Trauma & Art

Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment with kindness and curiosity (from iBme at https://ibme.info/resources/)

You may also like to read Jessica Morey’s (participant at the Mindful Leadership Online Training Conference (www. in. gr and https://cyclades24.gr) article Finding my way

‘Discernment includes seeing that even as we attempt to see our children for who they are, we also cannot fully know who they are or where their lives will take them. We can only love them, and accept them, and honour the mystery of their being’, Myla and Jon Kabat-Zinn, Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting

Viveka Chen: Undoing bias from the inside out from Mindful Leadership Online Training Conference (www. in. gr and https://cyclades24.gr)

Viveka Chen talks about how bias operates to keep us repeating limited loops of perception and ways of responding and how this often operates at an unconscious level. She mentions that this implicit bias can occur through our internalizing the Other or certain groups of people as inferior or dangerous during our early years within our familial contexts and then later on at school, through the media, in our social groups, etc, and how it negatively impacts our judgment, decision making and behaviour. She refers to research findings that show that the amygdala (fear response) of participants who are, for instance, shown pictures of people of colour is activated. This occurs automatically and under their conscious awareness. Often our conscious values and ideas about the world and others may be in contradiction with these underlying schemas. Finally, she talks about the possibility to transcend implicit bias and racist attitudes – often below our conscious awareness – through practising mindfulness, which can allow us to become aware of this, and then engage in exploration of our fears, cognitive processing and reframing.

Among other things I am exploring and learning a bit more about mindfulness and its connection to many areas of our life – interesting facts like the existence of technological devices that can induce states of meditation or apps that can track our heart rate variability (HRV) levels, etc, as well as, the computer power of smart phones and the negative and positive implications of this! (Jonathan Robinson). I have been briefly engaging with material by people exploring or teaching mindfulness in diverse areas, like Barnet Bain, whose film, Homeless to Harvard, I watched recently on the Net, or Rose Pavlov’s work with children and many other inspiring people. Mostly though, I’m working on bringing mindfulness to all or at least many moments of my day, to drink tea or eat an apple, for instance, and know I am drinking or eating it instead of being distracted and preoccupied with thoughts, worries or chores. I am also raising two kittens, which the cat that has on and off resided in our garden since our dog died, has now left in our care. It’s been a sort of ethological observation –  first the amazingly great and consistent mothering they received from their mother for months, then the expression of their different ‘temperaments’, and finally, their tender sibling interaction. I don’t know if I will witness fierce sibling rivalry during some later phase, but for the time being they cuddle up and sleep side by side or on top of each other, lick each others’ fur and share the food in their bowl. I am watching them grow and explore the world trying to patiently gain their trust so that hopefully they will allow me to pat them. I am moving slowly allowing them space and time, bribing them with tiny bits of cheese or butter in the meantime. Being grounded in the present and aware of my bodily experience and sensations as they arise while I interact with them, for instance, sometimes brings up unpleasant feelings and sensations, relics of early pet stories or other pet experiences in my current neighbourhood that did not go so well. However, being mindfully present does not only increase clarity but also heals, giving me the opportunity to separate past events from the present and engage with these two cute visitors afresh.

View: Unlocking children’s potential through mindfulness by Rose Pavlov at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npKuxQiloNM