Edition 3: Learning/Study Wellness key phrases

Hi everyone,

Thanks for accompanying me on this journey that will eventually lead to a fully-fledged book. You will play a big part in helping me to get together all my experiences as a mindful educator to share with new blood. Thanks in advance. I’m writing from my favourite workspace today (see the image above)—I go here whenever possible! I’ll tell you more about this today. Also, I’ll mention optimizing your time, meaningfulness, resisting end-gaining, and living an engaged life.

So, when we consider learning/studying wellness, as we’ve seen, mindfulness is a keyword. Being fully conscious of our lives makes a difference in how we see life. Multi-tasking—a fantastic modern skill—does not help us be mindful because our attention is spread shallowly. We need depth to get to our consciousness. Take a good look at this massive iceberg.

Only about 10% of the ice mass shows above the water level. This image is analogous to our consciousness. 90% of it is hidden, submerged, and sometimes hardly ever accessed. Strangely enough, spiritual leaders and adepts claim that humans are only 10% spiritually evolved, whereas we are 90% physically developed. Why is so much of our ‘mind’ submerged, gathering dust?

The answer is quite simple. As I mentioned last week, we are overstimulated by external sources—remember the photos of Tokyo—and tyrannized by time. Time rules our lives, especially if we are in full-time work or study. We run from one meeting or class to another, have barely enough time to eat, and may need gallons of coffee to keep us going through long desert days. There is little time to be quiet and take stock. And it seems that we never accomplish enough, so a sense of dissatisfaction often looms over us.

External pressures often force us to be either in the future planning and building or in the past, regretting, measuring our performance, or gloating over our successes. How often are you Now? How often are you Here? To be in the dead centre of the moment is where and when we can be the most mindful. It is a paradise where deadlines are banned, regrets and resentment have never been heard of, and we can rest and restore ourselves.

In the ‘Here-and-Now’ as I call it, there is near-silence and suddenly a space to breathe in. If we’ve been busy, we may have breathed very shallowly for many hours, and then the body gets permission to breathe and spread out. You can drop your shoulders, rest your feet properly on the ground and start to unload the bundles and burdens of business.

As you start to ‘come down to earth’, you may ask yourself, ‘Is all this mad activity really meaningful?’ What does it all mean? Why do I compulsively rush and try to fill every second of my waking life with achievements, progress, getting approval, climbing up the ladder to success, etc.. What do I want deep in my submerged consciousness? And then, with the evening out of your breathing, the softening of your muscles and joints, the noticing of what’s coming in through your senses, etc., you bring balance about. And perhaps you smile and start to feel quite different.

In this way, in the dead centre of the Here-and-Now, away from worries, nagging doubts, and blaming yourself (or others) for things that have gone wrong, you will have a great chance to optimize your time. Remember that time is only a concept, an idea. It doesn’t exist, so why do we allow it to bully us so easily. ‘Optimise’ means to make the very best of something, and this word is very close to ‘optimism,’ so it’s a genuinely positive notion. If you come to this Here-and-Now paradise wholeheartedly at least once during your busy days, when you must move off again into the race, you are much more conscious and aware. And this is the key to optimizing your time.

Look at this beautiful animal above in the Here-and-Now. It is 100% present with every fibre of its fur.

There are several parts to it:

• Learning to say ‘no’ — not taking on too much, giving in to external pressure/flattery, etc.
• Assigning quality time to the things you really want to do (knowing what they are)
• Sitting down before every busy week and making a detailed schedule of what to do when and where
• Resisting end-gaining

End-gaining is part of human behaviour. I trained for a long time as an Alexander teacher (F.M.Alexander)—reeducation of Body and Mind—and Alexander coined this term. It means that we are driven to get results from all our efforts. We insist on results in some cases. Of course, this is necessary sometimes to get things done, but it can become a habit.

One day, while training as an Alexander teacher, my teacher asked me to make a pot of tea for him without end-gaining. This was quite a challenge. I had to focus on the process of making tea rather than the final product. It was wonderful taking as much time as I liked to boil the water, arrange the tea cups, pour the milk into the milk jug, etc., and my body moved so smoothly and confidently. So, in your daily life, enjoy the process of what you are doing, not just the striving to gain the end. I promise you will enjoy the result more if you are Here-and-Now during the process.

Listening is another key to entering mindfulness, which I'll discuss in Edition 4 next week. In the meantime, it might be good if you read my article on Listening and Mindfulness. It suggests six tips to make your listening environment more mindful. It also mentions how to avoid being sucked into saying 'yes' to other people too often so that all your time is taken up doing things you don't honestly want to do. In other words, how to be more selective about your time use.

Finally, living an engaged life or living life fully. My definition of this is: ‘to live by taking action and moving closer to things and people which matter most to us.’ A lifetime is a precious gift bestowed on us when we are born. As I mentioned last week, each human being is not identical to any other, even so-called identical twins, and so has a unique S.O.L.E. (Self-Organizing Learning Environment – Sugata Mitra 1990). This means their view of the world is unique and, therefore, fascinating. So, in my life, I want to move ever closer to learning about the inner universe, the mass of ice beneath the surface. There is much to learn from each other if we put aside our prejudices and conditioned filters. Being in a state of Here-and-Now allows us to see each other’s lives and engage with them.

Some of the above wellness phrases and words may be new to you, but they are becoming more common, especially on the internet. Language is organic in that it is constantly changing and adapting. I hope the internet community is becoming more aware of what we need to maintain our mental health. ‘Mental Health’ has long been taboo. Still, along with the pandemic and the upsurge of internet education and learning, we are starting to open up instead of being ashamed to admit that we are fearful or depressed. This is especially important if you are studying. Please don’t be alone with your anxieties. You can get counselling easily, and there’s lots of help online. I would be only too pleased to lend a hand if you contact me.

Leaving you, as usual, with a memorable, louder-than-words image to inspire you in the week ahead. The Here-and-Now.

Have a mindful week ahead!