Mindfulness is a meditative technique that results in a suspension of our preformed notions or expectations of experience. Full consciousness is channeled towards the present moment instead of focusing on the past or future. We train our minds to become aware of when we are NOT being present.
When I trained in mindfulness with UC Davis emeritus professor, Dr. Charles Tart we were at a workshop in Esalen, which is in Big Sur, CA. We learned to focus our attention to the here and now at specific intervals throughout the time we were together. This enabled us to detect where we held our tension so that we could release it, whether it was our jaw, shoulders, feet or hands. Having that awareness allowed us to consciously relax those areas.
What a great opportunity that was for me to converse with Dr. Tart and to learn this valuable tool from him. He was pivotal in bringing awareness to the phenomena of Extra Sensory Perception, or ESP, through his research at UCD and I always considered him as one of the psychologists who had deeply influenced the direction of my work in psychology
Mindfulness is characterized by paying total attention to the present moment with a non-judgmental awareness of the inner and/or outer experience. It refers to the cultivation of a conscious attention on a moment-to-moment basis and is characterized by an open and receptive attitude. We check in with our body…am I tense as I systematically focus my awareness on different parts of my body? If I am tense, I consciously relax that part so that I feel the difference between my unconscious tense state and my conscious ability to relax those muscle groups.
From this perspective, the definitions of reality that we cling to are suspended, allowing for our inner truth to emerge. Truth in this sense is that which is (as opposed to that’s what I fear, or that’s what I expected, or that’s the way it always is…) so that we can hear what emerges from our ability to stay in the present moment. I may find that I am so tense that I didn’t realize that my shoulders were up around my ears! With this realization, I consciously relax my shoulders so that they drop and I release that tension.
Although I may not be aware of my tension at that moment, I can start to speak to that part of my body: “Why are you so tense?” I might ask my shoulders. I can then bring awareness to this part of my body and I may hear the reply, “I am carrying so much weight in this situation! I feel so burdened as if it’s all my responsibility!” This at least gives us a starting point to use some therapeutic techniques to release these tense thoughts and emotions. If I find that I am feeling overburdened, I can use tapping, or Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to process this sense of responsibility that I hold in my neck, shoulders and back. I can tap on the key acupuncture points in the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) which will help to calm the amygdala in my brain that is activated.
I can also move my eyes back and forth as is done with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), focusing on the feelings or situations that exacerbate my feelings of burden. Another thing I can do to calm myself is to sit in stillness and focus upon my breathing for 15 minutes, or I can put those “pictures in my head of being responsible for everything” into a red rose, then send it up and explode it. Surprisingly, this latter technique really helps to stop those incessant thoughts and pictures that get stuck in our heads so that their energy is removed from our consciousness. These techniques can help to relieve us from emotional trauma, anxiety, guilt and shame that have accumulated in our lifetime.
Evolving consciousness means that we are expanding the way we use our consciousness so that we are able to more fully use the powers of consciousness. By loosening the restrictions to consciousness that we usually operate from, we tap into our abilities to discern a different level of awareness. We become aware, or mindful, of our automatic reactions to experiences and instead open up to take in the situation with a receptive consciousness. This helps us awaken from our waking sleep.
Waking sleep is a term used by Charles Tart. He described how most of us are unaware of much of our experience because we have learned to tune out and prejudge much of what happens, therefore, we miss out on what is happening in the moment.
Awakening expands consciousness so that we see the interconnectedness of all things. When we understand this, we begin to see how perception is fueled by our thoughts and past programming, making it imperative that we address the entire perceptual environment if we are to heal. Awakening must include all realms of human existence—the physical (body), the intellectual (mind), and the spiritual (soul).
Dropping Our Ego
Much of human suffering, or samsara, is the result of how we view the world. Suffering according to this Eastern term is that it arises because we cling to our expectations. We desire certain outcomes and things in our lives and when it does not unfold, we suffer. The remedy for this is to be in the Here and Now at all times. If we are in the moment, then we won’t be worrying about the past or be anxious about what is to come. The next moment will come and if we are “in that moment” we have no room for worry or anxiety. We will just take care of what is.
When we understand the nature of consciousness, the causes of anxiety are seen for what they are—thoughts, memories or expectations that we cling to and bring into the present moment, coloring our experience. These memories or experiences condition us, in a classical conditioned sense, to meet the environment in predetermined ways. Together these insights help us see that much of what we experience as reality is in truth an application of our preexisting conditioning coupled with our predetermined definitions and expectations about the way life is.
Spiritual practices as emphasized in transpersonal approaches help us to dissolve these ego boundaries. This allows us to live life less from the storylines we hold in our heads so that we can participate more fully in the moment as it is. Although spiritual systems emphasize the loosening of ego boundaries and being less identified with the ego, this strategy does not negate the importance of having a strong ego. As we allow consciousness to emerge and expand through meditative practices, the loosening of unconscious material may overwhelm us if we don’t have a firm ground on which to stand. We need a strong ego that is grounded in the present moment, as observers of what is unfolding around us. As we are stripping our ego of old tapes, we strengthen it to reflect who we are in the present; not who we thought we were or who we were told that we were.
When we are able to use our pain as “grist for the mill,” we process and remove the old, outdated modes of thinking, feeling and behaving to reflect who we are becoming. This process is not easy, because we are letting go of structures that have held us together for what is likely a long time. For example, as we emerge from our waking sleep, we may find that what we learned about who we are from our religious training may need to change. Or what we believed about certain aspects of life don’t really work for us and that we need a new roadmap to guide us. But where is that new map and what will the landmarks be on it that I can truly rely on?
This process may be so intense that it leads to what Stanislav Grof described as a spiritual emergency. He described cases where people experience their bodies vibrating or shaking as well as consciousness states resembling a psychosis as they wrestle with changing their former viewpoint into a new expanded consciousness. From a psychodynamic viewpoint, we would describe that the ego is overwhelmed with the changing nature of one’s consciousness. As one belief system is loosened to make way for a new way of thinking, disruptions to our known ways of seeing the world can cause psychological distress.
From a transpersonal perspective, it is not seen as a mental illness, but is approached with compassion, helping the individual make sense of the conflicting material that may emerge when spiritual expansion occurs. This healing happens because it is a caring approach, contrasted to a treatment approach.
We need to discover, and therefore become familiar with who we are so that we don’t get lost in the transformative process. By discovering what has been added to our basic Self by our family, cultures and society, we can separate the chaff from the grain. We get in touch with our true form underneath. With this strength we can begin to take active steps towards growth and the evolution of our own consciousness.
~ Namaste
Dr. Sharon
