10th September 2010

A lot of the sessions people ask for help with tend to revolve around stress.  The world has been slowly switching on to the fact that stress can be a problem.  There are so many ways of  dealing with stress and new ways surfacing almost daily.  We have to remember that stress can be incredibly stimulating and help us to get out of trouble as well as cause us and others around us problems.

  My personal view on stress as I write this is that it is not so much the eradication of stress that is important, but rather our way of managing it.  Mindfulness practise helps us to be aware not only of how the stress may be affecting us, but also how to respond to the affect rather than just habitually react.  Rather than repressing the stress cycle or intentionally creating more stress to 'let it out' (as oppose to just releasing the unwanted stress as it arises) , by developing mindfulness practise the stress can be channeled into a positive outcome rather than a negative or meaningless one.

Wednesday 08 September 2010

Acceptance was the last blog, but today I think I would like to write about responsibility.  Without a sense of responsibility and without taking responsibility for our own actions or non-actions (think about it) then we could also be causing more unhappiness.  The "3 poisons" I mentioned in my last post may be inherent in humans beings (or all life) but that does not mean we have to succumb to it.  The acceptance of these traits is merely for us to not get frustrated and find blame.  We can however try not to act on the impulses when they arise in our self or others.  A great teacher once said that Global Responsibility will never happen until all people can take self-responsibility.  Once the majority of people become self-responsible, then gradually Global Responsibility can emerge.  By training our minds, we are starting our own path to self-responsibility.

Thursday 2 September 2010

Acceptance is one of the most important pieces of the practise, and I have tried to explain my understanding of it, but, as my practise goes on, my understanding deepens, and I hope to share with you my thoughts.  Aside from the cutting away of the ego, it might be best to explain it with as much subject/object as possible so that it is accessable to as many as possible.

I read recently a book by Edward de Bono (the person who originated the term lateral thinking) in it he suggests human beings are naturally agressive and greedy; if we add in ignorant as well we have the classic '3 poisons'.

If we can accept this though, not just about others but about ourselves, life becomes a lot easier.

Please contact me if you would like to discuss this further.