Hello! And welcome back to this season of the Arts of Living Beautifully.
This week, week 3 of 12 , we’ll explore MINDFULNESS, drawing from Buddhist Mindfulness (sati),1 the more modern clinical science of mindfulness2 and my own exploratory creative psychology3.
Our Learning Goals this week: Cultivating mental mastery, equanimity, and sustained passion for the crafts that matter to us.
Our Guiding Question: What if we prioritized PRESENCE over PRODUCTIVITY?
“When walking, walk. When eating, eat.”
— Zen saying
“When your heart is true, the universe will conspire to support you.”
—Unknown
A Personal Riff on Productivity and Presence
Maria Popova, one of my favorite modern newsletter writers, has this great interview with Tim Ferris (#39), where she describes the “delicate balance” between presence and productivity. She cares about the feeling of presence more than churning out two pieces a week. (Which, incidentally, she does, and has done, for at least a decade.) Still, for her, reading and writing is a labor of love.
Fixating too much on productivity is, ironically, counterproductive.
And focusing on presence can, ironically, be productive.
Besides, when we read (or listen to music), so much of what we’re responding to, I believe, is the state of consciousness that produced those words. The reader gets our joy, our enthusiasm, the quality of our consolidated presence.
I want to read the newsletter of someone who cares deeply about their craft, whose craft is their philosophy, whose philosophy is who they are. They’re not writing to publish, they’re writing to become new, to write themselves.
Measuring output against a timeline, I run out of steam and fall back on what’s comfortable: scrolling, and saving ideas for some imaginary “later.”
Prioritizing full presence yields the writing, I hope, that is so personal it becomes universal. There’s an attention to the moment that’s inseparable from attention to the craft.
And this is where a mindfulness practice comes in.
“Practice 30 more years.”
— Zen Saying
“We don’t want to overcomplicate it just because we have a lot of time to do it.”
—Overheard
How I Teach Mindfulness
Mindfulness practice can help us open to a love that wants nothing in return, to cultivate the unconditional positive regard at the heart of helping relationships, and to strengthen the self-acceptance that often lies at the threshold of growth.
Two big misconceptions I want to address up front:
(1) Mindfulness is not about clearing your mind of thoughts
That’s impossible, for one, and for two, it’s inaccurate. When you practice, you’re not stopping the arising of thoughts. You’re aware of the thoughts that arise without judgment. You don’t say, “ooh, this thought, that’s a good one!” or “arg, this thought, what a bad one!” You don’t say, “yes, I am so good at emptying my mind!”
You notice, for example, how many thoughts arise, and how relaxing it is to let them arise, without forcing “good ones” to try and stay and without pushing “ bad ones” out. You notice what minds do: they judge, evaluate, and assess. And thank goodness for that! We just want to practice creating space from these judgments and evaluations. To not identify so strongly with them.
My teacher taught us that we could begin to change the way we see ourselves if we changed the way we talked about our experience…. more specifically, if we used language that reflects the teachings of the Buddha.
Instead of saying “I have anxiety,” you say, “thoughts and feelings of anxiety are arising in the impermanent process I mistakenly identify as a self.”
Mindfulness practice strengthens this capacity to say this last sentence and mean it. As we get a little space from the mental chatter, we might see a glint of what we are beyond our attachments and identifications.
(2) Mindfulness meditation is not sitting still, or following the breath
Sitting and breathing is important, no doubt. But mindfulness of the breath is only one possible place to begin, and, according to my teacher, can be a tricky place to start. It was easier for me to start with a mindfulness of the body practice, which I’ll share below.
But more, mindfulness practice can be extended into walking, cooking, eating, writing, and more. Whenever we de-limit a set amount of time to intentionally attend to each moment without judgment, we are practicing. And for some — like those with a tendency to over-think — walking meditation presents a powerful option.
Beginning a Mindfulness of the Body Practice in One Minute
“You can’t be healthy if you’re not there …and the consequences of being in one state of mind or another are enormous. Virtually all of our suffering … is the direct or indirect consequence of our mindlessness.”
―Ellen Langer, writer and scholar
Get comfortable where you are, settle in, and set a timer for one minute.
Choose a single spot on your body that doesn’t hurt. I’ll choose, for example, my sit bones, where they meet the chair.
Mark the beginning of your practice with a sound or cue — I guess this could be just tapping the “start” button on your phone timer.
During your practice, put your attention on the point of the body that you chose. This is your “anchor.” Notice the thoughts and feelings and sensations that arise. And when they do, gently bring your attention back to the chosen point of your body.
End the practice by coming out of it and resuming how you normally engage with your thoughts, feelings, and sensations.
Repeat the practice at least once a day.
Beginning a Mindfulness of Writing Practice
I wrote about my own practice of mindful writing here.
If you want a to join a community of practice who values mindfulness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, simply reply with your name to hold a spot in an upcoming course in Writing the Good Life. There are currently a few spots open next round. Information and Testimonials Here.
May the joy of an ongoing practice be with you,
Sean
P.S. This lovely poem: “Hokusai Says” by Roger Keyes, an American professor of East Asian Studies, quoted in Mark Williams and Danny Penman’s book Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World.
P.P.S. Thank you for streaming “Cathedral Pines” on Spotify or Apple! Been steeping with awe and beginners mind. More on that next week, perhaps.
In the Buddhist context, mindfulness (sati) conditions concentration (samadhi), which mutually condition insight (vipassana).
In our modern scientific context, mindfulness practices lessen stress, anxiety, depression drug addiction, to name a few.
Henriksen, Danah et al. “Mindfulness and creativity: Implications for thinking and learning.” Thinking skills and creativity vol. 37 (2020): 100689. doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2020.100689