The Practice of Your Life

The Exercise and Pursuit of a Consciously Created Life

Creating the space between stimulus and response

Jul 30
2008

What’s a uniquely human ability? We are very likely the only animals on the planet that can create a space between stimulus and response. Actually I don’t know if this can be proven, but it most certainly is a major aspect of being human.

Human beings have the ability to choose what their response will be for any given stimulus, and yes even fight or flight ones like the response to being burnt. But a focus on extreme life or death responses is not helpful for what I’m pointing to here. I’m talking about the everyday “normal” stimuli that we are exposed to.

Every one of us has the ability to consider an incoming stimulus (something happens), think about it (make it mean something) and then respond (take some action or ignore… Continue reading

Planning as a practice

Jul 28
2008

What is it about last minute that focuses the mind?

I recently had the experience of planning for a move and I gave myself sufficient time. However, two weeks before the move it dawns on me that for a whole host of reasons a later moving date would be preferable to the one I chose. By then of course the original date was locked in with at least one of the players involved and this caused upset and breakdown. Angry people.

Why is it that I only really focus my mind on an important event when it’s too late to make any changes? Or the changes then come at great cost. What causes this and how to deal with it?

Can it be avoided?

Probably not… Continue reading

So many answers

Jul 25
2008

There’s the great and not-so-great (sorry famous) religions, there’s mysticism, shamanism,the new age movement, quantum physics, positive thinking etc., etc. (Smarter people can list much more.)

Educating myself about as many of the above and unmentioned as I can reasonably handle is part of my life practice. So when my friend Julia invited me to come learn about Kabbalah at a free introduction seminar I jumped at the opportunity.

My focus here is not about Kabbalah, a subject that has great interest for me, but about my observation of the people in attendance.

(If you’re fortunate enough to live or be in New York city and are at all curious to learn about Kaballah, consider visiting the Kabbalah center on E 48th between 3rd and Lexington.)

I arrived late and was greeted… Continue reading

The Living Room of Your Mind

Jul 23
2008

In my last post, I wrote about naming the voice in your head. You know the voice. The one that’s always got a running commentary on whatever is happening, happened or will happen.

Well, turns out there may be several different voices that we listen to (Big Mind, Big Heart) and my main point is that you don’t have to listen to any voice that insists on telling you stories that don’t support you being your best possible self.

If you’re not one of the millions of people that listen to the voices in their heads like it’s the most exciting news channel, then bully for you. (Never understood that expression.)

But you know people that do, and you probably have noticed that they have no idea that they have a… Continue reading

Naming IT (the voice in your head)

Jul 22
2008

If you haven’t noticed the voice in your head by now you probably have never tried to meditate. In my life practice I have some fun with the voice in my head by giving it a name.

Once I realized that this voice usually has nothing really great or insightful to say to me, and that this voice is not me (very deep), I realized that I could have some fun with it.

During a course at Landmark Education called the Wisdom course, it occurred to me to give IT (the voice in my head) a name.

Now what name would be appropriate for a voice that is rude, dis-empowering, looks for the worst in other people, expects the worst possible outcome, and is intent on being heard.

Hmmmm, I thought, and… Continue reading

Believing lies

Jul 20
2008

In a really great book, “Finding Your North Star“, Martha Beck talks about believing lies. In other words we often believe things about ourselves that aren’t true. It’s often some variation of “I am (something bad)…” or “I am not (something good).”

Maxwell Maltz in “The New Pyscho-Cybernetics” talks about your mind as a sort of great homing device, that will accept any instructions you give without judgment, and then goes to work getting you to the destination of what it is you put in. Kind of like your own personal GPS navigation system for getting whatever it is you say about yourself or your life.

I prefer Maltz’s view. Thinking of disempowering beliefs as believing lies is not helpful because it makes you think there is something… Continue reading

Tears from joy and love

Jul 16
2008

The other day my friend Brenda posted a video of a guy dancing on her blog “Scrapbooks for the Soul“, and she said it made her cry. It shows a very white guy, doing a very white jig in different places all over the world. Now I’m out of the closet when it comes to expressing my feminine side, so I fully expected to have the tears welling up, but at the start of it I had doubts about the emotional value of the piece. I was reaching for the tissues by the end.

Then another friend sent me another clip showing people walking around with a sign saying “free hugs”. Tissues also. Both are below (need to have good sound with your system to appreciate fully)… Continue reading