why mindfulness is better than chocolate

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    ferent times of the day and night asking what theywere doing, what they were thinking and how happy

    they felt.1

    The analysis, published by Harvard Universitypsychologists Matthew Killingsworth and DanielGilbert in Science magazine, revealed three impor !

    tant facts. First, people were not thinking about

    what they were doing 47 per cent of the time. Sec!

    ond, people were unhappier when their minds werewandering than when they were not. And third, whatpeople were thinking was a better predictor of theirhappiness than what they were doing.

    The researchers summarised: A human mind isa wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an un !

    happy mind. The ability to think about what is nothappening is a cognitive achievement that comes atan emotional cost.

    Long ago, Buddhists reached much the sameconclusion. An ancient tale tells of a novice whoasked an enlightened monk to reveal the secret ofhappiness. The monk told him, I eat, and I walk andI sleep. When the novice replied that he also didthese things, the monk replied, When I eat, I eat.When I walk, I walk. When I sleep, I sleep.

    Buddha and the Harvard Psychology Depart !

    ment are most denitely on the same page when itcomes to mindfulness. And the Harvard ndings are

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    rich with implications for human behaviour.But what concerns us right now is chocolate.The study shows were at our happiest when our

    mind is not wanderingthat is, when were in astate of mindfulness. But the nature of peoples ac !

    tivities had only a modest impact on whether theirminds wandered. It would seem that whether werewashing the dishes or eating the most mouth-water !

    ingly delicious Belgian praline, were just as likely tohave a wandering mind. Eating chocolate is noguarantee that were thinking about what were do !

    ing.Which is why mindfulness will always trump

    chocolate as a means of delivering happiness.Perhaps not surprisingly, theres one human ac !

    tivity where mindfulness is consistently high: sex.Only 10 per cent of people reported their minds wan !

    dering during this activity, so if Id called this bookWhy mindfulness is better than sex, I would havefound myself on much shakier ground.

    Incidentally, one cant help speculating on whatthose 10 per cent of people who reported wanderingminds during sex were actually thinking about.Could the old clich of grocery lists be true? Moreresearch, please!

    I will admit, however, to being a little mis !

    chievous in creating a false dichotomy between

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    Although the difference between meditationand mindfulness will be described in more detaillater, at the outset its important to note the distinc !

    tion between the two words. When were beingmindful , were paying attention to the present mo !

    ment, deliberately and non-judgementally. Whenwere meditating , were being mindful of a specicobjectsuch as the sensation of the breath at thetip of our nostrilsfor a sustained period of time.Meditation is, if you like, the training ground formindfulness. Regular meditation enhances ourability to be mindful. We can all enjoy mindfullydrinking a cup of coffee without the benet of med !

    itation practice, but our capacity for mindfulness isgreatly enhanced if we meditate regularly.

    Doctors these days are as likely to recommendmeditation for stress management as they are toprescribe medication. Many of the worlds highestprole consumer companies, such as Google, Apple,Facebook and Twitter, actively support meditation intheir workplaces, as do some of the largest nancialinstitutions, accounting rms, manufacturers andother corporations. No best practice managementschool is complete these days without a mindfulleadership program. The worlds most elite athletes,sports stars and performing artists employ tech !

    niques borrowed from the mindfulness toolbox.

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    Mindfulness is a foundation practice across the in !

    creasingly popular practices of yoga, tai chi and avariety of martial arts. Meditation programs aredemonstrably among the most successful deployedin prisons to reduce re-offence rates. A wave of re !

    search since the turn of the century at laboratories inCalifornia, New England, Europe and Australia isfocusing on the emerging discipline of contemplativeneuroscience. Even the US Marines have got in onthe act, coaching soldiers in meditation-basedexercises before deploying them in the worlds mostdangerous war zones.

    Mindfulness practices are millennia old, origi !

    nating in eastern traditions, notably Buddhism,which has extensively practised, debated, docu !

    mented and taught a range of techniques for a va !

    riety of purposes. Given that Buddhism has at itsheart a reverence for all forms of life, the idea ofteaching meditation to soldiers about to parachuteinto battle may well raise the eyebrows of some.But in describing the exercise as like doing push-ups for the brain, the US Army general respons-ible pithily summarised the way meditation hasbeen reframed: just as a healthy body demandsregular exercise, goes this paradigm, a healthy

    mind requires the same. 2

    This move to the mainstream has inevitably

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    transformative power, the authentic reason Bud !

    dhist monks meditate. This explanation is left be !

    hind, overlooked, dumbed down or never even ex !

    plored by some contemporary mindfulness teach !

    ersand not necessarily with bad intentions. Mind !

    fulness Lite is an easier sell to a wide audience,and cant the world use as many mindful people aspossible, albeit of the push-ups for the brain vari !

    ety? Besides, the benets of meditation are so nu !

    merous and now so well established by re !

    searchers that you dont need to take people toofar along the journey for them to start noticing thefavourable physical and psychological effects, sowhy go further?

    At the heart of this reluctance to venture intothe heartland of meditation, Im guessing, is also acertain fear. When people are given the tools to ob !

    serve the true nature of their own minds for them !

    selves, the experience is a subtle but in-evitablegame-changer. When the rug is well and trulypulled out from beneath the confection of the selfwe have come to believe ourselves to be, we cannever experience ourselves in quite the same wayagain. Like being able to see the alternative per !

    spective in one in those famous optical illusions,we can never go back to our former innocence.Our view of our self changes forever.

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    East and West

    In writing this book, Im doing so not as a Buddhistmonktempting though the prospect of a lifetimesfree catering may benor as someone claimingany preternatural mental abilities. The prosaictruth is that Im a regular middle-aged corporate

    consultant with many of the usual personal, busi!

    ness and nancial responsibilities. In the midst ofthis typically busy 21st-century life, I have never !

    theless found, in meditation and mindfulness, prac !

    tices that have transformed my experience of reali !

    ty dramatically for the better. And I know from talk!

    ing to other meditators that its the same for them,too.

    My own meditation journey has been informedby Tibetan Buddhism, in particular the lineage es !

    tablished in Australia by the pre-eminent GesheAcharya Thubten Loden and, more directly,through the teachings Ive received from my kindand precious teacher, Les Sheehy. While theknowledge and experience I have acquired hasbeen guided by them, any failure in my attempt topass on their profound wisdom is very much myown doing.

    While I will refer to Buddhist sources and in !

    sights where relevant, its important to note that

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    the study of our own minds isnt about theory orbelief. Its about seeing whats there for ourselves.Ill also refer to research from scientic endeav !

    ours in elds as varied as psychology, neuro !

    science, medicine, genetics and quantum physics.One of the joys of being alive in the early part

    of the21st century is witnessing the convergence of somany different dynamicsancient and contempo !

    rary, outer and inner, eastern and westernin ar !

    r i v i n g a t a h o l i s t i c u n d e r s t a n d i n g o fconsciousness.

    For some people, the proliferation of empiricalstudies showing the benets of mindfulness en !

    courages personal exploration. Others have amore intuitive understanding of the value of thispractice. I hope in this book to share ideas that willinspire both intuitive and analytical thinkers, bothleft-brain and right-brain thinkers.

    I have also intentionally interwoven chapterson mindfulness theory with those explaining howto practise meditation. As fascinating as conceptsof mindfulness are, the only way they can have apowerful personal impact is if we apply them.Ideas, theories and evidence only get us so far.Then we need to move beyond concept.

    In my previous non-ction books, Buddhism for

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    Busy People , Hurry Up and Meditate and Enlight !

    enment to Go ,Ive shared some of the experiences of my own

    journey, andI do so in this book, too. This isnt because Im therepository of especially arcane insights, but be !

    cause I hope youll nd in this more personal ac !

    countrather than a straightforward exposition ofthe subjectthemes and discoveries you can re !

    late to, landmarks that may be useful in your own -exploration of the mind.

    An outline of the mindfulness journey

    We begin our exploration with the nuts and bolts ofmindfulnesswhat it is, why it works and how wecan benet from it in basic but profound ways.

    Stress management? Certainly! Boosting our im!

    mune systems and pushing back our biologicalclocks? That too! The physical and psychologicalbenets of mindfulness, even if taken no furtherthan this, are well worth getting out of bed ten min !

    utes earlier for every morning.We then move onto the possibilities offered by

    mindfulness in changing the content of your ongo !

    ing conversation with yourself. Chatter, chatter,

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    chatter. Were all up to it. But are there recurringthemes in this constant stream of self-talk thatdont serve you well? For example, are you a wor !

    rier, constantly anticipating all the things that couldpossibly go wrong then convincing yourself thatthe worst outcome is almost certain? Or are you avictim, feeling you can never make any headwaybecause of your circumstances, past events or thepeople in your life? Or are you someone whostruggles to nd any compelling purpose or happi !

    ness beyond lling your days with as many plea !

    surable distractions as possible?The combination of mindfulness with what has

    become known as cognitive behaviour training isone o f the mos t power fu l t r ans format ionmodalities. Creating space amid all the mental agi !

    tation, discovering that we can become the ob !

    servers of our thoughts rather than their unwittingslavesthis is another extraordinary consequenceof a more mindful life. Its a consequence that al !

    lows us to get proactive about what goes on in ourmind, take charge of our own mental trajectoriesand thereby exercise choice over the destinies towhich our every thought propels us.

    The main eventmind itself

    And then we come to mind itself. What it is. What

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    it is not. Were no longer doing push-ups herewere onto something much more exciting! Illguide you through the practical steps by which youcan experience your own mind for yourself, not asa concept or intellectual idea, but directly and rst !

    hand. Youll be empowered to experience the na !

    ture of your own consciousness, and if youre any !

    thing like most people whove never tried this be !

    fore, youll nd, in those rst glimpses ofthe pure nature of your own mind, an extraordinarytruth. Youll see for yourself how your mind is, quiteliterally, innite. How it has no beginning and no end.How, far from being some existential void, its imbuedwith the most profound happiness-giving qualities.

    Youll experience the paradox that even thoughyou set out to explore your mind, the result is asmuch a feeling as it is a perception. Its an experi !

    ence beyond concept and for which words aretherefore wholly inadequate, but that may be hint !

    ed at using such terms as oceanic tranquillity andradiant love.

    Even the briefest encounter with this state islife-changing, because when we can free our !

    selves from the agitation or dullness that pervadesour minds and encounter our own true natures, ifonly momentarily, we can never go back to believ !

    ing ourselves to be nothing more than a bag of

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    bones. We have experienced a dimension of beingthat transcends all our usual ideas of self.

    We have come home.When we begin to explore our own mind, we

    usually do so for reasons of self-discovery. But aninteresting thing happens, because in experiencingour own true nature, we come to recognise that

    just as we are, others are too. Our everyday expe !

    rience of people is one in which we habitually ob !

    serve and judge based on what we see, at a con !

    ventional level, as their apparent characteristics.Discovering that these characteristics are, ulti !

    mately, as temporary and insignicant as our own,a shift occurs. Others may continue the waytheyve always seemed to be, but now we knowbetter. Aware of the more important way in whichthey exist, as well as the difculties and chal !

    lenges they must inevitably endure because oftheir profoundly self-limiting beliefs, our compas !

    sion quite naturally arises. Mindfulness is nolonger just about me. It becomes panoramic.

    I can think of nothing more enduringly fascinat !

    ing or life-enhancing than the practice of mindful !

    ness. No matter where you are on your own jour !

    ney, I hope you nd in this book fresh insights andinspiration to encourage your further exploration.In particular, its my heartfelt wish that you may

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    abide, however eetingly, in your own unobstruct !

    ed mind. For there youll discover that your owntrue nature is one of timeless and transcendentalbliss.

    Chocolate, schmocolate. Show me the medita !

    tion cushion!