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Click to read a paper by attorney Jill Breslau about attention, meditation, and photography. (Unfortunately, the pdf does not allow me to copy and paste so I won't include an excerpt here.) Click now for your reading pleasure.
Note (added March 1, 2013): This paper was written by Jill when she was earning a Masters degree at California Institute of Integral Studies, in the mid '90s.
Do you think people can change? Your answer to that question may affect the conflict in your life. Can you look at disagreements from a third-party perspective? Doing so may affect life's conflicts, too.
The impact on conflict of having a growth mindset (believing people can change) and using cognitive reappraisal (e.g., seeing things through a third party's eyes) are discussed in the below news release from Stanford.
As any of you who have attended one of Brains on Purpose™ my programs knows, we look at a method for taking a third-party perspective which I have called "double journaling." I explain the exercise in the recent interview I did for Pattie Porter with Zena Zumeta. Links to listen to the interview are here. Another method: Taking or finding a photo that represents the conflict to you and describing it as a third-party observer.
More about the role of growth mindset in conflict, and specifically how it affects kids' desire for revenge, is explained in this interview of Dr. Carol Dweck from Family Goes Strong.
Now for that Stanford news release (links are found in the release and not included below) . . .
The balancing of rocks by Michael Grab is astounding. Click to see photos and to watch a video. The rocks do not fall and yet no glue or nail is used to make sure they remain as they have been placed. He knows what is possible, and achieves it, because he understands well the stones with which he works. From "A Very, Very, Very Delicate Balance" NPR:
[H]e says he is hyperaware of possible nooks on the rock's surface:
"The most fundamental element of balancing in a physical sense is finding some kind of 'tripod' for the rock to stand on. Every rock is covered in a variety of tiny to large indentations that can act as a tripod for the rock to stand upright, or in most orientations you can think of with other rocks. By paying close attention to the feeling of the rocks, you will start to feel even the smallest clicks as the notches of the rocks in contact are moving over one another."
After that, he says he has to "find a zero point, or silence within myself." I'm not sure what that means, but it's my sense that the man's got great hands, hands that can feel the exact weight of a stone and a mind that can concentrate, and somehow get inside these stones, and, as he puts it, "Become the balance." ...
Although parties to a mediation are not stones, there is much from Grab's sense of balance, awareness, and feeling that can be of guidance in a mediation, don't you think? He knows how to do the balancing but he also knows that it can be done. Before I learned of his skill and artistry, I had no idea that stones have notches—and I collect and deeply appreciate rocks! Just as with balancing rocks, there is a knowing to mediation, a feel, a depth of concentration. Little if any of this can be taught in a 40-hour mediation seminar, and yet it is essential, of essence, to a mediator of great skill and artistry.
Some mediators use glue or nails, maybe wire or tape, to create a solution, one that may "miss the invisible," or that is "overly simple" or "too complex." (Phrases in quotation marks from The Five Percent.) The elegant solutions are sculpted when the parties come into balance, without a glue gun or hammer.
Note: If you like seeing these rock arrangements, click to see photos of Lady Kate's stone balances (also known as cairns).
Note (added February 18, 2013): Click to read a good article: "The Art of Balancing Stones" (Stonexus). Excerpt:For whatever ostensible reason people balance stones, there are three essential aspects that draw them to it: (1) the collaboration with nature, the intersection of the life of stone and the life of man; (2) the creative challenge and the satisfaction of meeting it; and (3) what might be called The Moment, the aforementioned ‘existential’ state of being, the concentrated attention required to achieve balance. (You must be present to win.)
Image credit: MastersConnection2020.
Saint Valentine is the patron saint of love. Since mindfulness is probably a component of any loving relationship, including friendship and self-affirmation, today is an apt day to post some related resources. My task was made easy because this week has seen a flurry of mindfulness articles published and posted.
Dr. Catherine Kerr's research on mindfulness was in the news. (Click to watch a talk give by her.) From "A neural basis for benefits of meditation," the press release issued by Brown University:
“We think we’re the first group to propose an underlying neurophysiological mechanism that directly links the actual practice of mindful awareness of breath and body sensations to the kinds of cognitive and emotional benefits that mindfulness confers,” said lead author Catherine Kerr, assistant professor (research) of family medicine at the Alpert Medical School and director of translational neuroscience for the Contemplative Studies Initiative at Brown.
Click to read the study "Mindfulness starts with the body: somatosensory attention and top-down modulation of cortical alpha rhythms in mindfulness meditation" (Frontiers in Human Neuroscience).
Professor Amish Jha wrote an article for Scientific American Mind titled "Mindfulness Can Improve Your Attention and Health." Excerpt:
Continue reading "Happy Valentine's Day: A bouquet of mindfulness resources for you" »