Mindful Photography #1

Recognizing the sacred within the ordinary is an essential skill for anyone who desires contentment and a vibrant life flowing with gratitude. One way to strengthen this ability is through the practice of “mindful photography”. Through the lens of a camera, we can observe and take informal snapshots of ordinary objects at home, at work, in nature, around the neighborhood, in fact, anywhere we go. Reflecting on the sense of presence, wonder, or connection that arises while taking and reviewing the photos can open us to a more mindful way of experiencing the world around us, whether or not we have a camera in hand. Here's a practice you can try with your camera or smartphone:

1. Pick up your camera or smartphone and wander around your neighborhood without any agenda other than to notice what draws your attention. It might be the contrast of one color next to another, the appealing lines of a building, or the reflection of a tree in a puddle of water. Whatever you notice, stop for a moment to see and appreciate it without internal commentary, labeling or comparison.
2. With your camera or smartphone take a photo of whatever captured your attention and only of  what captured your attention. In other words, make no effort to compose a perfect shot, rather make one or two attempts to capture in a photo the essence of what first appealed to you.
3. Move on and see what else you notice. The goal of the practice is to appreciate the endless variety of subjects that can nourish, bring happiness and hone your sense of  wonder for the world around you.

Please explore the photos on my website. I also invite you to view and share photos and comments on the Mindful Photography Forum I created on Flickr:http://www.flickr.com/groups/1732735@N21/

Lose Your Mind and Come to Your Senses

When you see the word "freedom", what comes to mind? Weekends? The Fourth of July? Never hearing a Michael Bolton song again? Freedom always has at least two aspects. We get free from something: old habits, an overbearing boss, pain, or a lousy cell phone contract. We also get free to do or be something: be happy, start a new business, or speak the truth fully.  Unless we channel our "freedom from" into a "freedom to become or do", our freedom is likely to be short-lived, either because our new found energy is taken captive by another draining situation or because we squander it on self-absorbed gratification, which becomes its own prison.

How do we get free and stay free? A good place to start is to take the advice of Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt Therapy:  "Lose your mind and come to your senses."  The controlling, critical aspect of the mind keeps us trapped in old patterns that rarely serve anyone, yet we continue to justify the status quo with any number of irrational rationalizations. What's needed is a trip back into our senses, our subconscious, our deep spirit, our inner light and our deep joy.

Whether we do this through nature, meditation, prayer, creating art, singing, yoga, or playing with dogs, the form is not as important as the benefit, which is liberation from our habitual thought patterns. When the old mental chatter simmers down, clarity emerges in which we see things as they really are and respond appropriately with grace and ease. We become fully alive.  Our hearts and minds open.  We freely give back all that we are, all that we have, and all that we do to Life, to God, to the common and highest good of all. We finally come to our senses.

Coming to our senses is more likely, fun, and enduring when we collaborate with others who share a common intention, supportive energy and wise feedback. If you would like to take a deeper dive into freedom, come join us for a series of day retreats this fall. The theme of the three retreat days is "Path to Freedom: Using Challenges to Revitalize Your Life". For more information, check out the page on Classes.

Fat Cat and the Kibble-Shaker

Below is a short story without an ending. Read it and notice what your gut reaction is. What do you think happens next? There’s no right or wrong answer, but your first response is likely the most honest and the most instructive. Your response may reveal something about the lens through which you are processing life. Whether or not it provides any insight, have fun with it! The story:

Once upon a time in Catlandia, there was a very rich tabby named Fat Cat. He had made his riches in Kitty City years ago and now lived high on the mouse in his kitty castle. How he had made his riches was somewhat of a mystery. He had more frozen mice and rats in his freezers than 1,000 cats could eat in nine lifetimes, but he always hissed when taxed two rodents a year by the Internal Ratting Service.

Catlandia was not without its problems. Over--mousing had led to a dangerous decline in the rodent population. The same was true of the fish population.

Once two intrepid reporters, Tiger and Hairball, began working for CMN, the Catlandia Mews Network. They reported on the impending food crisis and tried to keep tabs on Fat Cat's friends who ran the Cat Council. One day Tiger and Hairball decided to investigate how Fat Cat got so rich...and thus so fat. When Fat Cat caught a whiff of their plans, he put a stop to the whole endeavor by purchasing CMN. Tiger and Hairball were reassigned to covering stories about the lives of kitty celebrities. They never reported on anything of significance again.

One day an older cat named Shadow arrived. She had lived in Kitty City and knew how Fat Cat had become wealthy. Shadow wanted Tiger and Hairball to broadcast the truth, but they were preoccupied with the breakup of "TomCat", a famous kitty couple.

Shadow was born near a stream in Kitty City. There she frolicked all day, catching fish and rodents, just like her mother had taught her. One day Fat Cat arrived. He convinced the people of Kitty City that they could have more food with less effort if they paid him to use his new invention: The Kibble-Shaker. The Kibble-Shaker, though Fat Cat never revealed the full details of how it worked, essentially created underground explosions forcing rodents out of their holes and fish out of their streams. Sure enough, within a short period of time mice, rats and fish were popping up everywhere for easy catching. Fat Cat took his pay (mostly in frozen rodents) and left town.

Shortly afterwards, however, things went terribly wrong. Because the rodents were forced out of their holes before they could raise their young, there was no next generation of vermin to feed on. Even worse, the underground explosions had polluted the water. Not only did most of the fish die, but the cats had to travel great distances to find something to drink. When they tracked down Fat Cat, he claimed it was all a coincidence and that they couldn't prove The Kibble-Shaker had anything to do with their plight.

Shadow shared the story throughout Catlandia, but no one seemed interested.  Not only were they wrapped up in the "TomCat" drama, but they had also bought into the Cat Council's propaganda that the best way to keep safe and fed was to make sure Fat Cat kept as many of his frozen rodents as possible in the hope that a few tidbits would trickle down to feed the rest of the cats. If anyone held him accountable for past infractions, they feared they'd have even less food than their already declining supply.

One day Shadow happened upon a hidden structure just outside of Catlandia. A stealthy kitty if ever there was one, Shadow slinked around a corner and peeked inside to see Fat Cat and his friends eating a grand feast of Rat Souffle and Trout with a Mouse Reduction. She listened carefully as Fat Cat caterwalled to the clowder of cats: "Mewwwww..... Now that I have all those felines eating out of my paw, I can introduce my greatest invention. The Kibble-Shaker is coming to Catlandia!"

What happens next?

Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," Sigmund Freud Even Freud sensed that the complex work of psychoanalysis could take itself so seriously that it found sexually-charged, repressed monsters everywhere in the psyche. To balance this perceived over-emphasis on the darker aspects of the psyche, Roberto Assagioli, an Italian contemporary of Freud, created a school of psychology known as Psychosynthesis.

Assagioli sought a more well-rounded approach in which the spiritual aspects of the psyche become an intentional part of the growth process. He believed that each of us has a unifying center, which contains an Observant Self and the will. The will is not characterized by willfulness but rather a sense of willingness to accept and integrate what is present. From this center, we can observe, harmonize, integrate and direct the various parts of the psyche.

The wonderful thing about this work is that it can be fun. Rather than years focused on navel gazing in which we see only lint and the failures of our parents, this approach uses drawing, imagination, guided imagery and other techniques to move us toward wholeness. Assagioli even believed that when we engage in this kind of personal growth and self-realization, we are doing nothing less than participating in the evolution of humanity.

While this school is very positive in its outlook, a major focus of the work is to befriend the "sub-personalities" that sabotage us. Simply put, sub-personalities are powerful, largely unconscious, psychic patterns from early life that easily hijack us. Psychosynthesis teaches us to become a conductor of sub-personalities who takes the cacophony of these often dissonant voices and brings them into harmony to sing the same song. The key, as with all spiritual and psychological work, is to accept and befriend whatever we find.

Here's a very simple practice based on Assagioli's work:

• Spend a minute observing the thoughts that enter your awareness.
• Notice that during that minute your thoughts changed, perhaps even contradicted each other. This shows that while you have thoughts, you are not your thoughts. There is some other part of you that is observing the constant flow.
• Now spend another minute with your thoughts. This time see if you can also become aware of the part that is witnessing your changing thoughts.
• This Observant Self is the part of you that notices your thoughts (or feelings or physical sensations) without becoming them, taking them too seriously or making them your identity.
• Cultivating awareness of your Observant Self frees you to make a conscious, appropriate choice in any situation.

If you would like to learn more about Psychosynthesis and its tools for integrating your life, then please join us on Saturday, June 16 for a retreat day entitled "Path to Wholeness: Harmonizing the Conflicting Parts of Ourselves". It will be held in San Anselmo, CA.

Retreat details and registration form

Lord of the Rings Update

Finish the Story Below is a short story without an ending. Read it and notice what your gut reaction is. What do you think happens next? There’s no right or wrong answer, but your first response is likely the most honest and the most instructive. Your response may reveal something about the lens through which you are processing life. Whether or not it provides any insight, have fun with it!

Feel free to post your idea for an ending and read others’ responses.

The story:

A Lord of the Rings update…It’s now been many years since Frodo Baggins left Middle-earth with Gandalf. The shire has changed dramatically. Pockets of poverty abound with ramshackle huts huddled in close proximity to each other. Even those lucky few who are relatively well off have little time to spend with family and friends because they have to work harder and longer just to make ends meet. Gone are the carefree days of spontaneous parties, ecstatic dancing, and daily, leisurely strolls into the forest.

Sam has become the most powerful Hobbit. His estate comprises almost one-third of the shire. Sam and his cohorts, Pippin and Merry, have convinced the Hobbits to entrust them with both the management of the economy and the defense of the shire. In return, most of the shire’s gross domestic product floats to the top, that is, to Sam, Pippin and Merry.

The shire’s main festivals are birthday celebrations honoring Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins. Pippin and Merry have constructed intricate rituals that all Hobbits must follow to honor the memory of Bilbo and Frodo on these days of holy observance. During the holiday season, Hobbits spend up to a quarter of their annual income buying gifts for each other from PippinMart, which is the only store left in the shire.

On Frodo’s Eve, preparations are being made for the next day’s celebration. Sam is sitting in his mansion, recounting tales of his exploits and pontificating about how the shire is now safer and more prosperous than ever under his oversight. Each line at PippinMart is at least twenty Hobbits deep. Hobbits are battling each other for this year’s hottest toy: “Dwarf-Box”. Merry is preparing his speech for the next day, which will laud Hobbit-nomics and reassure everyone that the shire is superior to any other realm in Middle-earth.

Down the road, a lone, hooded Hobbit approaches. His brown sideburns are peppered with gray. This Hobbit walks through the shire, observing it in silence. The next morning, he makes his way to the center of town as Hobbits are gathering for the celebration. He removes his hood. It’s Frodo Baggins!

What happens next?

Paraprosdokians: Like Fine Wine

A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the second half of a sentence or phrase is unexpected. The surprise ending makes us reframe or reinterpret the first part. Examples:

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." Groucho Marx

"She looks as though she's been poured into her clothes, and forgot to say when." —P. G. Wodehouse

“Some people are like Slinkies … not really good for anything, but you can’t help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs.”

“Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever they go.”

These clever phrases tune our minds to welcome new perspectives. Rather than resist surprises, these terse bits of humor open us to embrace life’s unplanned possibilities.

Please share your own unexpected ending to the first half of the following phrase to create a paraprosdokian….

“She claimed that like fine wine she gets better with age….