[Exploring Life] Multitasking is a form of mental degradation. We are not capable of working at several different tasks simultaneously. Instead, multitasking is really nothing more than the rapid shifting of attention across a variety of tasks in a vain attempt to accomplish more is less time. We do not accomplish more, and the quality of what we are achieving is often shallow when our attention lacks continuity and focus. Multitasking breeds sub-standard thought and awareness, and from the perspective of the mind it is a serious obstacle to concentration, communication, and creativity. In other words, multitasking is a form of mental degradation.

We live in an age that has been seduced by the need for immediacy. We have come to believe that volume and velocity are core values and an end unto themselves. Multitasking is a mental craving for immediacy. The fantasy of immediacy embraces the delusion that finding ways to do more things in less time is somehow important and meaningful. Multitasking results in the rapid deterioration of our awareness, and therefore the decline in our ability to think, communicate, and create. We have come to assume that if we are not constantly “busy” doing more and more “things” in as little time as possible then we are not accomplishing what we should be. The embrace of multitasking leaves us feeling both overwhelmed and exhausted. Our fantasy with immediacy leaves us feeling alone and isolated in the midst of a crowd.
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[Exploring Life] How many misleading or false beliefs and assumptions do we preserve in our memories? And how many of these false beliefs and assumptions have been assimilated as a result of cultural conditioning? It would be immensely difficult to conduct a statistical inventory of our memories in order to quantify the exact number of beliefs and assumptions we hold on to that are confining and perhaps even virulent. We cannot describe or locate the precise nature of a memory. Memory is an elusive phenomenon that remains hidden and mysterious to us. The contents of memory, the specific thoughts and beliefs that give rise to remembrance cannot be itemized and put on display. Our awareness of the memories that animate our actions is incomplete; we are not always aware of what we remember and how those remembrances influence the choices and behaviours.

In Against the Memory Industry, Christopher Szabia asks, “Is the cult of remembrance holding us back?” The idea of a cult of remembrance is compelling and immediately places us on a trajectory to explore the shadowy confluence of psychological assimilation, personal identity, and lifestyle. The idea of a cult often retrieves the negative imagery associated with abhorrent forms of devotion to a set of beliefs that are all too often unfounded if not deranged. The task of any cult is to infiltrate, capture, and confine memory within a prison of imposed belief. A cult infects memory with subservience, making us pliable, feeble and numb. Our memory is hijacked, and the deception is often so complete that we view those that hijack us as our benefactors who are caring for our best interests.
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[Exploring Life] Mental Afflictions- The Origin of Discontent: The purpose of yoga is to provide a pathway out of suffering. All suffering originates in the mind. The mind and body are intimately interconnected, meaning that the intentions of our thoughts manifest themselves throughout the physical structure of our body. An acute painful thought creates a temporary uncomfortable presence in the body; a chronic painful thought creates a lasting painful physical presence in the body. Mental anguish seems to effortlessly transform into physical anguish and take residence in our body. Pantanjali recognized that to move through our afflictions and discontent in life, we must learn to change the quality and character of our mind. The heart of yoga is an investigation into the nature of our own discontent in order to find a pathway to a higher state of mind. More simply, we need to understand the cause and source of our discontent before we can begin to heal it.

Pantanjali’s insights into the nature of the human mind remain relevant and valuable today. Under the pressure of impressive technological innovation, we live in the midst of an environment that places unique challenges on our thought processes. There is great benefit in our modern technologies, however, our minds also feel the strain of the increased speed and intensity of information and communication. Distraction and mental fatigue are significant and growing problems today. We subscribe to delusional and harmful notions such as multitasking. One of Pantanjali’s most important contributions was identifying problematic qualities of mind that lie at the root of our fear, anxiety, and insecurity. He describes five mental afflictions, or “klesas,” that he proposed to be the root cause of our suffering. In restraining, or learning to control, the five afflictions we free ourselves from the suffering they impose upon our lives.
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[Exploring Life] The Five States of Mind: Pantanjali (2nd century B.C.) is a pioneer of the mind. The uncharted terrain he ventured into was the inner landscape of the mind. His method was the direct observation of his own mind. In this sense, Pantanjali was both scientist and artist of the inner realm of existence. The very essence of yoga lies is the contemplation of the nature of our mind. One of his main concerns in the Yoga Sutras was to clearly identify and describe problems that occur in the mind.

A mental problem is innately linked to the nature of thought being produced in the mind. Our thinking is not neutral with respect to its effects on our individual feelings and sense of well being. Thoughts carry with them an energy that permeates our body; thought determines how we choose to interpret our experiences. In this sense, the mind permeates the entire body in what Candace Pert refers to as the bodymind. Though we might think of the mind as an emergent property of the brain, the word “mind” is used to here refer to the entire sphere of intelligence throughout the entire body. A problem that occurs in the mind affects our entire experience of living, and understanding the problems that can occur provides a foundation for the improvement and development. Pantanjali describes five basic mental states, from problematic through to ideal states of mind.
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We interpret our experiences in life through a complex and often hidden network of beliefs. The human brain is a belief engine; beliefs are the apparatus and raw materials of the mind. They lie at the core of our emotions, determine our subsequent behaviour, and shape the course of our lives. In a basic sense, a belief is any thought or idea we hold to be true. In an ironic twist, however, the human mind is capable of developing impassioned patterns of belief that have no clear evidence to support them. In other words, we can passionately believe in something, perhaps even have faith in it, and allow those beliefs to determine the course of our lives in the complete absence of clear evidence to support their validity. In this darker sense, our beliefs have the potential hijack our presence and lead us astray – often without us knowing it. What do we base our beliefs on? What is the foundation of that which we hold to be true? of our beliefs, for it is through the expression of belief that we ultimately shape our destiny.

One of the most important concepts in understanding the nature of belief is evidence - or the proof that provides a solid foundation for the construction of beliefs. At the core of all of our beliefs is the veiled and illusive territory of presupposition, or more simply, assumption. An assumption is something we take for granted, something we presume to be true as a necessary precondition for our beliefs. If our core assumptions are correct then we are in a position to construct beliefs from a solid foundation; if our core assumptions are incorrect or misguided we construct beliefs on a false premise. It is frightening to consider the possibility that many of our most deeply held and cherished beliefs may be unfounded and without merit. Worse, optimistic and hopeful belief systems can sometimes become tyrannical and delusional. The tenacity or extent of a belief has no bearing on its relevance, accuracy, or merit – even widely adopted belief systems can be imprudent.
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[Exploring Life] Grief possesses great agility. It emerges subtlety yet its presence is potent. Grief, I am beginning to understand, cannot be equated to more distinct states of being such as the quality of sadness that results from loss. The dimensions of grief are far more extensive in nature. Loss and absence are, of course, essential emotional experiences within the process of grieving but grieving transports our thoughts and emotions beyond this to intensify and invigorate our presence in life.

Grief redefines time. That is to say, the process of grieving reorients our beliefs about time. The loss of a loved one reminds us that all life is impermanent and transient. This to me is not a morbid or painful thought; it is a simple acknowledgement of the inevitable. Grief metamorphoses our emotional habitat, and we sometimes find ourselves walking amidst a landscape of feelings and sensations that are unfamiliar and strange. Grief forms a threshold in which our very sense of time and place are fundamentally altered and no longer visible. Our sense certainty becomes more uncertain; the familiar morphs into the unfamiliar. Grief initiates transfiguration, exalts presence, and invites us consider the sacred.
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[Exploring Life] The word memory originates in the Latin memor meaning mindful or remembering. Memory is the ability to remember, recollect, recall, or revive a mental impression of a past experience. One common assumption about memory is that it is a mental ability we use to recollect the past with accuracy and precision. A person with a “good” memory will be able to recollect more accurately than someone with a less able memory. This perspective on memory is frequently related to the ability to accurately recall facts and information. However, the essence of memory is not limited to the mere recollection of facts and information.

We never really recall an important past experience in precisely the same way. That is to say, our memories are dynamic and are constantly subject to creative interpretation. Our present circumstances and situations are also in constant flux, so we never really recall anything from exactly the same perspective. While the events of the past remain unchangeable, our relationship to them in the present changes over time. This is most notably apparent when we attempt to recall a past experience that has a significant impact on our lives. When we recall a fact from our memory it reappears with consistency and accuracy. When we recall a significant event in our lives, it is creatively revived and is expressed as a theme and variations. Memory is a direct extension of creative expression.
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[Exploring Life] In the Time Magazine article New Ways to Think About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg explores some common misconceptions of grief. She proposes that Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – are in fact not stages. Kubler-Ross was focused on identifying the stages of grief each of us navigates through with respect to the knowledge of our own demise, yet psychologists have tended to apply the stages to all grieving. While Kubler-Ross’ work remains a valuable contribution, Konigsberg concludes that psychological interpretations of grief have often served to increase, not decrease, the levels of anxiety experienced.

But if I had to say one thing to someone, it would be something like, “You probably already have what you need to get through this.”

- The Exchange: Ruth Davis Konigsberg on Grieving

The idea that each of us follows a clear pattern of stages when grieving is glaringly obvious over-simplification. The idea that something as clinical and theoretical as “stages” can be applied to the wild and improvisatory experience we call grieving is at the very least strange. That is not to say we do not experience emotional qualities such as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance is various ways; it is to say that the probability of these specific five qualities being a collective template for grief and grieving in general is less than remote. Does denial always come first? Why can’t gratitude be the first emotional quality a person feels in the knowledge of their own mortality? None of this is to say that Kubler-Ross’ work is unimportant, however, the assumption that grief can be structured into stages in askew. This is one of several common misconceptions about grief.
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Caffeine is an addictive substance that produces stimulative effects in the body and mind. Caffeine simultaneously affects our body and mind and therefore influences how we think, feel and act. If we developed a diet based on the principle of do no harm to body or mind, then caffeine would be eliminated. If we developed a diet based on eating only food that provides benefit to the body and mind, then caffeine would not be included. Developing a healthy and resilient body-mind connection is the foundation of learning. Caffeine is therefore a substance that deters and denigrates our capacity for learning.
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How much of our experience is driven by involuntary tendencies and habits? Understanding the nature and essence of habit in our lives is an essential task. Habits are both inevitable and unavoidable. They are a medium of perception; a complex network of filters that influence how we interpret and orient ourselves to everyday life. The effect of an involuntary pattern of behavior can be positive or negative. However, for learning to evolve we must be fully aware of and develop the ability to evolve the habits that influence us.
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