You TH!NK you know this apple? You don't...

I've written several posts now about the importance of living in the moment because it's where our lives really take place. It's well and good to say that and intend to do that, but where to start? Not everybody is into meditation, and that is totally fine. If you are interested in trying to be more present in the moment and shutting off the internal chatter to see how it feels, I have a simple and delightful exercise that might interest you. It takes only a few minutes of your time, and is best done alone.

The point of this exercise is to bring your full attention to the moment and allow your senses to communicate with you. One of the largest barriers to this experience of the moment that we encounter in our day to day lives are the assumptions that we carry around with us everywhere we go. Assumptions are part of human consciousness, they help us to orient ourselves in everyday situations and form a major part of our continuous decision making processes. Often, though, our assumptions can lead to missed opportunities, or worse, can be destructive towards other people. I don't want to get into that in this post, but I am sure that we can all think of at least one situation where we've assumed something about a person or place that turned out to be completely unfounded.

In a very simple scenario, like having an afternoon snack, these assumptions can make us gloss over the experience of what we're eating and we barely even taste it! Before we know it, we are hungry again and the next snack finds its fate, all too quickly eaten and not worth remembering. Are we actually hungry, or just bored?

For this exercise you will need only 2 things:

1. A quiet space where you can sit and feel relatively undistracted.
2. Something of your choosing to do the exercise with. For the purpose of explaining I will use an apple, but you could choose a nice cup of coffee, a favorite sweater, a piece of chocolate or a short and simple piece of music that you enjoy. It can be virtually anything, but I like trying it with food because you can involve all of your senses.

Step One:
Make yourself comfortable and make sure that you have a few minutes to dedicate to what you're doing. It doesn't take long, but it doesn't work if it's rushed.

Step Two:
Start by just looking at the apple. Let go of everything that you know about it. A normal encounter with an apple might involve an expectation about what it might taste like and how long it takes you to eat it, how its flavour might compare to other apples that you've had, etc. Let go of all of that for the moment and just look at the apple. Observe its colour, its shape, the texture of its skin, its stem. Just let yourself see it. The truth is that this apple is different from every other apple you've ever had or will have again, so take some time to really see what it looks like.

Step 3:
Once you have seen the apple, take it in your hands and see it with touch. Observe the curvature of its shape, the feel of its skin, the firmness of it, the weight of it in your hand. What does it smell like? Again, gently let go of all pre-conceived notions that you have about what an apple is and your previous experiences with apples. Allow the apple to penetrate your senses.

Step 4:
If you have spent a few minutes with the first three steps, you are likely very interested now in what this apple tastes like. Observe the sensations of that. When you feel like you're ready, take a bite. Listen to the sound, feel the texture, taste the flavour. What is it telling you? Take your time, and eat the whole thing. Wait until you are completely finished with one bite before taking the next. If you find yourself thinking about something else, gently let go of it and turn your attention back to what you're doing. How does it taste? What does it feel like to chew it? What about to swallow it? When you're done, take a good look at the core. If it's not too flouncy for you, you might even want to say a little thank you to the apple for letting you eat it.

So that's it. It's so simple, it seems silly. But if you allow yourself the experience, you may well find it intensely delightful. The same type of thing can be done with music, with a nice bath, with anything really. When we forget everything that we think we know about something, it is able to tell us what its really like and it becomes infinitely more interesting.

Imagine if we treated all the people in our lives like that. Imagine if we treated the environment that way. Imagine if we treated ourselves that way. I think it's pretty cool.

L!NK to follow up

I follow another blog called Zen Habits, and this morning's post seemed to compliment the point I was getting at yesterday, so take a second to check it out:

http://zenhabits.net/2008/11/relax-in-second/

This post was written by a psychiatrist, so she would definitely have a more detailed understanding of the effects that taking a moment for yourself than I could articulate.

Let the trees help you get what you want

While I think the experience of "rocking out with the barren trees" is enough of a reward in and of itself (they really are quite lovely!), there are over-reaching benefits to turning off the internal chatter. At the top of the list: it can help you to achieve goals that you set for yourself.

We all know that being able to pay attention to what we're doing is important, but often, even when we think that we are paying attention, there are still a host of other thoughts that are running through our minds. We may still be able to get a lot done, but will often take a little longer to do it, or may miss some little details that we would not have missed had we been truly focused.

I fall victim to this when I practice for sure. I catch myself going over the same thing again and again, tiring myself and not actually getting anything valuable done. It is most likely to happen when I'm hungry or tired, but often it's simply because I'm distracted by other thoughts about what I should be doing or what I already did that day or what I will be doing later.

So a little bit of wasted practice time or a wasted breath of fresh air in the morning is not too big a deal, right? What about when the pressure is on and it's really important that you give your all? For most of us, true and complete mental focus is difficult to just turn on and off. The times when we need to focus the most can be times when we experience more internal chatter than ever. If we are unable to focus on the important issue in that moment of performance (be that music, a game, a speech, and important conversation, an interview, etc.), we are far more likely to miss out on opportunities for success, or, at the very least, miss out on the full enjoyment of that moment if it is successful.

You can likely see where I'm taking this: practicing mental focus, being in the moment when there's no pressure is not only intensely rewarding on its own, it can pay massive dividends when you need to have your "game face" on.

The mind is incredibly powerful when it is focused, but we often don't take the time to truly develop that power to its full potential. Believe it or not, taking the time to say "No, thank you." to the mindless conversation that we have with ourselves all day and just allowing our minds to live in the moment strengthens our ability to focus when it counts.

People who want to practice this mental focus specifically and in isolation may choose to meditate. I personally find that a short meditation session in the morning is hugely beneficial to the way I think and feel for the day. That sort of time commitment may or may not be of interest to you. What everyone can afford to do, though, is take a few minutes during the day, even when busy, to just experience the moment. Get out of your head and look around. It sounds cliche, but when you're in the grocery store and you pass a bouquet of roses, take a second and really smell it. Or when you're next in the shower, take a moment and really feel the warm water on you. Our mind and our senses delight in pure experience, even if they are simple ones. Treat yourself.

Rocking out with the barren trees!

I would say that the largest goal of my life is to fully experience it for however long it lasts.

This seems like the simplest thing to say, but I am amazed at how often I catch myself worrying about some future that does not yet exist. A typical scenario could go like this: I am walking to the bus in the morning, the sun is out, the air is fresh, and the day is young.
The stream of consciousness: "I have SO many things to do this week! I'll never have time to get x, y and z done. What am I going to eat for dinner? I must remember to get change for the washing machine, or I won't have any clean socks left for tomorrow. I can't believe I broke a glass today, I hope I didn't miss any little pieces... bla, bla, bla"...
Equally as often, I catch myself doing the same thing about the past: "I should have planned my morning better, now I don't have time to call back so-and-so until late this evening, and I can't really remember locking the door when I left the house. Did I leave my towel and pyjamas on the bathroom floor? I hope I get home before my roommate so I can be sure to pick them up... bla, bla, bla...."....

I get on the bus, sit through my first two classes and by the time they are done, I have started the process anew, this time lamenting the fact that I would love to just take a 5 minute breather outside and smell the air. Well what was I doing when I had the little walk this morning? I frittered away that time thinking about things that either have already happened and I can't do anything about (and therefore do not really exist), or things that have not yet happened (and therefore do not exist). I missed my lovely moments of outdoor freshness for that? Pretty silly I would say to myself.

In fact, there have been entire days or even weeks where I have been out doing neat things, but hardly even remember them because my mind was somewhere else at the time. Does this sound familiar to you?

The big point here, and I think one that is HUGELY overlooked in our mile-a-minute, information overloaded, be available by phone, email, text message, snail mail and carrier pigeon 24/7 is that our lives take place in the moment. Miss the moment, miss your life. It's as simple as that. John Daido Loori, a former chemist turned Zen monk who has written a ton of great books describes the concept of "coming home to the moment" because that's where we really are. Nothing else really exists for us but our moment to moment experience. If we spend too much time worrying about the past and future, we miss the moment-to-moment experience and, ultimately, our lives.

I am trying to minimize the amount of time (that I will NEVER get back!) that I spend locked inside my own stream of thought and not experiencing the lovely life that is going on right. this. second. now. I am able to do it more and more often these days, and I practice it by taking the time to meditate. When I am able to leave all of the millions of ultimately pointless thoughts that stream through my mind all day, things seem to come alive that I never even noticed before, like the trees along the property at the Legislature. They're leafless now, looking like the inside-out lungs of the planet, being exactly who they are. I have noticed that each individual tree has a completely different look to it, a different character. I feel happy to see them when I walk by, sort of like seeing a nice acquaintance. They have been there every day that I have walked past (and for a long time before that), going through their seasonal cycle, hiding nothing about what and who they are, I just didn't see it because I was too "busy". Now my 5 minute morning walk seems like a nice visit with the day.

I still catch myself (often) thinking of things that don't really matter, and I am making a conscious effort to walk away from that. I have a challenge for you: give it a try for a day. Try to consciously turn your attention away from all the internal chatter and just experience the day. Get all the things done that you need to do, just make an effort to experience a few moments without the endless stream of thoughts, value judgments, and preconceived notions. Please write back and let me know if it feels different from the usual.

Zen and the Consummate Chemist

I've been studying Zen philosophy for about a year now and although I'm not really ready to call myself a Buddhist per se, the concepts make so much sense for all that I do in my life that maybe I am already and just haven't said it...

One Zen concept that I have been thinking a lot about is the principle that all people and all things are perfect and complete exactly the way they are. All that is left to do is let go and experience the reality of what a great and intelligent person you already are. According to this logic, a teacher does not really teach a student anything, it is the student who realizes the concept when they are ready. Everything that you will ever learn in your life, you already know, it is just a matter of realization.This principle accounts for those moments when something that has been eluding you for some time finally comes clear: It always feels as though the change comes from the inside, not the outside.

I was thinking about this the other day as I was doing my daily run and remembering my Chemistry class from that morning. I am presently trying to grasp the concepts of Molecular Orbital Theory in that class. So far it has been the most difficult class for me to keep up in even though I find it very interesting and spend quite a lot of time studying. This year at midterms, for the first time, I experienced real exam anxiety when it came to my chem exam. I spent the entire two hours feeling like I was stuck in a violent dry heaving spell. In the end, I did fine with room to improve for sure, but it would be safe to say that I have not been seeing my inherent perfection when it comes to chemistry.

Running is a good time to think for me, and as I made my way I thought of this inherent perfection and how it seemed so opposite to my experience in chemistry so far, a little thought came from somewhere inside and it seemed plain as day: You, I, animals, plants, tables, rocks, bugs and couches are all living the reality of this chemistry all day every day for our entire existence and even after we die. You and I are performing this chemistry in our bodies with incredible precision and balance without even consciously considering it. Our glands release hormones, electrical impulses travel through our bodies and constantly update our brains about the outside and inside environments, we eat food and then proceed to perform complex chemical reactions with it to release the potential inside that food, the list is endless!

I have been performing these chemical reactions since I was a tiny cell mass, and will continue participating in them, whether I like it or not, until long after my earthly life is done. Even when I'm not thinking about it, some part of me is. That part understands and orchestrates these fantastical processes in ways that even the world's finest chemists can not fully explain (as they themselves perform these same incredible processes in their own bodies...)

Maybe I am a consummate chemist after all...

F!RST POST!

So this brand new blog is my way of opening dialogue about goal achievement and staying in reality.

My ultimate goal? To experience MY life!

I am a student and I've recently started to focus on goal achievement as an extension of research that I did in my Masters Degree. Basically, I want to learn as much as possible about how different people achieve their goals from both the mental and physical side and then share that with whoever out there is interested! I will share my experiences in testing my own methods on myself and see where I get.

Which activities are a priority for me? School, music, running, and TRUE experience, both with people and the environment. Experiencing all of those things with a minimal amount of debt is also of great interest to me!

So what do I think about the mental and physical side of goal achievement? I have spent the last 8 years of my life studying the mental side of this in a very practical way: I have been studying music performance. For those who may have never studied music or sports, it is a supreme exercise in the fine art of mental focus. While there are many physical skills that take years to master, the ultimate skill is having control over your mental focus. Don't believe me? Try winning a tennis game if you can't keep your eye on the ball!

Nowadays, I have shifted my attention to the physical side of goal achievement. I am studying Human Anatomy and Chemistry in a quest to understand the physical processes that help people achieve their goals. While what I just said about mental focus is certainly true, try winning that same tennis game if you can't swing a racquet. It can't be done, even if the game is a simple one.

So what am I trying to say? Which one is more important? The heart of the matter is this: The more you learn about one, the more you realize that it is 100%, entirely and beautifully entangled in the other.