Heartfelt Brain Health

A friend of mine just shared with me a talk she saw on Brain health. Dr. Paul Nussbaum talked about it's a lifelong process to increase brain resilience. The brain has immense power, and you can shape your brain for improved health.

Below gives you 5 basic components of to increase your brain health, according to Dr. Nussbaum:

1.  Socialization : Keep involved, build friendship & family networks, develop purposeful activities. Cultivate what is positive - since our brain dwells to much on the negative. Let go of resentment and anger. Be kind to all including yourself. Compassion, faith, and other virtuous messages give your brain better health.

2.  Physical Activity: Walk as much as possible, engage in aerobic exercise, dance, garden, and even write with your non-dominant hand. Using both sides of your body builds brain resilience. Do routine things a different way than you always have.

3.  Mental Stimulation: Do novel and complex things -- get away from rote, passive activities, Travel, Learn 2nd language,  and play board games/puzzles.  Use the healing power of music and other ways to cultivate wholesome acts.

4.  Nutrition: Increase Omega-3 fatty acids (fish, walnuts, almonds, etc.).  Decrease processed foods, bad fat and sugar; Increase anti-oxidants--  and have 6 servings of fruit/veggies daily

5. Spirituality: Pause, relax and open to a new sense of calm.  First slow down and unplug as much as possible.  Learn relaxation procedures, meditate or pray daily.   Work on breathing rhythmically and slowly several times a day (deep breathing relaxes the body, and betters manage your stress). Power of turning inward is a great medicine.

Improving your brain's health and well being is the best thing investment you can make. Stimulate your like minded and positive relationships:  increase your physical activity; stimulate new mental possibilities; feed yourself healthy foods; and cultivate a relaxed and contemplative spirit by listening to your heart to improve your mind.

The Magic of Noble Friends

Over 18 years ago around 10 of us new meditators agreed to meet every other Thursday in a Kalyana-Mitra group.  We came to sit and learned how to profoundly listen and speak with greater mindfulness for 2 hours. 

It is my understanding that Kalyana-Mitra (KM ) or "noble friend" comes from the Buddhist tradition where wisdom and insight is cultivated when like-minded people meet together focused around a common intention.  Our amazing gatherings began in Takoma Park not far from where I was born. Here, we agreed to explore our difficult emotions.

John O’Donohue writes in Anam Cara- A Book of Celtic Wisdom on page 25-26;

KM or noble friend will not accept pretension but will gently and very firmly confront you with your own blindness. No one can see his life totally.  As there is a blind spot in the retina of the human eye, there is also in the soul a blind side where you are not able to see. Therefore you must depend on the one you love to see for what you cannot see for yourself. Your KM complements your vision in a kind and critical way.  Such friendship is creative and critical; it is willing to negotiate awkward and uneven territories of contradiction and woundedness.
 

One of our deepest longings of the human soul is the longing to be seen. In the ancient myth Narcissus looks into a pool and sees his own face, and becomes obsessed with it. Unfortunately, there is no mirror in the world you can catch a glimpse of your soul. You cannot even see you whole body completely.  If you look behind you, the front of your body is out of view. You can never be fully visually present to your self. The one you love, your anam cara, your soul friend, is the truest mirror to reflect your soul. The honesty and clarity of true friendship also brings out the real contour of your spirit. It is beautiful to such presence in your life.

As I celebrate our KM anniversary with our group this weekend I feel boundless gratitude. What magic it is to have noble friends who have elevated my life with such a priceless heartfelt experience.

Fostering Positive Feedback

Taking care of oneself is a conundrum since self care is required.  Creating an inner feedback loop to change old patterns and stimulate new attitudes is paramount to progressing out of the past "stuckness" through self compassion.  Fostering new behaviors that are none judgmental while motivates me to lessen my pain help encourage my greater well being.  Developing and wiring this internal feedback loop can be thought of as turning on one's inner light switch.

Below gives one example how coaching can help develop this;

You might be asking, “Why would coaching help me with fibromyalgia?” The answer lies in the interconnection and "feedback loop" between the body and the mind. Because being in pain creates a physical sense of stress, it releases stress hormones, which, in turn, can affect our mood and contribute to feelings of depression, trauma, and anxiety. A "feedback loop" is thus created where the pain feeds the stress hormones, which, in turn, create more pain. 

Often, those with fibromyalgia have prior life experiences and events that create stress, anxiety and trauma. This, in turn, can give rise to fibromyalgia, because of the feedback loop described above. But even among those who don't have a prior history, the pain and discomfort, combined with the difficulty in getting a diagnosis and appropriate treatment can, itself create feelings of trauma, depression and/or anxiety1.

So much of my life has been filled with negative self talk and/or unskillful thoughts that distract deter or lessen my happiness.  Finding both people and an environment that encourages more illuminating ways of being and thinking is what I welcome.  As a tennis teacher I have for years coached how to accomplish this feat from a perspective of match and recreational play.  How can I boast motivation or make their instructional time the most enjoyable and productive experience?

I come to a threshold.  I can continue to allow my negativity to further my suffering or I can explore new ways to manage this anxiety and celebrate life.  It is my choice whether my remaining time hear is hellish or heavenly. May I benefit from creating a more supportive way of being.

1 https://innerharmonyhealing.com/pain-chronic-issues/fibromyalgia/

Unifying Art - Transcendelia

Nothing is more powerful then the experience of oneness.  Western culture has instilled us with a sense of being separate, fragmented even at times disconnected.  However, when we become united or the sum of the parts we may feel at one.   At times we can find ourselves in this transcendent state of being, in our recreation or other special settings.  This feeling of awe can manifest as we are watching ocean waves reflecting the light of a full moon or the wonder of watching the sun rise, creating a unified feeling by beauty of nature.

Art is a fantastic medium to portray our non dual nature.  Here we can see how we are all interconnected- body, mind and spirit.  Years ago Abraham Maslow stated that the transcendent experience is a healing force.

In the chapter of Eye of the Artist- Ken Wilbur writes in “Sacred Mirrors : Visionary Art of Alex Grey, Inner Traditions 1990 the following writes about the third perspective of contemplation of the spiritual, transcendental and transpersonal world.  Ken calls this the “Eye of contemplation” which discloses a transpersonal, transverbal, trans-egoic world, of luminous soul and spirit.  He calls this realm as transcendelia, where objects perceived by the soul and spirit.

Mr. Wilbur writes of the three overall realms from matter/body to ego/mind to soul/spirit that is referred in various contemplative traditions as the Great Chain of Being.

He describes this in more detail on page 14[1] below;

The secret of all genuinely spiritual works of art is that they issue from nondual or unity consciousness, no matter what “objects” they portray.  A painting does not have to depict crosses and Buddha’s to be spiritual.  This is way for example Zen landscapes are so profoundly sacred in their texture, even if they are just “landscapes.”  The issue from nondual awareness or unity consciousness, which is itself Spirit.  At the height of transcendence, Spirit is also purely immanent of all-pervading, present equally and totally in each and every object, whether of matter, body, mind or soul. The artwork, of no matter what the object, becomes transparent to the Divine, and is a direct expression of Spirit.

The viewer momentarily becomes the art and is for that moment release from the alienation that is ego.  Great spiritual art dissolves the ego into nondual consciousness and is to that extent experienced as an epiphany: a revelation, release or liberation from the tyranny of the separate self-sense.  To the extent that a work can usher one into the nondual, then it is the spiritual or universal, no matter whether it depicts bugs or Buddhas.

A critical theory of art based on the perennial philosophy would demand at least two scales.  On the horizontal scale would be included all the elements on a given level that influence a work of art.   These elements include everything from the artist’s talent and background, socioeconomic facts and psychological factors, to cultural influences.  The vertical scale, according to the perennial philosophy, cuts at right angles to all these earthy facts and deal with the ontological dimension of Being itself.  The vertical would have several components summarized by the question, How high up on the Chain of Being is the work itself situated?

The great artists of the modern era kept alive the quest for the sacred and the search for Spirit, while all about them the cultural world was succumbing to scientific materialism.  For this we are forever in their debt.  The next great movement in Western art is waiting to be born.  It will not be of the body, or the mind but of the soul and spirit.  Thus we await with much anticipation the great artistic symbols “that belongs on the altars of some future spiritual religion.”

Today we need to shift from our paradigm of being divided to one of being united.  Artistic expression provides countless creative acts how that both unify our collective situation and offers invaluable insight.  The need to heal and become whole is paramount.   May artists of all walks celebrate the unification of our great chain of being.   Connecting our body/mind/spirit to new frontiers of oneness and unity will heighten all things to greater collective experiences.

---

[1] Sacred Mirrors : Visionary Art of Alex Grey, Inner Traditions, 1990

New Beginnings

Years ago I had the honor to meet John O'Donohue speaking at a church across from American University. I will never forgot how I ask a question to him in a very non ordinary way. I said that dying was easy but I found living was quite difficult. He responded with great kindness and blessed me with with some friendly words.

John O'Donohue wrote before he died "The Blessed Space Between Us" in 2008 these paragraphs below,

To live in the creative life, we always need a critical look at where we presently are, attempting always to discern where we have become stagnant and where new beginnings might be ripening. There can be no growth if we do not remain open and vulnerable to what is new and different. I have never seen anyone take a risk for growth that was not rewarded a thousand times over.

There is a certain innocence about beginning, with its excitement and promise of something new. But this will emerge only through undertaking some voyage into the unknown. And no one can foretell what the unknown might yield. There are journeys we have brought inner riches and refinement; but to travel through dark valleys of difficulty and suffering. Had we known at the beginnings what the journey would demand of us, we might never set out. Yet the gifts and rewards become vital to who we are..

When the heart is ready for a fresh beginnings, unforeseen things can emerge. And in a sense, this what a beginnings does. It is an opening for surprises. Surrounding the intention and the act of beginning, there always exciting new possibilities...*

Also he wrote in the last paragraph of his poem, New Beginnings

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

Further in this book Mr. O'Donohue wrote the shape of the human heart  blends together both a circle and a triangle. He observed the heart space as a triad where the self and its otherness unites into a threefold force-the spirit of friendship. This fellowship becomes greater then the sum of the other two dimensions. May we all benefit from John's wisdom and begin once again with the blessing of a new friendly possibility.


*John O'Donohue- The Blessed Space Between Us, 2008, pg, 2-3

Shenandoah Star Legend

 Shenandoah, Daughter of the Stars Legend

After the Great Spirit had made the world, the morning stars came together on the shores of a quiet silver lake bordered with blue mountains, the most beautiful place they could see.

Hovering above the quiet waters and lighting the mountain tops with their robes of fire, the stars sang their songs of joy and pledged to gather here every thousand years.

One time when the stars were singing, there came a mighty crashing!! A great rock in the mountain wall tore asunder, and through the deep opening the lake waters began to pour out and rush to the sea.

As time passed, the stars looked over the earth for another place to meet. They finally agreed upon a lovely valley through which a winding river ran.

Suddenly the stars realized that this valley had been the bed of their beautiful lake, and the blue mountains around it were the same ones upon which they had cast their robes of light in ages past.

The stars were so joyous they placed the brightest jewels from their crowns in the river where they still lie and sparkle. And ever since that day, the river and its valley have been called....DAUGHTER OF THE STARS

http://www.visitshenandoah.org/About-Us/Daughter-of-the-Stars.aspx

The above old tale elevates me to see my celestial connection here in the Shenandoah.  There is an amazing mind/body insight that  I use to illuminate my spirit.  When I allow my water body to be purified by these star-filled ultra violet lights every atom of my existence becomes awakened. The transmutation of these astral lights forms a union of opposites grounding the heavens with our earth; rooting the soil with water and air charged by this extraordinary cosmic phenomenon. A numinous one-ness is born beyond concepts. Where the river meets the land or air touches the water. The mystery of this whole, where a moment becomes a trillion years. A rare synchronous and numinous events celebrate the unification of our inner and outer worlds. Rays cycle- circulating the elements of all known things, simultaneously dancing light and darkness in unimaginable ways.

Honoring the Mystery

When I honor the mystery I liberate myself to a wiser way of being.   Showing up to life’s mystical truth I become awakened.  We all share, come from and return to this mystery.   Also we all are connected by a common spirit of the mystical elements of earth, air, fire, and water.  

Both we and I are one and the same with the cosmos.  Everything is made up of some distant stardust including our flesh; bones, blood and body are comprised of the same things.

Awakening that my heart and the earth are tied together unites me.  When I see the interconnection that allows me to go beyond my suffering.  Love and understanding comes with this realization.  Such inner being is the portal to my oneness and all being.  There is a higher level of consciousness when I see the mystery of all things.  Chaos strangely organizes again into new phenomenon.  I am just a cloud passing in the sky reforming into new water vapor.

Just as a tree nourishes me I exchange with it with the air  I breathe and the oxygen it shares.  All natural cycles exchanges life sustaining properties. All things I smell, taste, touch, hear, and feel have a shared mystical connection. 

Honoring this mystery elevates my well-being, and unifies my consciousness.  Our collective heart guides us to the truth of our mutual connections.  Awakening to my common relationship with all things, comes through stillness and a profound listening. 

There is mystical exchange of love and light in this amazing universal spider's web.  Respecting this mystery gives me guidance and freedom. 

May I honor the mystery since nothing is separate

May I be still with not fully knowing, fully present

May I observe the sacred bonds all things mystical

May I know how all things exchange air, fire, water, earth forms

May I contemplate on how my body and the world act in self organizing chaos.

May I see that even things lifeless have spirit

May I behold how we share the same things

May we explore the deeper truth of the universal mystery