[Exploring Life] What we eat has a direct and immediate affect on how we behave. Though we may practice relaxation, mindfulness, and meditation in order to foster a sense of equanimity in our body and mind, we completely undermine our efforts by eating food additives (i.e. – chemical additives that are not really food) and junk food (i.e. – high sugar content and starchy carbohydrates). It is curious to note that as a field of study psychology and its offspring tend to ignore the essential role that nutrition plays in mental health and well being. Instead, pharmaceutical drugs are prescribed, while dietary changes often remain ignored.
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[Exploring Life] In Mindful Learning, Ellen J. Langer describes mindful learning as “the simple act of drawing distinctions” with specific reference to learning. She draws a distinction between mindful and mindless forms of learning. Her work focuses on the integration of the Buddhist concept of awareness (or mindfulness) with modern conceptions of learning, which are largely reductionist in orientation. She refers to myths of learning or conceptions of learning that unnecessarily limit people and are mindlessly accepted as being true. In essence, Langer attempts to integrate the development of perceptual acuity into our conception of learning in order to include the perceptual qualities of awareness, attention, observation, and presence.

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[Exploring Life]In How To Get Unstuck From (almost) Anything, Joseph Cardillo provides six learning strategies designed to help us break out of confining patterns of thought and behavior through the art of being new, a phrase that originates in core martial arts training. Joseph is an expert martial arts practitioner and the author of three books: Be Like Water–Practical Wisdom from the Martial Arts; Bow to Life–365 Secrets from the Martial Arts for Daily Life; and his most recent publication Can I Have Your Attention? He is currently a professor of English and Creative Writing at Hudson Valley Community College of the State University of New York.
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[Exploring Life] When we become entrenched in our conceptual orientation to the world we limit our ability to perceive and apprehend it from different perspectives. All concepts are, at best, assumptions about reality. Any concept is therefore something less than reality itself. At the same time, we use concepts to construct meaning. If our minds habitually interpret experience through a limited conceptual framework, we live in a mindless manner. The idea of non-conceptual awareness invites us to consider the possibility of being in the world in way that seeks to challenge our own conceptual addictions and assumptions in order to cultivate new perspectives and possibilities for experience.
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[Exploring Life] We are all immersed in a cultural environment that promotes the manipulation and confinement of our awareness and attention. Culture is a collective distraction. That is to say, the rules, traditions, norms, and underlying assumptions at the core of our lifestyle prevent us from thinking and perceiving with clarity. Instead our thoughts, feelings, and vital energy are distracted by imposed expectations. These expectations now come at us with such speed, mass, and force that we are now all immersed in a lifestyle that invites, promotes, and sustains chronic mental fatigue. Our ways of life are making us sick in mind, body and spirit. Unless we find ways to heal our minds of distraction, we will remain on a steady descent into the abyss of mental degradation.
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[Exploring Life] The bodymind is a term used to acknowledge that the body is inseparable from the mind, that is to say, the body and the mind form a single, coherent system. We sometimes tend to think of the body and the mind as separate systems; the body is something we view as being physical and concrete, while we sometimes view the mind as being more immaterial and illusive. The contemplative traditions have long held that body and mind are a single unified system. Modern science continues to reveal deeper levels of insight into body-mind unity, or more simply, the bodymind.
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[Exploring Life] Patanjali defines Yoga as “the restraint of mental modifications.” (Yoga Sutras 1:2) Restraint means to control and prevent the mind from engaging in processes that cause distress in our thoughts and emotions. In other words, yoga presumes that the mind is responsible for the creation of our own psychological discontent. Suffering, for example, is a kind of “mental modification” of the mind because it is a state that is considered by Patanjali to be abnormal. In other words, the normal condition of the mind embraces the qualities of equanimity, resilience and presence. The restraint of mental modifications means to return to a natural state of mind through the disciplined control and elimination of unhealthy thoughts, feelings, moods, perceptions, and beliefs.
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[Exploring Life] The Yoga Sutras written by Patanjali in the 2nd century B.C. is consider to be one of the primary texts of yoga. The word Yoga is derived from Sanskrit root yujir meaning to join or to unite. Another important translation comes from the root yuj meaning to contemplate. A sutra is an aphorism, or a brief statement designed to contain a deep insight, powerful observation or an important truth about life. The Yoga Sutras are therefore insights and observations into the nature of unity and contemplation of life. Chapter one of the Yoga Sutras is frequently translated as “Concentration” and reveal that Yoga is primarily a discipline of the mind. Patanjali immediately introduces five basic states of mind that comprise the mental landscape of yoga.
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[Exploring Life] We have a deep desire to seek a greater purpose in life, yet often feel confined by the requirements of our existing lifestyle. A quick glance at the “Self Help” section in a bookstore reveals an ever-expanding array of publications designed to help people embrace a deeper sense of happiness, joy, and contentment in life. The self-help industry is also a marketing engine for solutions to problem which it has created. Without a problem, there is no market to sell solutions to and buying a “solution” feels good, at least temporarily. However, this is not to say that there is no value to be found in these materials. It is to say that the sheer quantity of material published on a relatively small number of themes serves to create a sense of confusion and bewilderment. Who or what are we to believe? The solution to this is to focus on identifying the critical attributes the essential themes, and paying less attention to the superficial variations. The idea of contemplation is one of those essential themes.
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