Now, I didn't know that Jon Kabat-Zinn lives in Malaysia now. Did you? Do you know who Jon Kabat-Zinn is? He is the one who put "mindfulness meditation" on the map and is involved with the stress reduction clinic and Center for Mindfulness Medicine at U Mass medical school. He is also Professor Emeritus of Medicine.
Dr. Zinn must be an extraordinary person. He is not only so well versed in mindfulness, he is also a teacher, scientist and clinician. Those areas make him sort of legit given our current ways of thinking in this modern world. I think his philosophy is not a difficult one to understand. Every moment to moment feeling and thought is what it is all about. Living in the present moment. I know...I know, not easy to do. However, think about the amount of time we waste living in the past which almost always causes sadness or feelings that may or may not matter. If we think about all the things we have to do or get done in our future, we get stressed, I do anyway. So, I suppose that leaves the present, doesn't it?
Amazon has one of his books at their site: http://www.amazon.com/Full-Catastrophe-Living-Wisdom-Illness/dp/0385303122 They have a kindle edition which I might think about getting.
You know, I have thought about embracing this way of thinking too many times. Look at how inexpensive this is to do especially when healthcare is off the charts expensive. I will certainly start expanding my knowledge base with reading his book. I know nothing of the man except he has all my attention with this way of being.
Aside from just living in the moment and keeping our emotions from de-railing or our psyche from falling off the edge, Kabat-Zinn's practice has tremendous impact in health and chronic illness.
Before I proceed, a disclaimer, please just keep in mind that this meditation may not take the place of emergency medicine if the situation calls for it. Your healthcare providers should be aware of your involvement in this practice if you take it on.
Chronic illness if such a hardship for many folks. People live with things that may plague them everyday, so what to do? Everyone treats these things differently. Some people live with enormous amounts of pain, others live with a lot of energy issues that causes them to revolve around schedules to accommodate this. A huge part of this form of meditation, besides in my mind being realistic, is the old cognitive behavioral method of changing your thoughts. You know that saying, "you are what you eat," similarly "you are what you think?" I don't think that far off. You behave and act in ways that your thoughts are setting you out to behave! I know that when I get in arguments over silly things like politics, environmental issues and the like...my nastiness, resistive nature can be dictated by how steamed I am about something else! If I was already in a bad mood, you probably are no match for arguments I pull out of my head just to win an argument! Aaarrgg that is such an alarming way to be. Your "story" matters so little when you think about it. You need to have an impact by momentary interaction with relevant things, does that make sense? In other words, why would I try to make a point that doesn't matter in the moment?
2 comments:
This train of thought is so importand even to a seemingly "healthy" person. I have found myself de-railing my thoughts through worry. A son who is driving, a husband traveling, a union job with no contract. I could go on and on. Its not productive to worry about things out of your control but so difficult not to. I remember a saying my mother had "If you live with one foot in yesterday and one foot in tomorrow you will pee all over today" Silly but you get the point :)
Hi, I couldn't agree more. All so easy to think but doing is something else! Doesn't hurt to try though.
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