Your Emerging Nature

Emergence is the way of nature.  A seed falls as a dead pod from a tree.  There is an almighty ‘thud’ in that silent microcosm on the garden.  The ants who had just moments before had marked out a trail to food by their pheromones have been interrupted as this large pod now blocks their rout. They adapt quickly, make their way around it. In fact, there being a small crack in the seed pod, a couple of scout ants check it out and find the sweet seeds are good for eating.  They set to work. This all happens below our level of awareness constantly.  Within a couple of seasons, there is new growth where the remaining seeds fell, a new home for insects and a future nesting place for birds.  This is emergence.

Order arises out of chaos.  Emergence is the interruption of the status quo.  It is the essence of change.  Within our life, we are faced with constant changes, some small and seemingly insignificant, some huge as in those events which shock and deeply trouble us – loss of a job, physical or mental illness, children leaving home, or the loss of a loved one.  These life events are part of the emerging process.

Most of us find it very difficult to cope with change. In fact, most often it is resisted head on.  There is one truth about emergence. If we don’t work with it, it will work all over us.

Within emergence are the seeds for order.  These seeds are not logical, sequential or predictable, yet new order arises.  In an earthquake, for example, people rally to assist, local people immediately help each other, outside organizations come together to assist, new organizations are formed to help with the psychological trauma and grief, new ways of designing earthquake resistant buildings are engaged.

When I was designing the Cloud Thinking process I observed that emergence had two sides to it.  One which was dark and dank and the other which was alive with growth and opportunity.  The challenge was to dig deeper to tap into the energy of the side off emergence that held hope.  I discovered that emergence is not separate from us. It is part of us.  Within our story of growth and unfolding are the narratives of survival; the narratives of skills, gathered wisdom, talents and values. By tapping into our stories, we are able to tap into the energy which stimulates strong emergence which we can begin to work with.

The second step is to make meaning of the stories in relation to the problem at hand.  It’s through meaning-making, coupled with the stories of hope and wisdom that gives us the material to design a way forward. When I was a monk in China, I had met a husband and wife who were both profoundly deaf.  They had been rejected by their families and had come to settle in a poor mountain village. At first a couple of the local villagers gave them a small few meters of earth in which they could grow their own food.  It was hardly enough space to feed them.  They searched for meaning.  They needed more space yet each person in the village coveted their own space. Yet, they acknowledge the small generosity given to them. What if they could reciprocate the generosity?  They offered a few meters of their own space where a neighbour could grow some different vegetable. Perhaps they could share vegetables. The two families decided to link their space.  Eventually they involved the rest of the village and dreamed of more land to grow watermelons not previously grown but was a good cash crop.  Collectively the village asked permission from the local mayor who granted more space.  Within a short period, their village became prosperous employing others to help in the harvesting of watermelons.  One strategic question opened possibilities leading to innovation and prosperity.

We need not despair when life’s problems beset us. We can choose to resist or we can chose to work with emergence and grow to new heights.  Each person is endowed with a spark that when ignited becomes a fire igniting the hearts and minds of many.  Life’s chaos can dis-empower you often prompting you to search empowerment from others.  But your power is within yourself. Your light is within you.  Emergence is the way of nature. Your nature is the way of making meaning of emerging and rising to new life.

What’s the Meaning to All of This?

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Throughout the history of human kind, we have tried to find meaning in life’s events and specifically during times of chaos, pain, loss and intense stress and trauma.

Developmental psychologist Robert Kegan wrote: “The human being is meaning making. For the human, what evolving amounts to is the evolving of systems of meaning.”¹

Victor Frankl in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, makes reference to his survival of the Holocaust and speaks about how finding meaning in intense suffering gave hope and survival.

Early in history the Buddha saw the intense suffering of his time and as a result of deep meditative practices and spiritual experiences found meaning to the suffering and a way forward.

Not all of us are subject to intense suffering and pain, though on the continuum of daily struggle it can seem that we are often at the top end of the struggle graph.  None of us are immune from life’s problems and problems can confront us out of the blue without warning. I am yet to meet someone who absolutely relishes problems and doesn’t have that feeling in the pit of their gut –  that is, unless they view problems from a very different mindset.

When I began developing Cloud Thinking and the Cloud 2 Go program I had worked over 25 years in the field of mind health and assisted countless number of people find meaning through their mental illness and struggles and go on to live meaningful and full lives.  I realized how powerful meaning making is in the process towards wholeness and success, whether that is for an individual or for an organization or corporation.

Finding meaning through adversity and finding an appreciation as to the process of evolving from the struggle has been the focus of much psychological research. Research exploring the possibility for personal growth following the struggle with adversity has increased in clinical and positive psychology since the mid-1990s. There is considerable evidence demonstrating that people often report some quite profound and positive changes as a result of their struggle with highly stressful and challenging circumstances (Helgeson et al. 2006; Linley and Joseph 2004).²

However, the process of meaning making is arrived at through narrative and stories.  We all tell stories.  When we sit down to talk about the day’s events or how such and such a problem has occurred, we tell story.  So often in problem solving technologies this element is missed or if it is included it is kept very brief and only concentrating on the aspects that caused the problem.  We will always gravitate to what we are looking at. If we look at problems, that’s what we will find – problems! However, as in the Cloud Thinking process, when we look at the positive stories in relation to the problem a new meaning becomes apparent.  It is through your stories that contain the essence of who you really are as well as your core strengths.  Jan (not her real name) told me her story of traumatic abuse as a child and subsequent lengthy admissions to psychiatric hospitals over the years.  On the surface of her stories there was absolutely nothing affirmative. Yet, we sat there together. In a silence at the end of her narrative she smiled. I asked her about the smile. “I survived, though, didn’t I?” Indeed, she did! In the Cloud process, she was able to make meaning of the survival and tease out the key elements of what helped her survive so that with these she could begin to restructure her life – the life she dreamed of having.

When meaning is arrived at and we can gain insight from the material from our own personal stories we can then take this material and begin to shape it into a new design. This is generative learning. It is a way of generating an emergence of new life from what went before.

Life is more than processes and emerging.  It is a total lived experience.  In the quote at the beginning of this article Joseph Campbell, mythologist and philosopher, in his book The Power of Myth, is right when he says that people are seeking more than meaning in life.  We would be severely short changed if that’s all we get.  People are looking for a vital experience of being fully alive! It is more than coincidence that two of the world’s greatest spiritual teachers, Jesus Christ and the Buddha saw their work as helping people realize (that is, make real) the fullness of life available to them. The Buddha spoke of being Awakened, that is, the opposite of sleeping or death – awakened to a deeper truth. Jesus spoke of enabling people to have life in all its fullness.  What is meaning if it can’t be lived out in aliveness?

The Cloud 2 Go process helps us go beyond meaning to using the material of our life to make a new and vibrant life.  Problems will always occur.  Problems are the launching pads to emerging growth and innovation.  We can choose to avoid the problems of life or react to them or we can use the hidden energy and potential contained in our own stories to craft new and meaningful horizons.

So, what’s the meaning to all of this? Life, in its fullness.

 

1. Robert Kegan The Evolving Self : Problem and Process in Human Development, 1983
2. Helgeson, V. S., Reynolds, K. A., & Tomich, P. L. (2006). A meta-analytic review of benefit finding and growth. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(5), 797–816Joseph, S., & Linley, P. A. (2005). Positive adjustment to threatening events: An organismic valuing theory of growth through Trauma. Review of General Psychology, 9(3), 262–280.

 

The Magic of Problems

 

We all have problems.  Problems occur possibly hundreds or more times in a day.  Dashing across a busy road on the way to work in a rush to catch the train at the station the other side poses its problems; not big ones on the grand scale of things but nonetheless solutions need to be found rapidly to negotiate the traffic and make a safe and successful crossing.  Most of this is done on automatic pilot – thankfully – as we don’t need to be conscious of the minute by minute decisions the brain is making all the time.  However, there are other types of problems.  There is that credit card that needs to be paid or the endless bills that need to be dealt with; a partner with whom we are having conflict with, performance at work that is not up to expectations and so on.  How do we deal with them?  Of course, we could eliminate the word “how” in the hope they will nicely slip away, but often they don’t.  They seem to grow in magnitude.   So we’re back to the “How”.

My guess is that you, like me, were never informed at school how to deal with those life problems. Sure, we were taught how to solve mathematical problems and chemistry problems but none of this helped me when my first relationship was on the rocks. We mostly deal with problems on default mode – make them go away as quickly as possible with little thought to long term outcomes, or run away from them. In other words, shoot them or mute them.  Of course, we do that on a global scale. Problems are solved by shooting and bombing.  Problems are solved by taking anti-depressants, booze, weed or other chemical cocktails.  Long term we come out the other end with greater problems. All very chaotic and messy stuff.

One of the major ‘problems’ with ‘problems’ (forgive the pun!) is that they are grossly misunderstood.  Problems hold the seeds for change and growth.  It is through problems which are creatively approached that we learn, grow and develop.  What if we could find a way to approach problems that would elegantly move us to new growth and innovation? This question kept prodding me over a period of time until I developed a process called ‘Cloud 2 Go’, a new approach to problem solving.

Cloud Thinking is not just a process for solving problems or for change. It is an entire mind-set. It is a mind-set that views problems not as things to be avoided, eradicated or fixed as quickly as possible but rather as spring boards for growth. Without ‘problems’’ there would be no growth. We would plunge into stagnancy.

Change is one of the most challenging aspects of life. The only thing consistent in life is change.  All of nature evolves through cycles of change.  Humans tend to resist change and thus create big problems for themselves as a result.  Much psychological illness and stress are the result of resisting change.  Cloud Thinking enables us to ride the waves of change with elegance and insight.

The interest in Cloud Thinking and the Cloud 2 Go program is growing rapidly with people now studying both basic Cloud 2 Go as well as Coaching Accreditation.

Learn the magic of emergence through problems.  Learn how to enrich your life and grow.

Smart Confidence

Have you ever found yourself saying or doing something which afterwards you feel “stupid” about to the point where you want to find the nearest hole and disappear? If you are like me I’m sure there have been occasions but if it happens frequently then there is a chance your self-esteem is taking a beating. Have you found yourself avoiding certain social situations or workplace interaction through the fear of looking foolish?  Chances are you are struggling with full-blown low self-esteem.  Low self-esteem can lead to a general lack of self-confidence displaying recurrent self-defeating behaviours, even depression and anxiety.

In most cases of low self-esteem there has been some initial trigger incident or event that has created beliefs about yourself and the world around.  If, for example, you were repeatedly told that you are stupid or that everyone thinks you are stupid, the chances are you will believe this and unconsciously behave as a result of the belief.  Some people may find themselves swinging in the opposite direction and become perfectionists with the unconscious view of proving people wrong about you.  In Neuro-Reprocessing we call these triggers either micro or macro traumas.

What we know is that the human brain records a traumatic incident in the same way whether it is a large trauma or a seemingly small incident.  The good news is that these triggers can be stopped rapidly.

When a neural pathway has been set up as a result of a trauma the trigger, like an alarm, will go off repeatedly and predictably when faced with a situation which the brain relates back to the initiating trigger.  Each time the trigger is released, the accompanying emotions re-enforce the stimulus.  Many therapies attempt to change thought patterns but often there is only short term relief.  For strong self-confidence and esteem to return the neural pathway must be changed.

Neuro-Reprocessing Therapy (NRT) uses ‘codes’ and visual stimuli to change neural pathways.  It is rapid and without side effects.

June (not her real name) felt a very low confidence around issues of learning.  Her team manager had offered her a new role which required June to learn a new IT system.  June kept on putting off the opportunity making various excuses to her manager.  She even  found herself trying to avoid him in the workplace.  Finally, June was told that if she didn’t learn the new system, paid for by the company and in company time, she would have to be made redundant.  Her job was on the line.  She consulted me about Neuro-Reprocessing Therapy.

During her first session she recalled a time when she was at primary school and was asked to talk about her week end at the beach. June was nervous in front of the class and as a result she wet herself.  She didn’t think the teacher had seen her but her class mate sitting next to her began to laugh.  This ‘trigger’ was enough to have a detrimental effect on June’s schooling and later job opportunities.  After two sessions of NRT, June no longer felt fearful of doing the IT course.  She now has been given an increase in salary and almost one year later still has strong self-confidence.

NRT is not a costly process and is rapid.  It is also available Online if you live distant from Sydney.

Beyond the Use-By Date

Excerpts from Shades of Bliss, a book in the making.

Ever since I was able to read I was fascinated by the mysterious, magical and faraway places.  Even as I write I recall a moment at primary school, sitting on the ‘story-mat’, fixed in fabulous world of fantasy as I listened to my teacher read the story of the Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. The story tells of a tree deep in the woods that reaches far above the clouds into the sky and where there are magical worlds inhabited by quite colourful characters. Of course, as a child I loved to climb trees. There was my favourite tree, a Birch tree, set in the back yard of our old weatherboard home in Highett, Melbourne.  I loved this birch tree with its smooth white bark and small gentle leaves.  Its top reached far above the roof of our house. I can’t remember how old I was, perhaps about eight years of age as I would gaze up the top figuring out how I could climb it as well as mustering the courage to do so.

The day came and I climbed. I eventually reached the top and could see over the roof tops of the other houses into the distance. I had found a new world from the top of the birch tree. I sat in the fork of two branches. It felt comfortable. I had climbed above the world below. I could see things from a different perspective. I suddenly heard the back door of the house close behind as my mother had come outside to hang the washing on the line. “Look mum!” I called out with excitement. “I’m up here! It’s great here! Come up here, mum.” I really wanted my mother to be able to climb up the tree and join me in this new world where all seemed so serene amongst the leaves of the old birch tree.  My mother worked hard. She worked hard to send me to a good school working in a sandwich bar during the day then coming home to do the house chores and cook dinner. I felt her pain. I wanted so much for her to be able to join me in this world far above her work and drudgery. She smiled up at me. “I will one day.  But I have too much to do at the moment.” I felt a momentary sadness as my eyes gazed into the distant horizon and could spy the fluffy clouds far away.

There is always too much to do at the moment.  That is a common catch phrase in our daily life. ‘Too much to do’ and ‘too busy’.  When do we ever have the time to climb the tree and see the world from a different perspective? Children see the world from a different perspective.  They most often have to look up. As we grow older we look ‘down’ – on each other, on the world, on ourselves.  The Tao Te Ching speaks of being as a little child in our mindset to understand the mysteries of the Tao.

Trees are very significant in ancient folklore.  They link the heaven with the earth.  They can teach us so much if we would take the time to be with them.  But even I moved on.  The time came when I forgot to climb trees. I moved on into my teen years.

As a young teen boy I liked to be in solitary places amongst nature. I was never content to go where my friends wanted to go along safe and known tracks.  I always wanted to go down a different road.  My school holidays were often spent with my uncle who lived on the edge of the town of Ballarat in a small cottage.  It was close to natural forested area and my uncle would encourage me to go trekking during the day.  There I discovered small streams of fresh water flowing over glittering white quartz rock.

I had packed my rucksack early that autumn morning. I wanted an early start to trek alongside a small stream I had discovered the day before as the path seemed to lead to some waterfall I could hear in the distance. However, the previous day there was not enough time to explore this path.  In the kitchen my uncle was stoking the wood fire with freshly split wood.  Amidst the aroma of burning wood the porridge was bubbling away like a volcanic mud pot. “Where are you off to today?” inquired my uncle.  “I just want to discover a path near the pine forest.” “Good” he replied in a rather matter of fact way as if it was the necessary and normal thing to do. My uncle always encouraged such adventure where my dear aunt would always be a bag of nerves.  Fortunately she was not up at this hour as I liked the early morning hours. My uncle also rose early. He would call it “the best part of the day”. I was never quite sure if he meant it was the best time as my ever nagging aunt was out of sight at this time or if he enjoyed its natural peace and solitude. Perhaps it was a combination of the two.  “Here, I’ve cut some sandwiches for you.” My uncle offered me a brown paper bag with sandwiches within.  He was also always considerate of my needs.  “Come back before dark. Aunt Maude will give us all a bagging if you’re not back for dinner.” I needed no reminding!

There was a thin mist as I set out down the road leading to the pine forest. The air was quite cold against my face but I felt happy. I was happy I could explore a new path and wondered what adventures it would bring.  I felt happy because I was free. I was free to breathe the air and to see things others would not notice.

The road became narrow as it formed a walking track making its way through pine trees. I stopped to watch some dew drops perched at the end of some pine needles. The fresh scent of pine filled my nostrils.  I followed a stream of water.  I stooped to touch the water to feel it flow between my fingers. It was icy cold.  I could sense it was like electricity tingling against my fingers. I imagined it was filling me with its mountain energy. It was invigorating.

It was not long before the morning mist lifted and sun began to bathe my shoulders. As I walked along the path I glanced at the white quartz rock like chunks of snow.  I was absorbed in the natural beauty. Suddenly this absorption ceased as my attention was drawn to a glass like reflection coming from the ground. I bent down to see what it was. There before me was the most beautiful quartz crystal the size of my small finger. In deep amazement and excitement I picked it up, rubbed the soil off against my trousers and held it to the sun. What gift was this that nature should bestow upon me? Was this the prize of the road less travelled? My mind must have spun a thousand legends as it contemplated this wonder of the earth beneath me. I placed it in my pocket sure that the forest spirit had given me a reward. My attention was again diverted. This time to the stream beside which I stood. There was a leaf stuck between two rocks unable to be caught up in the flow of the water.  I think it may have been the first time I wondered about my own life.  Was I like this leaf stuck between two rocks waiting for the force of the water to release it?  Where would it go? Where was I going? I knew I had to return to school in a week’s time.  Where was school taking me? I just wanted to be here with nature in the pine forest.

I lost track of the time I must have stood watching that leaf. Eventually it was pulled free by the force of the water and continued to float ever on towards its destination.  I recall the discovery that I had made that the leaf did not seem to struggle. It was a natural consequence of the flow of the water. But I moved on.  The day’s adventure came to an end and it was soon time to go home.

My early years were full of such discoveries and adventures and all the time I had an inner awareness of an inner “calling”, as if it were some driving force within me searching for something I did not even know what it was.  Have you ever had that? Whatever it was, it was not to be found in the hum-drum of daily life.  I seemed to come close to it on those times I took the solitary road as if “it” became my co-traveller. We moved on together.

There is a part of the inner consciousness that seems to know when we are drawing close to a spiritual breakthrough.  Sometimes it shows itself as an inner restlessness. Other times it appears as a driving force urging you to jump into the unknown sensing that this unknown is where there is divine bliss. We need to heed this inner stirring.  Not heeding it, I think, is the cause of much discontent and stress. To ignore it, to push it down, to run from it only prolongs the suffering.  It is fear which causes us to repel.  Fear of leaving the comfort of the predictable life- that is if there is indeed any comfort.  We become deluded. We think it is comfortable until the malaise becomes apparent again.

I resisted jumping from the precipice for a long time during my life.  For that is what it is like and that is what it is, spiritually, that is.  In the Sanskrit language, a highly evolved spiritual language the concept of transcendent bliss is Sat-Chit-Ananda. However, this term carries with it the concept of coming close to the brink, to the edge of a cliff towards the final leap. I didn’t want to jump. Not yet, at least.

My secondary school years were ones of great satisfaction. I found early in Middle School at Haileybury College that I had a talent for languages.  So I set out to soak up as many languages as I could. At school I studied French, Latin and Ancient Greek. At home on holidays I would ride my bicycle to a book shop quite distant from my home which sold a multitude of foreign language books. I would spend long hours browsing and the shop keeper, a corpulent, bespectacled and bald Egyptian man would greet me with “What language are you studying this week?” Text books of Modern Greek, Chinese, Old English, Welsh, they all interested me.

I continued the study of French during my university years as well as psychology. I expected that life would progress in a straight line – graduate, get a job, marry and settle down. That’s how it goes doesn’t it?  I obtained a position as a teacher at Hamilton College, I later married but never settled down. My marriage brought four wonderful children into the world but lasted only some ten years before we divorced.  During those ten years I was drawn to the spiritual life, almost becoming an Anglican priest. However, I was torn between the spiritual and the expectations of the world. This tension would not leave me for much of my life. Tensions always create malaise and my own rendered me inattentive to my marriage with the obvious consequences. Some years later I re-married but again it was doomed as the same tensions pursued me like blood hounds in the night. I was not listening to the deep inner core of my soul and my own intensely strong Ego pulled me back from anything to do with those often spiritual urges. I was like I lived a double life, or perhaps even triple life.  One, the decent married man with a good job in the health sector. The other a man that liked long periods of meditation wanting to get away by myself on silent retreats in the countryside.  The other was the shadow which played out the intense tension between the two. This was the one which tried to relieve the tension by drinking expensive alcohol and riding fast motorcycles. Of course the tension is never relieved. It is only prolonged as one becomes entangled in its widening web to the point where all life seems to be choked out of you. The resultant behaviour leaves a wake of destruction and hurt and eventually the second marriage was over.  A sense of despair and failure had overcome me. I had sunk to my lowest ebb.

On numerous occasions throughout my life I had wandered into book shops to find myself being drawn to the section of “Spirituality”.  Chinese Buddhism and Taoism had greatly interested me. I took upon studies in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Qigong in 1986 and in between trying to kill the pain I had caused myself with the anesthesia of red wine and whisky I had moments of sanity in the meditation techniques I had learnt. However, the sanity was only short lived. Sanity which is arrived at through ego-control has a “use-by” date.  Beyond the Use-By date it sours pretty quickly and curdles into despair again. So the cycle goes on and on. Anesthesia always wears off and we come face to face with the pain again. Not even the psychotherapy I was trained in could help. A much stronger medicine was called for.

It was a Saturday night. I was living in a group home in Brisbane. The others had gone away for the week end and there was only myself.  I had bought a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and was allowing the red liquid to lull me into a false sense of security when all of a sudden a memory came back from my childhood.  The mountain stream; the leaf caught between the rocks in the stream. Finally it was freed by the power of the water.  Some tears began to form in my eyes as I realized that deep inside I was not free. I was being driven by desires and urges and each desire, each urge, put me into a whirlpool of hopelessness and despair. I took a large gulp of wine. I coughed and spluttered as I had taken too much.  In any case I had recently met an attractive woman from Shanghai and was soon to embark on a new life with her in China. The thought of her momentarily dispelled the despair.  We would soon start a life together in Shanghai. I was looking forward to this. This would herald a new beginning.

So, What Do You Expect?

One of the biggest causes of suffering and struggle in daily life is the Expectation.  Human beings are legendary at creating expectations and of course, when they are not met, this is almost immediately followed by a bout of dissatisfaction either minimally, to the max or somewhere in the middle.  Most of us have experienced a medium level of expectancy-failure. Things don’t go according to the plan, the floor suddenly falls out of the stock market, the lover whom we thought was prince or princess charming turns out to have the same ups and downs as we have – all these things can contribute to high levels of stress. So what do you do?

The bigger the gap between expectations and the present reality, the bigger the struggle.  So diminish the gap.  Remember it is the mind that creates reality and I know my own mind has its moments and off days so I can’t always rely on its ability to create lovely rose coloured reality. . .then what is real? . . it’s all a mind story! Does that mean we shouldn’t plan for the future?  Of course not! Like airline pilots who submit a flight plan there may be a sudden unexpected change of weather conditions. The pilots always re-calculate and always have a backup plan.  How do you manage when Plan A doesn’t come off?

Mindfulness meditation has been found to be strategic is helping us cope with the unexpected. In the present moment all is perfect.  “Perfect?!!”, I hear you say.  Yes, perfect.  Once on transit at Singapore airport I chanced to meet a very talkative 8-year-old girl with her parents on their way back to the UK.  When I asked the little girl how she was, her reply was “Perfect”.  A little taken by this ultra-confident response, I asked her how she enjoyed flying. “Perfect!” came the answer a second time.  “Really?” I inquired.  “Yes, everything is perfect, don’t you know!” I was gob stopped at this answer.  She was so right; maybe she was a Bodhisattva come to remind me of the perfect law of karma.  Karma tells us that all is the perfect outworking of our thoughts and actions – Perfect!

So, what do you expect?

Where Do You Invest?

Where do you make your investments? Property? Foreign currency? Shares? Of course, it’s wise to make investments to ensure a better future for yourself. However, as we know our futures are very uncertain. Poor health can strike at any time. By poor health I just don’t mean physical health. I refer also to mind health. No, don’t laugh. I have worked in the mental health field for over 25 years and I have known many people with steady careers, high incomes property and relationships suddenly find themselves lost in deep depression, anxiety or other mind conditions with admissions to psychiatric hospitals. It happens. It happens far too frequently.
The World Health Organization estimates that 350 million people suffer from depression and that by the year 2020 depression will be the leading world illness overtaking cancer and heart disease. It places huge stresses on the national economy and wellbeing of a nation including its ability to innovate in an ever increasingly difficult and challenging world economic climate.
So often like physical health we wait until it’s too late. You can get over a common cold in a couple of weeks. You can heal a broken leg in a couple of months but deep depression can take years to get over. Mind health really does matter now more than ever.
War in the Middle East impacts on us in so many ways in Australia. Potential wars in our region are an ever abiding threat. Are wars caused by people who are mentally well? Of course not! I have had quite heated debates with my colleagues who rightfully state that there is no scientific evidence to show that all terrorists or people engaged in war have mental illness according to the DSM – the psychological measurement of mental illnesses. So such people have mental well-being, are happy and well adjusted? Of course not. It has become more and more evident that mental well-being is more than a score on the DSM.

It has become more and more evident that mind health is deteriorating to pandemic proportions in war torn countries – an issue rarely discussed but impacting on the world in such an enormous way as never seen before.
Mind health and well-being is not a fancy colour page issue in Yoga and meditation magazines. It is a critically urgent issue on a global scale, an issue that is given very little attention.
So that brings me back to the question at the beginning of this blog. Where do you make your investments? Are you a risk taker enough to make an investment in mind health? What will your returns be like? Your own well-being and mind health can have a huge impact on your immediate environment. Your investment in your own mind health is an investment in the mind health of this world.

How to Fix Your Brain

The other week I bought a new Tefal electric jug after my cheap Two Dollar Shop one blew up. On opening the box I was surprised to find a manual. . .well, not so much surprised to find a manual as almost all appliances come with a manual but what surprised me was its thickness – 102 pages! Curious I opened it to read. The first 5 pages were in French followed by 5 pages of English. The remainder of the manual comprised of the same instructions in more languages than I realized ever existed.
The jug manual went on to tell me how to open the top, how to pour in water and to what level and eventually came to the section of what to do in the event of a problem. I read this section with much attention as my last electric jug gave me many problems but never told me what to do when it leaked water on to the electric base. I wasn’t aware of it leaking water until one fateful morning I switched it on and every fuse in the house blew up.
I once bought a brand new car, the latest Ford, and found in the glove box a manual brilliantly wrapped in plastic wrapping. It told me all that I needed to know to familiarise myself with my new car, how to get the most out of the entertainment system, how to tune it and customize it to you own settings. The manual told me how often I needed to service the car and what to do in the event of a break down in many of its components. Absolutely brilliant!
I once purchase a brand new PC but low and behold – no manual! I went back to the supplier, a large department store that sold computers and software. The salesman was very embarrassed and assured me he would do all he could to obtain one. A couple of days later I received a phone call from the department store and was informed they would post it out to me free of charge as I should have received one in the first place. The manual told me all I needed to know about my computer- how to set it up, how to start it, how to customize it, what to do when I experienced certain problems with it all in several languages with lovely diagrams and step-by-step procedures. Again, absolutely brilliant!
But do you know what? Let me tell you. In 1993 my father had died a few months after my mother and during this same period of time my marriage was falling apart. I was working a huge amount of hours mostly to cover up the emotional pain I was experiencing. I didn’t know what to do. My wife wanted a divorce as soon as possible and the occasional glass of red wine became the occasional cask so that my problems were further compounded. I remember talking to a friend at the time and during the conversation about my problems and my sense of an impending break down I asked him: “What do you think I should do?” Now, my friend was well meaning but probably as equally at a loss as I to know what to advise, replied: “I guess if you can just get yourself together, it will be alright.” Well, I couldn’t get it together, went off to a doctor one day as I was feeling quite unwell and while in his office I recall an experience like the lights going out and everything coming to an abrupt halt. Some hours later I awoke in a hospital bed.
When I inquired where I was I was informed I had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. I sense of panic and dread overcame me. I had experienced a “breakdown”.

Fortunately I recovered or rather began a road of recovery and eventually I was able to resume work on the advice and guidance of my doctor. I was a counsellor and psychotherapist.
Some years later I reflected upon my experience which has been the experience of millions of others. I was born, inherited a brain, one of the most powerful pieces of equipment we will ever have and yet no one, absolutely no one gave me any manual of how to use it. I was educated, studied many subjects – maths, geography, science, French, Latin, and so on and later at university studied education, psychology, and various other subjects but none of them, not one of them told me how to use my own brain and ‘what to do in the event of a break down’. Every mechanical item we buy comes with a manual but we don’t get one for our brains! I find this absolutely astounding. There is an assumption that you will work it all out somehow. However, most people don’t.
Most people walk about set on ‘default’ setting walking about on automatic pilot and in the event of a breakdown – as inevitably happens to a greater or lesser degree – don’t know how to fix it and so resort to pills legal or illegal and other mixtures, legal or illegal. According to reports my country, Australia, is world leader in illegal drug abuse and is amongst the top countries of the world using prescription medication for depression and anxiety. One in four people take medication for psychiatric or psychological issues. . .one in four!!! Now, I’m not criticizing the use of medication. Responsible use of medication can be lifesaving. However, I am left wondering how much of it is responsible? Imagine if you bought a brand new BMW, fresh with that new car smell, drive it out of the show room down to the petrol station and fill it with Methylated spirits? “Are you mad?”, you ask. Of course we wouldn’t do that to a car. But we do it to our bodies and brains. When we can’t get it to work we pour booze into it or chemicals. Then what happens? Large numbers end up in psychiatric hospitals or Drug and Alcohol Rehab centres having killed of a host of neurons. I know, because I worked in psychiatric settings most of my career.
The human brain is a wonderful, beautiful, creative and mind- blowingly powerful piece of equipment. It’s ability to self-heal and heal the body is amazing. Its ability to take us beyond mere survival to a higher life is astounding – if we only knew how to use it.
In 2005 I began to write a book The Owner’s Manual for the Brain: The Manual You Should have Received but Never Did. It’s now available – and it’s free, 112 pages of it. I know that sounds a little mad but I guessed that not too many people were going to buy it at $9.99 and as I feel that it is important for everyone to know a bit more about their brain and how to get the most out of it then I decided I would just give it away. After all, you should have received one much earlier.
Of course, just having a manual for a car does not mean you can drive the car or that it never needs to go to the mechanic. Of course you need a qualified and experienced driving instructor to show you how to drive and a qualified and experienced mechanic to service the vehicle and help you out of a tough spot of it needs more than servicing. With our Brain it is the same. A coach can help you get the most out of it and help you achieve what you want to achieve. A therapist can help you get back on the road of life again along with a package of new skills. There will probably be good coaches and therapists in your own area. Use them if you need to.
You can receive a copy of the Owner’s Manual for the Brain by dropping me an email address or going to my web site www.neuromindfulness.com.au and filling out the Contact Us Form. Relax! it is genuinely Free.
So, there you have it, a manual that you never received but now you have, sitting beside your manuals for your car and perhaps your electric jug. Use it! You will be amazed what you can do.

Mindfulness of Gratitude and a Rat

My life as a monk in Mainland China for five years was punctuated with valuable and life forming lessons almost as if the natural environment worked in deliberate synchronicity with the intellectual understandings.

As a novice I was aware that the room I was assigned was a little more comfortable than the other monks. I was always a little embarrassed about this as I felt I may have been given more special attention for being a Westerner. The room had a ceiling while the other monks slept in rooms with just the bare roof tiles above, often minus a few tiles which made star gazing wonderful but quite challenging during rainy or snowing days. Oh, I also had an old armchair in my room which was an added comfort.
It was Saturday morning and I made a trip to the local village to purchase some sticking tape to place some posters of the Buddha on my bedroom wall. I happily walked back to the temple and immediately began to place the posters on the wall. As I stood back to admire the ‘décor’ of the room the Abbot entered, barely glanced at the posters and gently told me to move to another room. Impermanence has its way of fixing one’s attachments including the posters I had just attached to the wall. As I was moving the only bag I had along with some books, and of course the newly acquired posters, the other monks gathered to help and began laughing and chanting “lao shu, lao shu, lao shu” which in Chinese meant “rat, rat, rat.” Naturally inquisitive to this chanting I asked one of my brothers what was its significance? What had a rat to do with me moving? “This room”, explained the older monk, “has a family of rats.” “Oh! That’s wonderful”, I replied with a sinking feeling in my gut. I had never come close to rats before but that was soon going to change.
My first night in my new room was uneventful. I didn’t even hear any rats scratching during the night. This was to change dramatically on the second night as I heard scratching and gnawing sounds under my bed. I got out of bed and checked under the bed with a torch. I could observe a small pile of nuts in the far corner but no rat. Trying to go back to sleep again I suddenly felt something scamper across my blankets. No way! No way was I about to share my bed with a rat. I got out of bed again switched on the light, moved to bed to one side and removed the cache of nuts throwing them out of the door hoping that would encourage the intruder outside. I switched off the lights, climbed back into bed, took a deep sigh and tried to gather some sleep. Only a thought awoke me. Intruder? Who was the real intruder? I have just intruded on this rat’s space and removed his only food. Anyway I consoled myself by intellectualizing that he or she would be able to fetch more forest nuts.The following day I mentioned my dealings with the rat the night before to my Master. He laughed gleefully. “Well, now you have a friend, feed it!”
Night time came again. I had not heard any scratching sounds so I concluded that my “friend” had moved on. Then in the depth of the night I again felt the rat run across my chest. I bolted upright and switched on the torch. I could see no rat on the blankets or in the space between the bed and the wall. Suddenly I sensed a presence behind my head. As I shined the torch on the bed head, a thin wooden railing just above my head, there was the rat staring straight at me. I don’t know for how long we were both transfixed looking into each other’s eyes but I sensed sadness in my friend at perhaps me throwing out his food from the night before. As I moved to get out of bed the little rat ran out of sight. I went to the small wooden cupboard and took out some peanuts a farmer had given me some days before. I waited on my seat beside the gongzhou , a small room altar upon which I had a statue of the Kuan Yin, the Boddhisattva of Compassion and Mercy. It was 1:30am. I began to nod off to sleep on the seat when my friend appeared on the stone floor in front of me. I placed a handful of nuts in front of him. At first he was perhaps figuring out if he could trust me. I suddenly felt a deep compassion for this little creature who was trying to make his way into my life. In careful movements he made his way forward to nibble on a nut. I spread some more before him. Our friendship was sealed.
Each evening master Laoshu, the rat, would come out from behind the cupboard as I was reading and stand still in the middle of the room looking at me. I would return the gaze with a smile. I would talk to him as a friend, telling him about my day, about the Dharma, about the new peanuts I had been given and we would share a small supper together. Sometimes I would chant mantras to him. This went on for about a week then one night he didn’t appear and I never saw him again. I was saddened that my friend and gone. Had he gone to be with a larger family? Had he been captured by a snake or tree lion? I will never know. However I was deeply grateful for my friend.
Naikan, the mindfulness exercise and meditation of deep introspection, is a practice which brings about a powerful shift of consciousness allowing us to see the gift of life in all things. Naikan is best experienced rather than learned about. In its traditional form it is a seven day intensive meditative introspection of one’s entire life from birth to your present age looking at your life and the people central in your life from three strategic questions:
1. What have I received from this person?
2. What have I given to this person?
3. What problems and difficulties have I caused this person?
They are simple questions yet at the same time not it’s easy to find the answers particularly when the relationships we have had have been challenging. It is not easy to find the gifts in a relationship that has been abusive, hurtful , unkind or despairing. We can often feel affronted by the very thought of finding a ‘gift’. The rat gave me no material gift but gave me the gifts of trust, friendship and learning.
Finding what we have given to others can also be hard. Sometimes we can be harsh judges of ourselves. When we relax more we can find those often small things we have given – our attention, our encouragement, our forgiveness, not to mention material things. I was able to give the rat respect, a safe space, share my food and my thoughts of compassion.

The third question in Naikan is often the most difficult. Yet, in traditional Naikan meditation it is the question we are directed to spend the longest amount of time on. The third question often raises feelings of guilt. However, guilt, is not a helpful feeling. It is self-punishment and external. This is not the purpose of Naikan, a mindfulness exercise. It is designed to elicit an “I’m-not-living-up-to-my –full-potential-loving-self feeling. “ That is different from guilt. That is a feeling of wanting to be and do better.
The third question also helps us to understand that all relationships have inherent within them problems that need to be solved, things that need to be sorted out. My friend the rat showed me the problems and difficulties I had caused him by throwing his food out. I know, I know. Many I have told this story too have come back at me and said: “But what if, more rats had come to eat the food you offered? You could have been overrun with rats!” It is easy to make up the “what if” scenarios based upon fear. We forget that there is often a second option and a third and a forth. Mindfulness is not about elimination; it is about relationship. Mindfulness does not teach us to eliminate our problems rather than to see them for a new and different perspective.
When we detach from our own perceptions about things then we are able to see things differently. When we discover that we have been given to and at the same time have given we see ourselves in a great web of relationship. When we understand we are many times the instigators of problems and difficulties we can then take personal responsibility and grow to our full potential as human beings. When we can see the true gift of life in all things then we have risen above all problems and struggles and become truly awakened to the beauty of life in all its fullness.
And it took a rat to teach me this. And I am grateful to him.

The Mental Health of Belonging

Having and maintaining a sense of belonging is critical to optimum mental and physical health yet this element in our health maintenance is so very often overlooked. Further as the world continues to create cyber-community, real face-to-face belonging begins to erode.
Belonging is not just an issue of feeling connected with our community. There are neurological implications. There is a strong correlation between belonging and spatial orientation.
Ninety percent of what we have learnt about the human brain we have learnt only in the past twenty years. Neurobiology and neuropsychology is rapidly advancing our understanding of human behaviour as well as allowing us to explore new and promising interventions based upon neural integration as in neuro-reprocessing. One part of the brain which plays vital role in the sense of belonging is the hippocampus. The hippocampus is part of the limbic system which is associated with memory, emotions, motivation and special orientation. It is the hippocampus which places memories with emotions. It is the pre-frontal cortex which makes sense or gives meaning to the memories, emotions and orientation. “Nearly all intended behaviour is learned and so depends on a cognitive system that can acquire and implement the ‘rules of the game’ needed to achieve a given goal in a given situation. Studies indicate that the prefrontal cortex is central in this process.” (EK Miller National Review of Neuro Science 2000). Further Miller observed that language and facial expression was crucial to the functioning of the hippocampus in developing a sense of belonging. In Alzheimer’s disease, it is the hippocampus which is the first part of the brain to deteriorate and the behaviour of disorientation is quite observable amongst patients with this disease. It has further been researched ( Siegal, The Mindful Brain, 2007) that social face-to-face conversation stimulates blood flow to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) which is part of the neural system of producing a sense of well-being.
A sense of well-being is obtained through belonging. When we are taken out of familiar surroundings and routine or when we are isolated from social interaction the sense of belonging is greatly diminished along with s sense of meaning giving rise to depression and anxiety. This is well remarked in persons who have spent long periods in psychiatric clinical settings or the aged isolated within their homes or nursing homes.
After moving from the temple where I lived as a monk for four years in rural China, I moved location five times before finally settling in Sydney. I had found that my sense of ‘belonging’ was seriously being challenged. In each location I took it upon myself to go out for daily walks (which also stimulates the PFC) in order to orient myself to my new location. In addition I would identify key locations that would act as ‘resource beacons’ – the local grocery store, the local pharmacy, a place where I could buy a newspaper and catch up on the local scene, and of course, the local coffee shop. I made an attempt to get to know store keepers, workers and business owners on a first name basis. This formed an outer rim of acquaintances. Don’t under-estimate the importance of face-to-face acquaintances as many acquaintances have the potential of becoming closer friendships. I soon found in each new location that the initial disorientation was displaced be a sense of belonging to my new locality and a warm feeling of comfort – the release of serotonin and endorphins the same endorphins that make you feel relaxed and calm which chemicals try to achieve in cases of depression and anxiety. Interestingly the same endorphins are released during meditation and mindfulness practice.
Many years ago working as a supports facilitator assisting persons coming out from psychiatric institutions and helping them find natural connections in the community I worked with a man called ‘Frank’. Frank had tried to live independently many times before but would often become lost as he liked to walk. The experience of being disoriented increased his anxiety and frustration and before long his erratic behaviour would attract people and eventually the police were called and he would find himself back in hospital. For Frank it was like a snakes-and-ladders game, never making it to the top into community inclusion. When I was invited to work with Frank we found a lovely location for him to live beside the ocean (his choice). On the first day I took Frank on a walk and looked for the ‘resource beacons’. I noticed a man gardening in his front garden. I wondered if he might frequently be in his garden. We stopped to chat. As it was, the man was often watering or working in the garden. With Frank’s permission I mentioned that Frank would often become lost. “Gosh, he’s welcome to drop in any time and I can get him home” was our local’s response. A beacon had been established. Then we dropped by the local convenience store and chatted with the owner, the local pharmacy, butcher, and even chatted with a friendly local school crossing supervisor.
A fortnight later I had found that Frank had indeed got lost on his first daily walk but knew who to chat with. He did not get lost again and soon had many acquaintances in his life. Frank did not go back into psychiatric hospital again.
Belonging, I believe, is one of the most overlooked factors in healing mental illness and in the maintenance of strong mental health. Facebook and other social media where there is no face-to-face connection or conversation do not achieve the same neural outcomes as real life connection. Medically prescribed drugs alone cannot promote belonging. Illegal drugs, most often a means of attaining belonging in the younger generation soon becomes the very instrument of alienation and neural damage leading to a fatal viscous cycle.
There is strong evidence to suggest that youth attracted to commit atrocities in the name of fanatical religion or sensational crime have been strongly disenfranchised from the elements that promote a strong sense of belonging. It may be time to pull out of the closet that which communities cherished in the past – a place to belong. Our communities may well need it for our survival.