The four steps in the dance of #mindful attention
In a little article on the Mindful website recently Daniel Goleman highlighted the dance steps of the mind in most meditations: focusing our attention, the mind wandering, noticing that the mind has wandered and what it has wandered to, and removing it from where it has got attached and returning to your focus of attention. Daniiel Goleman points out that there are four things going on in this dance : focused attention, mind wandering, meta-awareness which notices your mind has wandered and detaching from where the mind has wandered and bringing it back.
I noticed that the four steps of the dance began with four letters that make a mnemonic of two parts, F.M. & M.D.
- Focused Attention
- Mind wandering
- Meta-Awareness which notices your mind has wandered
- Detaching from where the mind has wandered and bringing it back
I don’t know what these two sets of initials bring to mind for you? Reflect on them a moment. What they bring to mind for me is this.
F.M. I associate with radio stations and tuning in to them. So the steps of Focused Attention and Mind Wandering are about tuning in and out from the frequency of our focus. What is fascinating about Daniel Goleman’s article is that he points out each of these steps involves a different circuitry in our brain.
M.D. I associate with Doctors and healing, a Doctor of Medicine. The healing of our minds and re-sculpting of our brains occurs through these steps of the dance of attention.
The point of the mnemonic is simply to help us remember the four steps of the healing dance of attention. Launch that boat of attention and begin to dance in the sea of awareness.
The Summoner and the Wordseer – from a tale of mind lore II
The summoner saw the boy through the leaves. She looked at him until the boy looked at him. She summoned the boy over, moving so slowly it was as though time had no hold on her.
The boy’s eyes suddenly saw the summoner. He too slowed down and stepped out of time. The summoner stepped on to his hand. He felt the tight grip on his thumb and fingers.
In the moment the boy saw that the chameleon was made of many little moving words. He watched transfixed as the words moved into a story. A window opened in his soul and a wordseer was born.
The chameleon stepped back onto the branch and disappeared in an instant among the leaves. She was looking for someone else to summon. The boy began to see pictures as words.
(From a tale of mind lore II, how a gift found Hudor…)
Threshold to Wonder – #mindful of the way of beauty
A friend of mine Bruce Thompson posted this photo on Facebook. I was immediately taken to a place of wonder as I looked at it.
Alister McGrath in his beautiful book ‘C S Lewis A Life – Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet’ writes:
‘A central theme in the Chronicles of Narnia is that of a door into another world – a threshold that can be crossed, allowing us to enter a wonderful new realm and explore it.’ (p.269)
Each moment of our life is a threshold to different possibilities, including possibilities of wonder. Sometimes we need a photo, a painting, a poem, a story, a face, a beautiful view to remind us of this, to fill us again with hope.
This coming Friday is the 50th anniversary of the death of C S Lewis. Perhaps you could find the thresholds of wonder in your life by re-visiting, or visiting for the first time his stories.
Remember to be reclothed in #mindful beauty
Many of us at a Remembrance Day service may have sung the great hymn ‘Dear Lord and Father of mankind’.
It is about finding a place of stillness, a contemplative mindful place – where we can sense God’s presence and hear His voice.
But it also speaks to me about what are some Christian distinctives about being mindful.
The first distinctive comes in the first verse where we sing, ‘re-clothe us in our rightful mind.’ Christians believe there is a shape to this right mind, both ethically and in terms of the values we live by. This shape is the very mind of Christ HImself (1 Corinthians 2:16).
But that mind has to be developed through contemplation, the re-clothing takes a lifetime of contemplating God mindfully. It leads us to a life of sacrifice and service lived for others.
The second distinctive that speaks to me through this hymn, is the idea that Jesus sees all things with the Father, ‘interpreted by love!’ ( verse two). This mind of Christ as it is developed in us, our right mind, sees the world ‘interpreted by love!’ The perfect love of God interprets, sees things, truthfully and with absolute clarity.
It is fear that takes us out of our right mind, and it is God’s perfect love that drives out fear (1 John 4:18).
Stress, Mindfulness and Compassion for the Teenage Brain
Stress, Mindfulness and Compassion for the Teenage Brain.
a link to my article via Instant Apostle for National Stress Awareness Day 2013.
Book Review: Flat Earth Unroofed: A Tale of Mind Lore
Book Review: Flat Earth Unroofed: A Tale of Mind Lore.
This is a link to a perceptive book review by Father Richard, Headmaster at Trinity in Lewisham who blogs at trinitylewisham.com,
‘Company Of Voices.’
press release for Flat Earth Unroofed – a tale of mind lore, #mindful fantasy
Press Release: New Book 23rd October 2013
‘Flat Earth Unroofed’ – Mindful Fantasy-fiction For All Ages
The Isle of Ge is a post-apocalyptic, post-religious land ruled by the Fowler, a ruthless cult leader who is prepared to sacrifice his own daughter to stay in power. All that stands between her and an agonizing death is her friend Hudor with his mind lore and time craft.
A trained counsellor and psychotherapist, Shaun Lambert has imbued his new children’s and teenage fantasy fiction novel, Flat Earth Unroofed – a tale of mind lore, with his extensive academic knowledge of mindfulness, creating a world where mind lore matters. Inspired by C.S. Lewis’s idea of this everyday world being ‘invaded by the marvellous’, Shaun has woven together the everyday and the strange with humankind’s mysterious capacity for awareness and compassion as well as mindless brutality. Shaun’s heroes are real, soul warriors who display incredible resilience in the face of familiar anxieties, depression and existential doubts.
During his long walks in the ancient woodlands near Bentley Priory, from where the Battle of Britain was directed, Shaun considered the local folklore of tunnels running from there to a military site in nearby Northwood and began to imagine another battle between good and evil happening there. But this was not a battle where mindless oppression would be fought by men with weapons of iron and steel – rather it was one where darkness would be overcome by a teenager through the inner power of attention and awareness.
Is this the first children’s fantasy book to incorporate mindfulness into the very fabric of the story? We don’t know! But we do believe a new sub-genre in fantasy fiction is going to develop.
This is a book for those aged 8 to 80 who enjoy the fantasy genre and are willing to consider that awareness could be part of the very fabric of being.
Flat Earth Unroofed – a tale of mind lore…fantasy fiction
@Flatearthunroof
mindful of our Chilli thoughts and feelings
Mindful of our Chilli thoughts and feelings
As I looked at the beautiful chillies growing in our bathroom, it made me think of different people’s reactions to them. We have an international evening coming up where a range of curries from Asia and Africa will be available- all of them spiced with chilli. Some people will avoid the curries. Others will ask which the mild one is. And some will ask, ‘where is the really hot one?’
Sometimes our thoughts and feelings can be a bit like a red hot chilli, something we try and avoid. However, mindfulness faces, tastes and dissolves the thoughts and feelings we try to avoid.
And a bit like eating curry, the more we do this, the more our tolerance is to the more painful thoughts and feelings. As we are exposed to the taste of curries, we can begin to experiment with hotter ones. As we are exposed to the taste of our sharper thoughts and feelings, we can tolerate more and more painful ones – rather than avoiding them.
By facing them and tasting them, the amazing truth is that they begin to dissolve and lose their afflictive power in our lives.
Ever felt like stuck like a beetle on its back? #mindful solutions
Ever felt like a beetle on its back?
As I walked into the porch this afternoon, I saw a beetle struggling madly on its back, lying on the plastic cover of a letter that had dropped through the post box.
It made me think of times I had felt like that. The harder I had tried to sort something out the less effective my efforts where.
It can be like that with our afflictive thoughts and emotions which flip us on our back. We try to solve them with rational critical thinking, thinking that will flip us the right way – but like the beetle we remain stuck.
It is when we stop the ruminative struggling (like leg waving in a beetle) and step out of rational critical thinking (what psychologists call the doing mental gear) and step into the being mental gear that we can begin to right ourselves again. We do this by coming to our senses and anchoring ourselves in our breath, or in a body scan, or mindful walking (mindful awareness practices).
It really does flip us back to being the right way up, even though it feels counter-intuitive. Give these mindful awareness practices a go, and let go of the mad leg wiggling of rational critical thinking.
By the way I did rescue the beetle. I am sure it waved a thank you.
shaunlambert.co.uk 