Transformational Learning

Noticing - an exercise

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:33:00 -0500

In some previous Posts I have advanced the idea that full engagement is, if not necessary, then at least strongly supportive of transformational learning. I have also suggested that the body has an important role to play in advancing such learning.

In the most recent Posts I have discussed something of the complex and key role that the body plays in the life of we humans. (By focusing on becoming conscious of the role of what we think of as bodily functions I am not pointing to ‘getting in shape’ although this is part of it. Of more importance is tuning into the complex role of the body in holding feelings and in messaging the brain.)

The fact is that most of us only notice our bodies only when something goes wrong - a sore back, a twisted ankle or a tooth ache. Thus, we are aware of our bodies at only one level. So, the question is “How do we go about becoming more aware of our bodies at a more subtle level and how can we use that awareness in the interests of living fuller, healthier lives?”.

This is the second of a series of Posts on exercises designed, in the first instance, to increase our awareness of what the body has to tell us. As such it focuses on developing our ability to ‘notice’ our bodies at an increasing more profound level. Sounds easy? - It is not!

Noticing is nothing more than cultivating basic awareness. We are not trying to do anything about what we notice / become aware of. We just want to learn to notice more of what is potentially available to us. And therein lies the problem. Most of us do not know how to pay deep attention to seemingly simple things. So we wind up missing everything.

There are many variations of this exercise but I am giving the one that I find works best for me. A couple of things to start. First, get comfortable. This may entail using the washroom, having a shower, doing some stretching, doing a breathing exercise, having something light to eat or putting on more comfortable clothes. The test of this part of readiness is being able to say that there is nothing physically in the way of my focusing for fifteen minutes or so.

Second, relax the mind. Resolve to put aside your ‘to do’ list until the end of the exercise, or, if that is not possible, make that phone call you need to make and then do the exercise. One way that helps some people is to write down a list of all they have to do after the exercise, fold the piece of paper and tell it that you will get to it as soon as you are finished the exercise.

To begin the exercise itself, find a position that will be comfortable for you - it could be sitting in a chair, lying on the floor or lying on a bed. Beds can be the hardest as you may fall asleep. If you do its not a bad way to fall asleep.

Take a few full breaths and with each one sink a little further into the chair, floor or bed that is supporting you. Then here comes the hard part. Just become aware of your body as a whole and then wait to see what comes up.

Nothing may come up for a while and that it fine. It means that your body does not quite know what to tell you because you have not asked it that question before. If this happens just wait. It may take a few tries but you will get there. How long you do this depends on you but ten to fifteen minutes is a good starting place.

Remember that you are just noticing. ’I can feel a pain in the back of my neck.’ Good, just notice it and move back to just noticing your body. Do not focus on the pain. Its easy to get carried away wondering why you have that pain or recalling why it is there and then thinking about that.

What you are doing is just making a list, taking stock of what is going on - nothing more. You will notice that each time you do it some things may stay the same, other things you may revisit at a deeper level while still others will be new.

Over time you can expect to get a number of things from this exercise. First, an increased sense of who you are from the perspective of your body. In doing so you may come to feel more at home with your body. Second, you will notice a shift of awareness from your mind to your body / mind. You may well see yourself as more than you thought you were. Finally, you are setting the stage for working with what you are noticing to help resolve issues in your life.

Becoming present

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:53:00 -0500

For some students the pressures of university life, coupled with challenges of both family and work life can produce, over time, a bodily reaction of disengagement. In speaking with such students I get the sense that they are just not fully present - or perhaps better said, they are not fully open to the potential of the moment. It is important, as a teacher, to be able to help the student through this as it adversely affects their ability to be the best student that they can.

The difficulty is that you can’t just say ‘wake up’, ‘focus’, ‘concentrate’ or other analogous expressions. Saying them does not seem to help. In fact, saying them may make the situation worse as the student already knows there is a problem and hearing you say these things just makes them feel more inadequate. What they need is not help on ‘what to do’ but on ‘how to do it’. Here is one exercise I recently learned that may help.

The first step is to understand that the current state of ‘presence’ of the student is not so much due to what is going on in the present for them as it is to what has accumulated from the past but not been processed out of the person’s system. If what is going on for them right now has only just started happening they would probably be all right. The problem is one of accumulation of stressors over time.

Where does this accumulation take place. The most complete answer seems to be everywhere. A more useful answer is that it accumulates in areas of the body that are responsible for being fully present in the moment. As I understand it these largely reside from the neck up. Here is an exercise that can help to reinvigorate these areas.

Begin by sitting on a comfortable chair in a quiet space where you will not be disturbed for five or ten minutes. Take a minute to get settled with your feet on the floor and your arms resting on your side. Become aware of your body by first paying attention to your feet and then moving gradually up your body until you finish by focusing on your head. The purpose of doing this is not to change anything - although your posture may shift while doing this. It is simply a brief exercise in awareness building.

Keeping your eyes open, move your head slowly from side to side without straining the muscles. Just go until you meet a comfortable degree of resistance. (The number of repetitions for all the movements in this exercise are for you to decide. I generally do three except for the second last one.). Now move your head up and down with the same caveats. Then, keeping you head straight, let your jaw fall slowly until you feel it well stretched. Your mouth will open and the cavity will look like the outline of an egg.

Now, look straight ahead into the far distance and then to the tip of your nose. Following this, listen for far off sounds and then for sounds very near you. Then scrunch up the muscles in your face and then let them go. Now draw your attention to your throat and swallow deliberately only once and then cough a couple of times focusing on the throat area. Finally, exercise your jaw and related muscles by making a number of different sounds out loud. I use me me, ma ma, mo mo, repeated several times.

When you have done the exercise just sit still for a few minutes and notice your sense of presence in your environment. This is an important part of the exercise and don’t short change yourself by rushing away too quickly. Why? Because the first part of the exercise is about releasing but the second part is about building awareness and awareness is curative.

When I do this myself and when I have taken students through this a typical comment is that things seem brighter, more alive. Try it two or three times a day and see if it works for you. Let me know what you experienced if you wish.

What I want to do in some of the following Posts is to develop a series of exercises that will help students to bring themselves more fully and in a positive way into what they are doing at university.

The art of powerful routines

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:53:00 -0500

Teachers who are concerned with improving the performance of their students know that a significant driver of improved performance is developing and sticking to a routine. The exact routine can vary but key elements are: attending class, focusing while in class, reviewing after class, understanding what is wanted in assignments and handing assignments in on time. None of this says anything about academic ability. Why? Because doing these things is about getting most students at least up to an acceptable level of performance. Other things can happen after that.

On the surface this sounds easy. Pulling yourself together, getting to bed on time, taking good notes, not getting drunk too often, starting your assignments is advice that is always dished out. The trouble is that we know it does not work most of the time and for most students. So the question we need to ask ourselves is “Why does telling students to get a better routine not work?”.

I think that the answer lies in the underlying motivation in our memory systems. Deciding to stop drinking after a particularly bad morning after or resolving to study more after a particularly bad report card typically lasts only a short time. The resolve weakens day by day. Why is this? One answer, given by people to study various parts of our memory, like Peter Levine, say that the problem lies in the fact that they rely on that part of our memory that focuses on self control - or declarative/ volitional memory. Thus, when we commit to change, the part of ‘we’ that commits is the declarative/ volitional memory.

The trouble is that this part of our memory is generally not in it for the long haul. We could call it the New Years Resolution part of our memory. Its a strong starter but a poor finisher. What is needed is a part of our memory that goes deeper into who the best us really wants to be.

This other part of our memory has a name - the emotional-experiential memory. It resides in the oldest parts of our brains - where images have long shelf lives. And these are based not on logic but experiences and their associated feelings. The idea is that because a powerful and enduring emotion is attached to the desired outcome the chance of reaching it are considerably enhanced.

Think of a deep positive memory you have that motivates you. For me it of my Uncle Gene who started with nothing and build a large commercial art company that did work for major corporations. This is an image that has been powerful for me for most of my life.

Accessing the emotional-experiential memory means accessing powerful images that provide long-term motivation and encourage perseverance and following powerful routines. The trick is to find these in our lives or, if we do not have them, to bring them into our lives. Heroes, movie stars, activists, stories about people who made it through very difficult circumstances can all be the basis for establishing deep motivation in our lives.

Asking ourselves the question “Who do we most admire?” or “How could I find out people who I could admire?” is a good start. Finding out about these people, putting pictures of them on you walls and doing anything else to connect yourself to them helps to establish emotional-experential memory.

Anchoring our ambitions in the support of these memories seems to have a much bigger impact on our long term performance than those associated with short term resolutions no matter how well intentioned.

A step towards autonomy in learning

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:30:34 -0500

In an earlier Post I wrote about the six dimensions of engagement. Autonomy in learning was one of them. The overall idea is straightforward but there may be insights in exploring specific actions that can be taken to bring this concept to life.

When a teacher asks a student to do something it sets up a certain dynamic - a power relationship. This way of teaching has its place but is it the only way of teaching that has a place? In the type of relationship that this interaction sets up the student is somehow less than the teacher and dependent on him or her.

On the other hand, when the student comes up with an idea for a project or an essay and with ideas about how to go about doing it, a different dynamic is created. It is more equal, not necessarily in terms of knowledge but rather in terms on the way in which dialogue takes place. I think that that type of interaction also has a legitimate place in learning and can lead to a more powerful relationship and a better learning experience.

And it can do something much more. The fact that the student feels able to tell the teacher what he or she needs does something important for the student. I would describe it as liberating stuff that has gotten stuck within the student. The new relationship then takes on an aspect of removing blockages the student experiences - either knowingly or unknowingly. The student may experience a somewhat different perspective on the world and may be more willing to look more confidently out into the world and at the same time into themselves.

Body / Mind - monologue or dialogue

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:24:37 -0500

In this Post I want to explore an aspect of the work of Peter Levine that he writes about in ‘In An Unspoken Voice’. Its not meant to say anything particularly new. Rather, it’s to help me get my head around both what he is saying and why that is important to me and to how we educate our students.

From the work of Candice Pert and others I knew that the body is a more important player that I once thought. My earlier view was that the mind was the centre and our directing force. It turns out that I was a prisoner of Descartes’s ‘Cogito ergo sum’ - I think therefore I am.

The old idea is captured in a humorous way in a Jules Feiffer cartoon where one character quipped that our bodies came about solely to transport our heads from place to place. Later, Sir Ken Robinson, in a memorable TED Talk on education, provided a twist to this when he said that the purpose of our bodies was to ‘transport our heads to meetings’.

Levine arrived at his insight as a result of studying the works of a number of Nobel Laureates who wrote in the fields of biology and physiology. The ground of what he is saying is captured in the following quote.

“Turning earlier theories on their heads, we are now aware that, rather than being the hierarchical, top-dog, commander in chief, our thoughts are a complex elaboration of what we do and what we feel.”

Taking a minute to digest that, what is being said is that one role of the mind is to give voice to the things we do in the world and what we feel about what is happening to us and in us. An interesting idea but what are the implications for how our body works with our mind?

This brings us to the Vagus Nerve. It is the second largest nerve in the body and connects the brain and most of our internal organs. What is important here is the nature of the connection. 90% of it is sensory. What that means is that 10% of the nerve is concerned with relaying instructions from the brain to the organs - but the other 90% is concerned with sending information to the brain. Thus, the Vagus Nerve is primarily a way of talking to the brain - and talking a lot to the brain considering the size of the nerve. All this is meant to support the idea that the brain is a complex elaboration of what we do and feel.

So, why is this important? At its most basic it says that causation runs in significant part from the body to the brain. Thus, what we do and feel with our bodies impacts our thought processes.

It also seems to imply that if we want to make change and deal with personal issues we need to involve our bodies - how they feel and what they do. But we also need to focus on developing a healthy dialogue between body and mind - not a monologue from the mind to the body.

From a teaching perspective we need to involve ‘doing’ and ‘feeling’ and learn to foster a dialogue between the students’ minds and bodies.

The power of gratitude

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:22:22 -0500

I wonder how many of us ask ourselves the question ‘What do I have to be grateful for in my life right now?’?

It is a worthwhile exercise to sit quietly, ask this question and then wait for the answers to bubble up. When I have done it, I have been surprised at some of the things that have come up, especially after the ones I would expect to surface have already appeared. I have also found it surprising that, depending on the day, different things come up. Right now there is a shaft of light on a wall in my office at home that has created a beautiful shade of pale yellow. I am grateful for this.

By doing this exercise each day, over time I have found countless sources of gratitude and this has put a new perspective on my life. But there is something else about this that I want to begin to explore in this Post. It is the power of that gratitude.

I first started noticing that by recalling things I am grateful for my outlook moved from a focus on self to a focus on other - on to the sources of my gratitude. I then started to notice the energy around this feeling of gratitude. It started out to be fairly weak but over time has become more vivid. Right now it is approaching a state where it can positively impact my overall energy - both in amount and in quality.

In my last post I noted the view of a Buddhist monk that freshness emanates from its source and affects others. Could it also be that these qualities of freshness and gratitude not only affect others but also transform our energy and its associated qualities? If we think of ourselves through the lens of wholeness this may well be so.

Something Fresh

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:20:14 -0500

Of late I have been coming across or recalling a lot of stuff that related to the idea of ‘freshness’. I would like to mention some of these and then try to understand how to begin to get to this place.

One thought comes from a Japanese poet and wanderer Matsuo Bashō, among whose writing is ‘The Knapsack Notebook’. Reflecting on the way people approach journal writing while travelling he says:

“How easy it is to observe that a morning began with rain only to become sunny in the afternoon; that a pine tree stood at a particular place, or to note the name of a river bend. This is what people write in their journals. Nothing is worth noting that is not seen with fresh eyes.”

Marcel Proust, like Basho, had his own take on viewing landscapes. He said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in seeing them through fresh eyes”.

One of my favourite authors is P.G. Wodehouse, a master of humorous prose. Douglas Adams was a fan of his and you can see the influences of P.G. Wodehouse’s style in his works. There is something incredibly fresh in the way he writes and the lenses though which he sees the world. One of his books is titled ‘Something Fresh’ - the title of this post.

But freshness does not have to be humorous. It can also take us on a journey that is captivating and bypasses the discursive mind. Music, at its best, does this. One song that epitomizes this for me is by Antonio Carlos Jobim and is titled ‘Aguas De Marco’. The way it is sung can be captivating but so are the words. Here is the English translation of the last few lines of the song.

“and the river bank talks of the waters of march, it’s the promise of life, it’s the joy in your heart”

When I lived in Mexico I often went out just after surprise and just before sunset to take pictures. Why? Because the light was long at those times and brought out the vivid colours. At noon the colours were all bleached out. It was the time for a siesta.

The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh was asked about helping other people. He said the first thing to do is to ‘be’. Being comes before doing. He said:

“So first you have to focus on the practice of being. Being fresh …. The tree does not do any anything, but the tree is fresh and alive. When you are like that tree, sending out waves of freshness, you help to calm down the suffering of the other person.”

So what are these people talking about? Basho is talking about the problem of not being fully present. For Proust the journey is not about seeking something new outside of yourself. It is about awakening a sense of freshness within yourself.

P.G. Wodehouse uses his ability to carry the reader along with him and then, totally unexpectedly, present him or her with something new or to express what is happening in a very different way. The reader is left with no option but to burst into laughter. His freshness lies in his ability to create situations that wake us instantly to the truly funny aspects of life.

Through his lines “and the river bank talks of the waters of march, it’s the promise of life, it’s the joy in your heart”, Antonio Carlos Jobim awakens us to the incredible freshness of nature at the end of winter.

The long light at each end of the day is an invitation to see the freshness in all that is.

Thich Nhat Hanh has pointed to our freshness as the biggest gift that we can give others. For him freshness is a state of being and a powerful one at that - It isn’t just being fresh - its exuding freshness.

In re-reading what I have written a question came to mind. If I were given a camera and was asked to take photographs of things that spoke to me of freshness, what photos would I take? Which would you take? My first thought is that it would take time to get into the right mind set. How could that be done? Perhaps just walking around with a camera. Perhaps putting on some ‘fresh’ music on my iPhone. Perhaps not walking at all but just going somewhere and sitting until things become fresh. Perhaps all of the above.

I will try tomorrow.

Laughter Yoga

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:26:45 -0500

This is an odd Post. Its origin lies in a realization I had a while ago that much of my adult life has been like a bell curve. At one end is laughing and the other is crying. I seldom do these things and thus live in the middle of the curve where things are comfortable but not much exciting happens. This is an exploration of the laughter tail of the curve.

Last year a student asked me to teach a workshop on Laughter Yoga. It was the result of one she had taken that made her realize the benefits of laughter to university students. I am thinking about doing this next year. In preparation for that I am setting out a summary of what I know about how it works and the benefits it can provide. I am doing this for me but also for readers who might get from it a spark to redirect their attitude to what they are doing.

The research

One of the early modern discussions of the role of laughter comes from a 1976 article by Norman Cousins in the New England Journal of Medicine. It subsequently made its way into a book titled the ‘Anatomy of an Illness’. It told the story of how he laughed himself back to health from a serious illness. The whole story is also available on the Net.

Along with other research this stimulated Dr. Madan Kataria a physician from Mumbai, India. It began with his thought that laughter could be used to help his patients. He started using humour with his patients and later went to a public park and recruited people to laugh with him, at first based on jokes and then later just laughing for no reason. There are now thousands of laughter yoga clubs in over 65 countries. This movement has grown because of the demonstrated benefits it provides to those who do it.

The benefits of laughing have been the subject of considerable research. They fall into three areas – physical, mental and social. Below I list what I take to be the main benefits ascribed to laughter yoga.

· Relieving tension and stress, relaxing the muscles and generally providing a sense of physical and emotional release. It does this by reducing the level of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine (adrenaline), dopamine and growth hormones

· Strengthening the cardiovascular system (According to Dr. Michael Fry of Stanford University, laughing 100 times gives you the same exercise as riding a stationary bicycle for 15 minutes or using a rowing machine for 10 minutes.). Thus, laughter is a great inner workout.

· Boosting the immune system because it decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease. Laughing increases the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of T cells.

· Laughter makes you feel better because it triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Increasing them promotes an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.

· Laughter protects the heart because it improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow. This can help protect against a heart attack or other cardiovascular problems.

· At the social level laughter strengthens relationships, promotes teamwork and helps to diffuse conflict.

Here are a few examples of this research.

Dr. William F. Fry of Stanford University found that laughter stimulates the production of the alertness hormones catecholamines. These hormones in turn cause the release of endorphins in the brain. Endorphins foster a sense of relaxation and well-being and dull the perception of pain.

Dr. Michael Miller has found that laughter dilates our blood vessels. Then this happens blood flow increases and this strengthens and prevents disease in the cardiovascular system.

Here is a quote from the book ‘Laugh For No Reason’.

‘Dr. Lee Berk, PhD at Loma Linda University Medical Centre, and his team of researchers found that laughter reduces the level of stress hormones and results in improved immunity. He documented that laughter increases the level of immunoglobulin IgA, a special immune protein that protect us from respiratory tract infections, and that laughter increases the number of NK Cells (Natural Killer cells), a type of white cell that plays an important role in protecting us from tumors.

So, what is the question?

If laughter is so good for us why don’t we laugh more. I can’t find out where the research was done to back this up but it’s said that kids laugh about 300 times a day but the typical adult laughs only 10 to 12 times a day. So, perhaps a better question would be why do we stop laughing as we get older – or, why have we forgotten how to laugh – and, has this always been so?

This phenomena is perhaps more recent than we think. I understand that a study by the German Psychologist Dr. Michael Titze showed that people used to laugh an average of 18 minutes a day in the 1950’s. Today, that’s down to 4 - 6 minutes a day.

People writing about this question of why we laugh less seem to fall back on the usual suspects: stress and busyness. It is true that we feel that we are under more stress than ever before and that we think that we are more busy than previous generations. I don’t buy this. Life for many people in earlier ages was much more stressful than ours is and our work week is often less than for our grandparents who worked a six day week and had less holidays.

It is also often stated that our problem is the long-term nature of our stress and that our ancestors faced stresses that were short term. But we must ask ourselves to what degree are our stresses really long term and have we such little control over our lives that we are always under stress. To offer an extreme opinion (for discussion purposes only) we think it is fashionable to be under long-term stress. I know many people who by any objective criteria are under a lot of stress yet because they do not see it this way they are not. I also know people who by any objective criteria are under no stress at all yet because they do not see it this way they are.

Perhaps the answer has less to do with the fact of stress or busyness than in our reaction to it. Many years ago a friend told me a story of getting a flat tire on a country road in Alberta. As the passengers got out of the car to inspect the tire she said to the group that they had two choices – they could get angry or they could laugh about it. Following from this story our lack of laughter is not a matter of outside circumstances - it is a matter of personal and societal choice.

What if we chose laughter more often, would we even know how to do this? I am not sure I do but I am in the process of learning. Or, should I say relearning. As a child I, and most other children, laughed a lot - what happened? I am in the process of figuring this out.

Right now I think its about conformity and the idea that if its important it must be serious. Of course Oscar Wilde knew better when he said ‘Life is much to important to be take seriously.’. But we have a ways to go to catch up with him.

When you think about it we do not need a reason to laugh. We don’t need jokes or plays or events. If we are to get to a place of laughter it must be a place of laughing for no reason. Why not? Why should be need a reason to laugh? Perhaps we should need a reason not to laugh?

Right and wrong answers

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:27:00 -0500

In some disciplines there are right and wrong answers. Mathematics, the sciences and areas that deal with known facts come to mind as do answers to questions like ‘While driving what do you do when you come to a red light?’.

But there are other areas of learning where things are not so clear cut - where value judgments are involved or there are not enough known facts. In such areas can we say that there are neither right nor wrong answers? I have found it helpful to tell students that there are no wrong answers - largely to help remove the fear of speaking to the class - and this has generally worked well.

There is, however, a key condition upon which saying there are no wrong answers rests. It is this. A student who is thinking through a question or issue with integrity and diligence cannot give a wrong answer. Why? Because he or she is making their best effort to come to grips with a difficult issue about which there are many opinions. Where they are in their process of discovery is where they are - and is simply a place on their journey towards something truer. In a sense the question of right or wrong is not the right one. The real question is “Is the student on a genuine journey of discovery?’.

Where their does not work and where classroom discussion gets derailed is where students realize that there is only opinion and simply choose one without giving it any thought. In this case their answer is wrong. But even here saying the answer is wrong might not be the best way to engage the student. While some students are simply not ready for the discussion, many students can be brought into making a sincere effort by spending some time responding to their answer with further questions designed to make them go deeper.

When I think about issues related to making judgments of right or wrong I am guided by the dialogue between the King and the White Rabbit during The Trial. It goes like this.

‘Herald, read the accusation!’ said the King.

On this the White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, and then unrolled the parchment scroll, and read as follows:—

    'The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
          All on a summer day:
      The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,
          And took them quite away!'

‘Consider your verdict,’ the King said to the jury.

‘Not yet, not yet!’ the Rabbit hastily interrupted. ‘There’s a great deal to come before that’

The Process of 'Mattering'

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:39:00 -0500

A few years ago I was asking students at the end of the academic year why they came to class. One answer struck me as particularly insightful. It was that the student came because she felt ‘wanted, needed and knew that what she said mattered’. I have often mused about what she said but something happened during a discussion with a student earlier today that took it to a deeper level for me.

At the end of one of my courses I meet for one hour with each student. They present their capstone portfolios and then we talk about what they took from the course. In one of those discussions a student referred to ‘the process of mattering’. I think that, at the most general level, she was alluding to an increased sense of belonging that students felt in the class over time. But I sensed that there was more to it than that. So in this Post I want to explore ‘the process of mattering’ a little more. In particular, I want to explore the related questions ‘If ‘mattering’ is a process, then what are the elements of that process?; and, What is it that happens in class that gives a student an increased sense that they matter?”.

I wish that I had got to this place before the course ended as I would have liked to have posed this question to my students as a group. However, I am in the process of speaking with my TA’s about this as well as to a few students. Here are some thoughts that have come up so far.

In the first place it is, as stated, a process. ’Mattering’ does not happen in an instant and for some its a longer journey than for others. One idea associated with Indigenous ways of thinking and speaking is that of gradually closing in on the point. Its not a straight line, like in anglo-saxon logic. It is more like teasing out or further exploring a point. Thus, being comfortable with going through a process, while not really knowing what will happen is a necessary mind set that has to be taught right from the beginning. But taught is the wrong word - a better word is experienced.

It’s also about what is actually done in class – behaviours of the teacher that students come to model. There is no point in speaking about concepts like safety, respect, non-judgment, engagement and empowered community. Somehow using these words tells students that the opposite is what is really happening. There is, however, every point in demonstrating safety, respect, non-judgment, engagement and empowered community. As a few students have put it, its like we do certain things repeatedly and only then do we realize what we are doing and why it is working.

Students are welcome just as they are. It’s a ‘come as you are party’. This can sound simplistic and a bit of a cop out. In fact, it is very demanding of students. As long as students are only expected to play a role or adopt the pose of a committed student, that can be faked. It is hard to fake being who you are. And it’s even harder to find out who you are so you can be that in class.

Creating a classroom environment of exploration as opposed to one of right and wrong encourages a sense of ‘Mattering’. This does not mean that right and wrong do not have a place. But it does mean that striving to be right creates rigidity and can give rise to a mind set of extrinsic motivation and pit student against student. It can also lead thoughtful students to withdraw from the environment of the class. The idea of exploration has a fluidity to it and gives people permission to make mistakes. It also creates the excitement that can be associated with facing the unknown.

Its about dialogue - not monologue or argument. Dialogue is about sharing thoughts, withholding judgment and striving to understand the points of view of others in order to come to a greater whole. It’s about harmony as opposed to winning and losing. One student expressed the proactive nature of true dialogue when he said ‘everyone’s opinions were reached out for’. ’Everyone’s opinions were reached out for’ is a whole lot different from ‘everyone’s opinions were considered’. You can just feel the difference in the class dynamics by saying each of these to yourself a few times.

An atmosphere of dialogue can be fostered by reflective small group discussions where the class regularly breaks up into groups of say three with each person reading a reflection on the class and having those serving as a basis for discussion. It creates an environment of intimacy, relevance, belonging and sharing.

Sitting in a conversational circle is also a positive force in furthering the process of ‘Mattering’. In a circle everyone sees the eyes and body language of all others and can look at them when they are speaking. When people are looking at you when you speak and when their body language shows they are taking in what you say you know you matter. In such an environment students cease to be numbers and become bodies, faces, names and personalities - real people you can relate to and share ideas with. As one student commented ‘some ideas crossed the room that I think wouldn’t have in a traditional classroom’. One other common comment by students was that you noticed when people were absent, worried about them and wondered why there were not there.

Students also know that they matter when their opinion sparks the professor or another student to say something or when someone acknowledges what they have said or when someone takes the idea and builds upon it. Students also get the sense that they matter when they start contemplating and giving deeper answers to questions. Related to this is a student idea that the process of mattering is not focused on knowing but rather on the process of getting to know. Knowing as a process rather than a state frees up dialogue and engagement.

Another group of student comments centre around the professor - not putting him or herself on a pedestal. When I can I teach in a circle and sometimes I stand up and go into the centre of the circle and other times I just sit as one of the circle. I never though much about this until a student brought it up in his oral today. He said that students knew that they mattered when I joined them by sitting down with them as just another member of the circle. Hearing that was big for me.

A final comment related to the importance of the professor getting to all students who had questions or observations. Students said that when they saw that the professor did not take the time to get to all students it spoke volumes to them about where they stood with him or her.

So, what is here so far are two ideas. First, it takes time for students to feel that they matter. Second, as a teacher you can’t fake it. Third, there are many tools and techniques that can be used by the teacher to gradually build a sense of ‘Mattering’.

What I would like to do with this next term is to get a group of teachers and students together to discuss and build on what has been explored here.

Empowering teacher / student relationships - An exercise in parallel fields analysis

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:19:00 -0500

In his book ‘Anatomy of an Illness’, Norman Cousins reflects on both the respective roles of doctor and patient and on their supportive relationship in overcoming disease. A number of things stood out for me in reading this book that are worthy of further exploration.

I want to discuss these but I want to do so in the context of the roles of student and teacher and their supportive relationship in helping a student gain what they need from a university education. In doing so I am using a simple but effective technique termed ‘parallel fields analysis’. Using this technique involves highlighting the salient features of a successful interactional environment (in this case a doctor/patient relationship) and then drawing appropriate parallels with another interactional environment (in this case a student / teacher relationship). Its effectiveness as an analytical technique lies in its ability to get us to think more broadly and deeply about how to improve an interactional environment.

I am going to first set out the points that intrigued me and then say a few things about each of them that, I hope, will spark your imagination. I will begin with the Introduction.

Rene Dubos, in his introduction, draws upon a wonderful paper titled ‘Care of the Patient’ by Francis W. Peabody M.D. published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1927. He quotes the concluding few words of the essay that state that:

’the secret of the care of the patient is caring for the patient’

From his reading in medical journals Norman Cousins knew that negative emotions had a deleterious effect on body chemistry and that this in turn affected the body’s ability to combat disease. His insight was that if negative emotions have this effect why would positive emotions not have the opposite effect.

He was also concerned that the medication he was taking was increasing the toxins in his body and that they needed to be removed if healing was to take place. He saw combating his illness as a balance between getting rid of what was doing harm and supporting that which was doing good. A reminder of the Latin phrase well known to medical students ‘Primum non nocere’ - First, do no harm.

Next I would like to quote two conclusions he drew from his experience:

“The first is that the will to live is not a theoretical abstraction, but a psysiologic reality with therapeutic characteristics. The second is that I was incredible fortunate to have as my doctor a man who know that his biggest job was to encourage to the fullest the patient’s will to live and to mobilize all the natural resources of the body and mind to combat disease.”

A little later in the book he highlights the ‘chemistry of the will to live’ anticipating the work of neurobiologists concerned with the molecules of emotion. In so doing he takes an intangible idea ‘the will to live’ and makes in concrete.

He concludes his initial thoughts in the book with two ideas. The first is that his doctor ‘encouraged him to believe that he was a respected partner with him in the total understanding (of his disease’. The second was that he had learned ‘never to underestimate the capacity of the human mind and body to regenerate - even when the prospects seem most wretched.’

Using parallel fields analysis here, then, is a summary of these thoughts from the perspective of teacher / student:

1. The secret of the care of the student is caring for the student

2. Positive emotions will have a beneficial effect on student health and performance

3. It is important to think about and eliminate what might be being done that harms students

4. The willpower to do well at university has practical and therapeutic implications

5. The biggest job of the teacher is to encourage to the fullest the student’s will to live and to mobilize all the natural resources of the body and mind to further their education

6. The teacher needs to help the student to believe that he was a respected partner with the teacher in his education

7. Finally the teacher must never underestimate the capacity of the human mind and body to regenerate and to try again - even when the prospects seem most wretched

If we were to try to encapsulate these seven points into a statement of an empowering student / teacher relationship what could we say? We could speak about caring, encouraging positive emotional states, becoming acutely aware of and removing what harms students, actively discussing the idea of willpower, envisaging education as a partnership between student and teacher and great teaching as never giving up on a student or letting the student give up on themselves.

What is interesting to reflect on is how we as a university community could make best use of these borrowed ideas.

Reflection and Oxytocin

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:31:06 -0500

Years of teaching using the process of individual and small group reflection to anchor the learning from the class has produced many insights for me concerning my students. One of them is that where students are prepared to ponder what they have learned then share that learning with two or three others in the class, within a mind set of curiosity and respect, something something quite wonderful happens. Students feel good about listening to and speaking with each other - and in so doing they feel that they have both gained and given something and have been bound together in some important way .

My understanding of why this is so at a biochemical level was recently increased by listening to a TED Talk by Paul Zak titled ‘Trust, morality —- and oxytocin’. Briefly what I think he is saying is this.

Humans release the hormone oxytocin under certain conditions and this binds us together and results in moral behaviour. His experiments show that when trust is exhibited through behaviour a second person feels more trustworthiness and acts accordingly. The release of oxytocin is the chemical part of this process. Feelings of empathy connect us with other people also through the release of oxytocin. Nurturing, massage, dancing, praying and hugs also raise our level of oxytocin whereas stress and aggressive behaviour reduce these levels. He recommends seven hugs per day.

The bottom line of his research seems to be that empowered connection to others produces oxytocin and this, in turn, further develops that connection – it’s a upward spiral.

In concluding, I want to pick up on one word he uses – ‘nurturing’. He uses it in the context of helping small children develop the ability to produce oxytocin. But I think we can also use the term in a broader way.

What if we thought of our conversations with others as an opportunity to ‘nurture’ both ourselves and others? If we did this, what would our objectives be in speaking with others and how would be define a powerful conversation?

Growth and money

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:02:00 -0500

Over the last week or two I have been incapacitated for medical reasons. One of the side benefits of this is that it has given me time to reflect on a few things. One of them is about the legitimate transmission of wisdom.

When I was in my 20’s I was much taken with yoga and, in particular, with the flow of yoga postures. I spent some time in an ashram and came away with some important things for me. It was only some time later that I learned that the guru has left the ashram because he had abused a number of his female devotees.

Over the summer I also listened into a discussion titled the ’Ultimate Mens Summit’. I received many insights but also had the feeling that everyone was selling something. Also, during this last week or so I have investigated a number of other people who purport to provide spiritual or other forms of higher level guidance in living life. Inevitably it seemed that there were a large number of people who came away feeling that the whole thing was a con job. I was left with the impression that while the people may have started out well the allure of money and status corrupted the teachings.

This I found to be very depressing and I did not need depression.

Contemplating this state of depression I was reminded of an event that took place some months ago. I was asked by someone to recommend that my students attend a workshop on traditional teachings for which they would receive a certificate. There was also a fee involved. I was uneasy about doing this and asked the advice of one of our elders.

Elders do not generally give advice and this one did not. However, he said that this was not done in his culture as the use of money corrupted the teachings and that the receiving of credentials was not the point of the exercise. I left refreshed.

Where I stand now is that, if we are to grow as people, it must be through genuine dialogue among equals without the presence of money or credentials. Everyone brings who they are, gives what they can and takes what they need. If personal growth is to occur it needs to be removed from the monetary economy.

Waiting

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:22:55 -0400

In my classes at Trent University students write weekly reflections. I have them do this for two related but distinct reasons. The first is that, in the world of work, students are going to be paid well only for applying innovative thought to solving problems. Innovative thought comes about through reflection. The second is that, in the complex worlds of interpersonal and intrapersonal relations, reflection holds the key to working skillfully with self and other.

The process I use is on the surface quite straightforward. A title is chosen, the key points of the lecture are summarized briefly, from those key points two or three that most resonate with or have impact on the student are chosen, those points are reflected upon, and finally, the student writes about what he or she learns from the reflection. Another dimension has more recently been added that asks the student to make a comment on either a post or a comment on a post on this blog.

I think that you can only teach a person to reflect by getting them to go through the process of reflecting. Its a form of experiential learning. In the process of practicing reflecting many obstacles can arise. Here are some of them.

It takes time for many students to be able to capture the essence of what they are writing about in the few words that constitute their title. Yet, the rewards for learning how to do this are great. Most people leave conversations, meetings or lectures not being able to express the essence of what went on in a concise manner. Leaders know how to do this and practicing finding a title is a good way to learn how to build this skill.

Writing down the main points of the lecture sounds easy but it requires both attention and discernment. The student must learn to think in terms of groupings of knowledge rather than just in terms of facts or theories. Professional mastery of ones work requires this macro level skill.

Reflection itself is not regurgitation! It is taking something of interest and then adding something to it, delving deeper into in, going in a different direction or connecting it with previous experience. The temptation is to express what was said in different words as in essay writing. But this misses the point.

Standing back and expressing what was learned from the process of reflection is also difficult for some. Its not that the question is difficult. ”What did you learn from writing about this?” is a clear question.

And this brings me to the point of this post.

The process of reflecting and reflecting on what was learned by reflecting on it requires an extraordinary skill - the skill of waiting. The good news is that it is a skill that can be learned with some practice. However, it requires us to refrain from just writing down what comes up easily for us. ’First thought, best thought’ does not generally work well here.

What the mind is doing during the process of reflecting is making new connections or dusting off ones that have not been used in a long time. This takes time. Neuroscience tells us that following a talk or an important experience parts of the mind are talking to each other in order to integrate this new knowledge. Reflecting is waiting with a clear mind while this is happening and then tapping into it.

This requires patience and a knowledge of ones own deeper learning processes - Neither of which are readily available commodities. So, how can one make a start on this - how can one learn to wait with intent. Here are five steps.

First, find a place conducive to do this. Sit by the sea, a lake, a river or in a comfortable chair in a room with relaxing colours and pleasant aromas.

Second, clear your mind so that you can make some space for new ideas. A few full relaxing breaths or listening to some calming music can help.

Third, centre yourself in the here and now and really be present in the moment. Telling yourself that you will take care of other things on your mind when you have finished often helps.

Fourth, create a mind set of intention. Tell yourself what you intend to do for the next while and that you are going to be fully engaged in the process.

Fifth, wait. Just hold the idea that you want to reflect on in your mind. Keep tapping on the idea and watch what is coming up. It will gradually form into something that is an authentic expression of your relationship with the material presented in class. Once you start writing it is likely that, given a little time and a lot of attention, new thoughts will arise that will amplify or modify what you started with. The more you do this the deeper the reflection gets.

Four Knowledges

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 20:24:53 -0400

At university it is easy to have a mental model that sees gaining knowledge as sort of like having a well stocked filing cabinet where we know what is in the files and how to find them. In writing essays or exams we simply open the cabinet, open the relevant file and copy what is in it. This type of knowledge clearly has the potential to be useful provided, of course, that it will have relevance to the student outside the university environment. However, there is more.

Cognitive scientists have added something to this by distinguishing between ‘generic knowledge’ and ‘procedural knowledge’. The former is what I have been talking about whereas the second is more about how to do things. The former is about knowing how to read and understand the instructions on how to assemble an IKEA product whereas the latter is about actually being able to assemble it. In my experience the two are not synonymous.

The Greeks also have something to contribute to this. One of their words for knowledge is ‘gnosis’. As I understand it, it has both connotations of experiential knowledge and self knowledge.

We can put all this together in visual terms using a matrix that has on one axis the internal and external worlds and on the other the knowledge of things and the knowledge of how to do things. This knowledge matrix is shown below. Inside each of the resulting four quadrants I have placed a question to start the process of reflecting on how to begin to master each of the four.

This may seem to be an ‘academic’ exercise but it is enormously practical. By seeing knowledge from this broader and deeper perspective we are exercising and developing muscle in many more parts of our brain and this can result in innovation, creativity and adaptability.

Steve Jobs is quoted as referring to something that one of his heros Edwin Land, the inventor of the Polaroid Camera, said. It was about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of the humanities and the sciences. This model is about standing squarely in the centre of knowledge.

There is a debate about the relative usefulness of the humanities and the sciences. Its not about either-or its about both-and. And its about more than that. Its about the interweaving of scientific and humanistic knowledge of self and the world. In Indigenous terms its about the strength that is gained through weaving the four threads of the model together.

While there is important work to be done in helping students feel at home in this bigger idea of knowledge it is not easy. The place that borders the humanities and the sciences is windy and the place between conception and creation is not well lit.

T.S. Eliot knew this. In his poem ‘The Hollow Men’ he says “Between the conception and the creation … falls the shadow”. What is this shadow? I have always thought of it as the shadow of unknowing. Shadows appear where the light is blocked, where the energy is low and where things are not vibrant.

In conclusion, here are four questions to ponder that will help to overcome these obstacles.

What am I going to do today that will increase what I know about the world?
What am I going to do today that will increase what I know about myself?
What am I going to do today that will make me better able to work on myself?
What am I going to do today that will make me better able to do things more skillfully in the world?

The Fourth Wall

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 11:13:21 -0400

There is a theater term with a long history. It is called the ‘fourth wall’. If we think of the stage as being surrounded by four walls, one of them, termed the ‘fourth wall’, is that metaphorical wall that separates the audience from the play. The phrase ‘breaking the fourth wall’ has been used to describe what happens when the boundaries between the play and the audience have been removed and true communication ensues.

While I find the phrase ‘breaking the fourth wall’ a useful starting point it has a quality of violence to it that does not reflect what is happening to the wall. For me a concept that works much better is that of ‘dissolving the wall’. It has more of an organic quality to it and provides a sense of a gradual coming together.

We can use this altered metaphor to imagine the process of communicating well with others and with ourselves. If we approach communication with others realizing that some sort of wall exists between us initially and if we think of the early parts of our conversation as being geared to dissolving that wall we will then approach conversation skillfully, with a sense of patience and with a focus on beginning well.

A practical question here is what might ‘dissolving the wall’ mean for how we begin a conversation? The first thing it means is that we need to pay attention to how we start a conversation. How we start determines the quality of the conversation and how it is likely to end. We might think of it in terms of finding ways to get comfortable with each other, to develop a mind-set of full engagement or to just take the time to ensure that we are seated in a way that supports dialogue. The point is that paying attention to beginning well by removing the wall between us sets us up for a conversation that matters. One way to draw attention to beginning well is to ask the person you are with ‘How can we begin our conversation in the best way possible?’.

We can extend this metaphor to having conversations with ourselves. The metaphor suggests that initially there will likely be a wall between parts of us that need to talk and listen - Perhaps between our logical being and our emotional being or between two important values that we have.

How could we go about dissolving that wall? This is a big question and one that cannot be answered outside of ourselves. However, ways that have worked for others can be offered as possibilities to be considered, adapted or built upon. Here are a few.

Start by offering yourself tea and drink it slowly and consciously
Have it in a supportive place, a favorite place or chair or at a time when you are at your best.
Begin with a few full relaxing breaths
Allow yourself to give those parts of you that need to come together space to express themselves
Ask yourself ‘What is the best way to begin to converse with myself in this moment?’

In some Indigenous cultures, important conversations begin with a smudge that entails the burning of a medicine and cleansing everyone with its smoke. The smoke not only cleanses us but also, through its aroma, speaks to the core of our being. People who have done it before know it is coming and subconsciously prepare themselves to enter fully into the conversation in a positive, clean, mind-set.

Transformational learning – The potential of this moment

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:41:59 -0400

The past, present and future all have their potential for transformational learning. Recalling the past provides us with fertile ground for reflection, connection of ideas, taking pleasure in things done and experiences had and the development of knowledge and wisdom that will support us throughout our lives. The future can be something to look forward to and something to prepare ourselves for. However, the present moment has its special uniqueness in all this – it is the only one of these three dimensions of time in which we can actually act.

The past is infinite but we cannot recreate it. The future is also infinite but be cannot know it. The present, though it is infinitely short, is our freedom to act – to create our own lives.

Action is turning potential into reality in this moment. Whenever I hear the word potential the word that always comes up for me is ‘if’. The three ‘ifs’ for me are – if I am truly present in the moment, if I know I can do something and if I know what to do.

If I am living in the past or the future, then this moment passes without my presence and I have done nothing. It would be interesting to have a gauge that measured presence in the moment. I do not know how I would fare in such a measurement but I suspect that a lot of my time is spent relatively unproductively outside of the present. To be certain daydreaming about the future and recalling the past can be pleasant but too much time spent in these dimensions leaves little of ourselves for this moment. Likewise, constantly rehashing old thoughts or planning for the future has its limits. As someone said ‘Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans’.

What I have learned from wisdom teachers is that being in the present takes practice. I have also learned that the practice must be as simple as possible. Near where I live in Toronto there are some, what I would describe as, ‘high end’ food stores. There are always many people about. But some of them do not seem to really be there. Perhaps they talking with their friends but not noticing the food and drink they are consuming or they are talking on their cell phones and not to their friends. The mental model underlying this may be that the full life must be literally that, full of good stuff – piled on top of each other. But, how can you dance in a room that is filled with stuff, even if all the stuff is great stuff?

For me, realizing the potential in the moment means, in the first place, creating enough physical, mental, emotional and spiritual space for something new to emerge. As a start it’s about just drinking a coffee, just eating a sandwich, just walking, just looking around or just doing an essay or project. This all sounds very simple but try just drinking a cup of coffee or tea or drinking a glass of wine and doing nothing else – absolutely nothing else.

Realizing the potential of the moment begins with intent and develops through creating a supportive physical, mental, emotional and spiritual space and then practicing simple actions – and that, in turn, sets the stage for transformational learning.

Asking powerful questions

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 08:29:57 -0400

I want to start this Post with some quotes that I have found provocative:

Judge not a man by his answers but by his questions - Voltaire

The uncreative mind can spot a wrong answer but it takes a creative mind to spot a wrong question - Anthony Jay

There are the questions you ask and the answers you get and the questions you don’t ask and the answers you don’t get - Anon

If you do not ask the right questions, the answers don’t matter - Anon

There is some agreement that if we want to live our lives with increased vitality and if we wish to be more innovative as a society then we must focus on asking better questions. So far so good. But its like people writing articles on the importance of student engagement without focusing on the ‘How’ questions. What I would like to do in this Post is to offer a few answers the question ‘How do I go about learning to ask better questions?’.

The first answer is just do it. Practice – reflect, practice – reflect, practice – reflect. Ask the best question you can think of and then learn from asking it. Remember the 10,000 hour rule. What you are doing is rewiring your brain and this takes time and ongoing applied effort. Remember that it is very helpful to think about a few questions before you enter a conversation.

The second is to see situations as opportunities to ask questions. Most of us see situations as opportunities to give our opinions. Shifting to a mind set of asking questions moves you to a mind set of learning. A byproduct of this is that you are improving your social skills – people like people who ask them questions, provided they do not step over any boundaries.

When you have formulated a question ask yourself if it is likely to move you forward. Asking yourself this will help you get in contact with the real you. If you get a negative answer then ask yourself what question would. You are really asking yourself ‘What questions do I need to ask to get to better questions?’.

Related to this are the questions: ‘Is this the question I really want the answer to? and, What is the question behind this question?’. Often the questions we ask just touch the surface of what we really want to ask. The real answer is there in our minds but is not as easily accessible and the first question that pops into our mind. Thus, the first question is valuable but only as an entry to a deeper question.

Asking yourself ‘If I answer this question do I get what I wanted?’ is another effective way of keeping your questions on track.

Our time and energy are precious things. We can use these most wisely by asking ourselves: ‘Is this the question I really want to spend my time on?’. Its kind of a ‘where the rubber hits the road question’ that can be a good reality check for what we are focusing on.

Your state of body/mind plays a big role in asking and answering powerful questions. It is important for you to know what state you are in when you ask the best questions. For example, it may be that you need to sit quietly for a time for your best questions to come up, or they might come up for you in the shower. Knowing this will make you more open to spending time in that state and becoming more aware of the questions that come up for you in that state.

Related to the above point is the role that powerful questions have in getting into an empowered state. Here is a question that will help you explore this terrain. ‘Does this question get me into the physical/mental/emotional/spiritual state that I need to be in to move forward?’.

One concluding bit of advice the writer Rudyard Kipling gave us in developing and categorizing powerful questions is contained in the following poem.

‘I keep six honest serving-men
They taught me all I knew
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who’

The sweet mind

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:26:00 -0400

In Buddhist practice there are many forms of meditation, each designed to foster aspects of our growth as human beings. One involves just maintaining basic awareness. It is to me a neutral state of mind where thoughts come and go without being grasped. Such practice provides many benefits - it calms and centers the mind, it allows us to see thoughts for what they are and it opens us to a more direct experience of the world, to name but three.

However, I have found that it leaves me feeling a bit ‘dry’ because it does not foster the idea of compassion. This was recognized by the Buddha himself and hence a practice referred to as loving kindness was developed. One effect of this practice can be stated as making the mind ‘sweet’. This is a wonderfully evocative word and I want to explore a few aspects of it here. The first is that it ascribes a feeling ‘sweetness’ to the mind. So we can move from an idea that the mind is just there to do a job to a much richer concept of the mind as having a quality of sweetness. Secondly, it sets up a dichotomy between the idea of a ‘sour’ mind and a ‘sweet’ mind. This, in turn raises many questions for us to reflect on. Is our mind sweet or sour, or sometimes sweet and sometimes sour? What does a sweet mind feel like and what does a sour mind feel like?

A more action oriented question is ‘How can we get to the place of having a sweet mind?’. Here some guidance is provided to us. It is first suggested that we cultivate the feeling of loving kindness directed to ourselves. Here we need to begin to accept that we are worthy of loving kindness and for some this is not easy. This is partly because we have not thought of ourselves in this way and it takes some getting used to and partly because we may harbour deep negative feelings towards ourselves. These may take some time to dislodge.

When we have made a little progress in seeing ourselves worthy of feeling loving kindness towards ourselves we can then project this feeling to others. Its easiest to start with people we admire greatly, close family and friends. After that we can begin to include people we have been indifferent to and those we may actively dislike. Finally, we can scatter loving kindness in all directions.

This practice benefits others but also ourselves. By cultivating feelings of loving kindness to ourselves and others our minds become sweet and we let go of a lot of negativity. To do this practice we are asked to learn to feel the quality of loving kindness and then to learn to project it to ourselves, to others and then to the world.

Part of that world are the communities that we live in. A Hopi prophesy says: ‘Create your community. Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader’. From this perspective perhaps loving kindness is the fundamental building block of empowered community.

Achieving balance

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:36:57 -0400

There is a phrase ‘things are out of balance’. It speaks volumes. Balance can sound like a simple, obvious and easily achieved thing. However, in a conversation today someone gave an example that really changed my mind about how I saw the process of achieving balance in my life. Here is the example.

Imagine you have a store front dummy complete with hands and feet. You put its hands by its side and stand it up straight. It stays there. But what if you raise one of its arms. It falls over. Why? Because it is now out of balance.

This is the place to ask a good question. It is: ‘Why don’t we fall over when we raise our arms?’. The answer is provided by the discipline of kinesiology. When we move our arms, heads, fingers or when we sneeze or cough a very sophisticated and intricate system of interrelated actions occur in many parts of our body to ensure that we retain our balance. From this I have gained a new respect for my body and its intelligence.

More that that, there is a metaphor here that while pointing to the complexity of achieving balance in our lives offers also some ideas about how to go about doing this. One idea is that perhaps there is a mechanism in our body/minds that works to ensure that we are in physical/mental/motional/spiritual balance. If we are out of balance it may be that this system is not working - perhaps because we have ignored it so long that it is out of practice or because we are too busy to give it a chance to do its work. I think that many of us can recall a time when we felt out of balance but then went on a relaxing vacation, maybe to the seaside, and came home feeling in balance again.

There are some questions that can focus our awareness and help us get back to a place where our body/minds are doing their proper job of keeping us in balance. Here are a few:

Am I in balance in my life right now?
If not, where does this imbalance originate?
What am I doing that created this imbalance?
What action or inaction could I commit 100% to taking or not taking that would move me toward balance?