the problem with convenience

"There is a problem with convenience," sustainable farmer and author Joel Salatin said during his keynote address at an event the other night, "because life is about being bothered."   

The convenience of take-out or mail order meals takes away the "bother" of learning how to create a delicious meal from scratch, knowing what exactly goes into your meal (and hence your body), and where the ingredients actually come from. The convenience of buying all your groceries at the supermarket prevents you from asking deeper questions about the provenance of those supermarket eggs and the "bother" of buying them from a sustainable farmer, or keeping chickens yourself.  The convenience of single-use plastic bags hushes over the inquiry into the environmental plastic scourge we as a culture have created, and the "bother" of bringing your reusable bags with you every time you go shopping.  

But sitting on the beach all day long is only fun for so long.  If everything in your life is "convenient" all the time you're not living deeply.  Life is about doing because engaging with your surrounds gets you to reveal who you are through creative expression.  You enact who you are through what you do. 

Too much convenience, removing all engagement and obstacles, eliminates the opportunity to get your hands dirty and your mind working.  That's why people are more creative the more restrictions they are presented with (I get a creative kick out of making a good meal out of the last few ingredients left in the fridge).   And you know how children's creativity becomes activated when they're out in nature and only have sticks and stones to play with - they construct a float out of whatever they can find and imagination does the rest.  Imagine coming along and bringing them a plastic boat....

Removing all "inconveniences" flattens life and dulls creativity.  Working around "inconveniences," problems, and within restrictions is what life is all about.  Be creative and love your inconveniences.

life is magical

This morning I was ironing a green table cloth and remembered the mindfulness exercise from this week's Creative Insight Journey course I am currently taking, to look at experiences from a child's or alien's perspective, for whom everything is novel and new and magical and full of surprises.  As I was passing the iron on the wrinkled tablecloth it magically flattened out beautifully and so easily - it seemed truly as if by magic.

Same with our body functions.  It's totally mysterious how my body does it all for me without my lifting a finger - breathing, digesting, nourishing me, walking, talking, hearing.  I never have to give it a thought.  Then I was unfolding a receipt with a child's mind and had to smile at the crunchy sound the paper made.  After that I listened to the toilet flush's whoosh with a child's mind and had to smile again, this time at the gurgling sound the water made. 

This is a really neat exercise because everyday experiences become novel, almost fantastical, when you leave your expectations and jadedness aside.  Without expectations, when you're present with an open and unhindered mind that is in the Now, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and the quality of life ratchets up a notch. 

As I am writing this I look out the window and see some evergreen branches moving up and down as if by magic.  I can't see the breeze, I can't hear it either, neither can I feel it.  My mind is open, the branches seem to move by themselves - magic again.

Best of all - experiencing life like this is free; it takes no effort, free sparkles and glitter.  All it requires is a shift.  Try it!

vision boarding

Vision boards may seem like such a passé thing.  And if you simply paste a bunch of pictures on a board believing that that will automatically manifest in your life the McMansion or convertible you just cut out from a magazine, forget about it.  But if you use it to actually work through what you want to manifest, or let go of, as a true clarification exercise - it can help tremendously.  On top of it it's a fun creative project.  So if you don't make enough time for play in your life this is a great way to have some creative fun and crystalize ideas that are floating around in your head while you're at it.  Draw, cut and paste, doodle, play with materials - and try to express what's inside you waiting to come out.  

Moreover, just like using lists as manifestation tools (see an earlier post how to manifest), putting something down on paper in the physical world, rather than keeping it floating around in your head, makes it - well yes, more physical, more defined - and helps to bring it into this world.  Vision boarding can be a valuable solidification and clarification process, and while your rational mind shuts off during the artistic part of the process, it makes room for the no-mind creative space.  When you're in the moment, in no-mind space, the universe can do its job of bringing you what you need.

Have you ever made a vision board?

journaling for wellbeing

Did you know that journaling is good for your health?  As much as I love to write - books, blog posts, comments, or articles - I have never been much of a journaler.  Didn't stick.  When someone suggested it over the summer, in a generic comment without further instructions, it also didn't hit home.

Now I am taking Jennifer Grace's 8-week Creative Insight Journey program, based on Michael Ray's original 1979 Stanford MBA course on birthing business people's creative potential, and journaling and meditation are part of the program.  So I must.  But this time it also comes with specific instructions on proven methods, and that makes all the difference.

      First instruction - only five minutes a day.  That's nothing.  Everyone can find five minutes.

      Second instruction - if at all possible do it right after waking and before you brush teeth and start your morning routine.  This catches you in a semi-awake state when your subconscious is still bubbling.

      Third instruction - write whatever comes to mind, non-stop, without questioning yourself, never mind grammar and punctuation, if you get stuck repeat your last sentence or word, keep going until your timer pings.

      Fourth instruction - dump, dump, dump - consider it the opposite of a colon cleanse - all out the top, out of your mind, out of your system, an emotional cleanse.

Grace offers several other journaling methods in her accompanying book Directing Your Destiny, and if you really want to get into it she recommends social psychologist and writing therapy pioneer James Pennebaker's How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain, next on my book purchase list. 

Do you journal?  It's cheap.  You can do it at home.  Only takes five minutes.  May improve your health.  No side effects. 

healing as an art form

The term healing arts has been around for a while but those physicians who truly practice this kind of art are few and far between.  Most of them go into the field to help, but then buckle under the system's culture and forget their original quest.

Healthcare in general has become so bureaucratic, so computerized, so impersonal, so technological and technical, so pharmaceutical, and of course so incredibly expensive.  Where did the healing touch go?  Where the compassionate conversation in supporting the patient emotionally?  Where the deep understanding of an affliction and how to heal it uniquely and individually?  Standard treatments instead.  Private practices are becoming ever bigger, and doctors often take as little as ten minutes to come up with diagnosis and treatment.  Next! Hospitals are no better.  Heartless money making machines, not temples of healing. 

Victoria Sweet, MD, writes on healing as an art in Spirituality & Health Magazines's article, "The Secret of Healing Touch," which is excerpted from her book Slow Medicine.  Sweet talks about the art of her touch, knowing just what the patient needs, and the importance of compassionate bedside manner.  We yearn for doctors like her, who practice healing as an art form, combining science and inner wisdom.   

When we acknowledge the importance of touch, deep dialogue, compassion, and true understanding of what ails a patient, when we make healing holistic again through human connection, when we integrate the scientific with the holistic diagnosic process, then healing is an art form.  

too much too early

Several years ago Germany switched from their traditional 13-year to a 12-year school system in order to follow the international standard.  Now there is a general backlash against the 12-year system and in many places students are already offered a choice to return to the 13-year program.  For one, many parents think that the 12-year program is too intense.  The other consideration comes from the universities that complain that the students are just not mature enough after the 12-year program to handle higher academic thinking.

Rudolf Steiner, the creator of the Waldorf education movement, whose curriculum is based on the natural emotional and psychological maturation of the child, stated that we mature in seven-year cycles.  Hence Waldorf schools in Germany, and elementary schools in Scandinavia in general, encourage waiting with first grade until around age 7.  When the school system is more in tune with the natural developmental and psychological maturation cycle of the child it benefits everyone - not only the children, who are less frustrated and more eager, but teachers, professors, and the entire system down the line because the children are at their best, and the teachers have a better sense of accomplishment. 

When I came over here it struck me that during the first two college years material is taught that is generally covered in high school in Europe.  And in France students oftentimes attend a prep school year before tackling the entrance exam to one of the better universities, elongating the 12-year school instruction to 13 years.

Over here we have pushed academics on the kids ever earlier, and it's been frustrating for children and teachers alike.  As much as we may try, we can't accelerate the natural maturation and personal developmental process.  Our son went to a Waldorf Kindergarten and could not read or write when he entered the traditional first grade. Yet, he excelled and became the fastest and most prolific reader in his grade in a matter of months.