.  Life is about doing because engaging with your surrounds gets you to reveal who you are through creative expression.  You enact who you are through what you do. 

Too much convenience, removing all engagement and obstacles, eliminates the opportunity to get your hands dirty and your mind working.  That's why people are more creative the more restrictions they are presented with (I get a creative kick out of making a good meal out of the last few ingredients left in the fridge).   And you know how children's creativity becomes activated when they're out in nature and only have sticks and stones to play with - they construct a float out of whatever they can find and imagination does the rest.  Imagine coming along and bringing them a plastic boat....

Removing all "inconveniences" flattens life and dulls creativity.  Working around "inconveniences," problems, and within restrictions is what life is all about.  Be creative and love your inconveniences.

life is magical

This morning I was ironing a green table cloth and remembered the mindfulness exercise from this week's Creative Insight Journey course I am currently taking, to look at experiences from a child's or alien's perspective, for whom everything is novel and new and magical and full of surprises.  As I was passing the iron on the wrinkled tablecloth it magically flattened out beautifully and so easily - it seemed truly as if by magic.

Same with our body functions.  It's totally mysterious how my body does it all for me without my lifting a finger - breathing, digesting, nourishing me, walking, talking, hearing.  I never have to give it a thought.  Then I was unfolding a receipt with a child's mind and had to smile at the crunchy sound the paper made.  After that I listened to the toilet flush's whoosh with a child's mind and had to smile again, this time at the gurgling sound the water made. 

This is a really neat exercise because everyday experiences become novel, almost fantastical, when you leave your expectations and jadedness aside.  Without expectations, when you're present with an open and unhindered mind that is in the Now, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and the quality of life ratchets up a notch. 

As I am writing this I look out the window and see some evergreen branches moving up and down as if by magic.  I can't see the breeze, I can't hear it either, neither can I feel it.  My mind is open, the branches seem to move by themselves - magic again.

Best of all - experiencing life like this is free; it takes no effort, free sparkles and glitter.  All it requires is a shift.  Try it!

vision boarding

Vision boards may seem like such a passé thing.  And if you simply paste a bunch of pictures on a board believing that that will automatically manifest in your life the McMansion or convertible you just cut out from a magazine, forget about it.  But if you use it to actually work through what you want to manifest, or let go of, as a true clarification exercise - it can help tremendously.  On top of it it's a fun creative project.  So if you don't make enough time for play in your life this is a great way to have some creative fun and crystalize ideas that are floating around in your head while you're at it.  Draw, cut and paste, doodle, play with materials - and try to express what's inside you waiting to come out.  

Moreover, just like using lists as manifestation tools (see an earlier post how to manifest), putting something down on paper in the physical world, rather than keeping it floating around in your head, makes it - well yes, more physical, more defined - and helps to bring it into this world.  Vision boarding can be a valuable solidification and clarification process, and while your rational mind shuts off during the artistic part of the process, it makes room for the no-mind creative space.  When you're in the moment, in no-mind space, the universe can do its job of bringing you what you need.

Have you ever made a vision board?

journaling for wellbeing

Did you know that journaling is good for your health?  As much as I love to write - books, blog posts, comments, or articles - I have never been much of a journaler.  Didn't stick.  When someone suggested it over the summer, in a generic comment without further instructions, it also didn't hit home.

Now I am taking Jennifer Grace's 8-week Creative Insight Journey program, based on Michael Ray's original 1979 Stanford MBA course on birthing business people's creative potential, and journaling and meditation are part of the program.  So I must.  But this time it also comes with specific instructions on proven methods, and that makes all the difference.

      First instruction - only five minutes a day.  That's nothing.  Everyone can find five minutes.

      Second instruction - if at all possible do it right after waking and before you brush teeth and start your morning routine.  This catches you in a semi-awake state when your subconscious is still bubbling.

      Third instruction - write whatever comes to mind, non-stop, without questioning yourself, never mind grammar and punctuation, if you get stuck repeat your last sentence or word, keep going until your timer pings.

      Fourth instruction - dump, dump, dump - consider it the opposite of a colon cleanse - all out the top, out of your mind, out of your system, an emotional cleanse.

Grace offers several other journaling methods in her accompanying book Directing Your Destiny, and if you really want to get into it she recommends social psychologist and writing therapy pioneer James Pennebaker's How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain, next on my book purchase list. 

Do you journal?  It's cheap.  You can do it at home.  Only takes five minutes.  May improve your health.  No side effects. 

healing as an art form

The term healing arts has been around for a while but those physicians who truly practice this kind of art are few and far between.  Most of them go into the field to help, but then buckle under the system's culture and forget their original quest.

Healthcare in general has become so bureaucratic, so computerized, so impersonal, so technological and technical, so pharmaceutical, and of course so incredibly expensive.  Where did the healing touch go?  Where the compassionate conversation in supporting the patient emotionally?  Where the deep understanding of an affliction and how to heal it uniquely and individually?  Standard treatments instead.  Private practices are becoming ever bigger, and doctors often take as little as ten minutes to come up with diagnosis and treatment.  Next! Hospitals are no better.  Heartless money making machines, not temples of healing. 

Victoria Sweet, MD, writes on healing as an art in Spirituality & Health Magazines's article, "The Secret of Healing Touch," which is excerpted from her book Slow Medicine.  Sweet talks about the art of her touch, knowing just what the patient needs, and the importance of compassionate bedside manner.  We yearn for doctors like her, who practice healing as an art form, combining science and inner wisdom.   

When we acknowledge the importance of touch, deep dialogue, compassion, and true understanding of what ails a patient, when we make healing holistic again through human connection, when we integrate the scientific with the holistic diagnosic process, then healing is an art form.  

too much too early

Several years ago Germany switched from their traditional 13-year to a 12-year school system in order to follow the international standard.  Now there is a general backlash against the 12-year system and in many places students are already offered a choice to return to the 13-year program.  For one, many parents think that the 12-year program is too intense.  The other consideration comes from the universities that complain that the students are just not mature enough after the 12-year program to handle higher academic thinking.

Rudolf Steiner, the creator of the Waldorf education movement, whose curriculum is based on the natural emotional and psychological maturation of the child, stated that we mature in seven-year cycles.  Hence Waldorf schools in Germany, and elementary schools in Scandinavia in general, encourage waiting with first grade until around age 7.  When the school system is more in tune with the natural developmental and psychological maturation cycle of the child it benefits everyone - not only the children, who are less frustrated and more eager, but teachers, professors, and the entire system down the line because the children are at their best, and the teachers have a better sense of accomplishment. 

When I came over here it struck me that during the first two college years material is taught that is generally covered in high school in Europe.  And in France students oftentimes attend a prep school year before tackling the entrance exam to one of the better universities, elongating the 12-year school instruction to 13 years.

Over here we have pushed academics on the kids ever earlier, and it's been frustrating for children and teachers alike.  As much as we may try, we can't accelerate the natural maturation and personal developmental process.  Our son went to a Waldorf Kindergarten and could not read or write when he entered the traditional first grade. Yet, he excelled and became the fastest and most prolific reader in his grade in a matter of months. 

the little things

It's the little things in life that count, probably more so than the big presents. 

A few things come to mind - a surprise phone call from a long lost friend, watching a fox jump happily through the snow like a little kid (saw it from my office window the day after the snowstorm), a kind and helpful customer service person at a big organization (yep, happened a few days ago, lit up my morning), my husband setting a cup of tea or a glass of wine on my desk while I'm working, good news, a great find at a thrift store, a piece of chocolate, a small token of appreciation, twinkle lights.

Many of these are unexpected, many are not material, most cost nothing.  What does that tell you?  It's really easy to make people happy!!!!!!!!  Say something nice.  Show that you care.  Bring something over.  Find out how you can help.  Be kind.  That's all.

oh, dear!

An acquaintance's mother died recently and I sent her my condolences on Facebook.  When I ran into her a few weeks later at our monthly food coop pick-up I had forgotten about it, chit-chatting, going busily about the coop business of unloading the pallet, distributing orders, and weighing out produce.  Bye, see you next time.

Then I came home and it hit me that I had completely forgotten to express my compassion for her mother's passing.  Shallow living.  Oh, dear.  I'm so busy, we're all so busy.  All I was focused on was to complete my coop business and get on with all the other items on the to-do list for that day.  I felt guilty. 

I like it when people show me compassion and understanding.  As a matter of fact, my morning was fantastic because customer service people at two large organizations I needed to speak to were so incredibly helpful and personable - something that is rare and that I don't expect.  The feel-good energy radiated out for several hours and improved my mood so much. 

On an intellectual level I totally understand that compassionate behavior needs to be reciprocal.  If I want empathy and understanding I need to sow it.  I guess there is always a next time.

we've got it backwards

The farmers I buy my produce from are some of the most important people in my life.  What they grow goes into my body and literally becomes me.  How they grow their produce has a direct influence on my health and wellbeing. 

The nursery and preschool teachers who nurtured and taught my children were some of the most important people in their young lives.  Together with my husband and me they were instrumental in forming their early impressions and life experiences. 

Farmers and early childhood teachers should be compensated royally for the importance of their role in our lives.  Yet, the sad reality is that these are some of the least compensated professions, as a recent NY Times article states about kindergarten teachers, while the average farmer salary  is between $24K and $31K according to ziprecruiter.com.  Instead, we pay movie stars, football players, business and financial people, or tech start-ups, fortunes.  But how much do they contribute to our immediate health and wellbeing, or to building the minds of the next generation?

What is behind this incredible distortion?   A crumbling value system.  We've really got it backwards.  We worship entertainment and making money more than forming the next generation's minds or what we put in our bodies.  What do you think?