Humanism

 Going Mental  No Responses »
Oct 132015
 

These past almost two weeks have really given me a sense of peace and calm. I have also discovered a new direction for my life as long as I keep working my energies towards that path.

One thing that has really come out of this mindfulness training is the discovery of other people who believe in the power of humans. I’ve never been able to buy into a religion and have always just tried to explain myself as ‘spiritual’, but as Sam Harris’s talk points out, it’s a lame statement.

The truth is that I am a humanist. I believe in the power of human beings and that we are amazing beings on this earth, but do not live up to our greatest potential as a whole nor as individuals. The greatest realization of mindfulness has been the spreading and believing in compassion and love starting within the self and then passing it on to others. With love and compassion, we can achieve just about anything we set our minds to on this earth.

Now, there is a lot of talk of Buddhism and even some sprinkles of Christianity or Islam, but for me none of these connections are important. Rather, I want to focus in on what can we learn about human potential and how can we develop our individual potential in order to contribute to the development of potential as a society on a local, national and global scale?

So, as I delve into these thoughts, my new path reveals itself more clearly! It’s all very exciting!!! 😀

-T

Hooked!

 Going Mental  No Responses »
Oct 062015
 

So, I’m six days in to the Mindfulness Summit and I’m totally hooked!

Ages ago a friend or friends talked to me about my thoughts on meditation and yoga. I thought I wasn’t into it and although I have a belief in a higher being, I wasn’t really going to embrace a new-agey kind of trend.

Now…I’m a yoga lover and am becoming a HUGE fan of mindfulness. It’s working already to keep me calm and focused.

For example, I had a bit of a problem with my power and paying the bill – without too much detail of the frustration, I managed to sit and listen to the day’s interview after everything had been taken care of. Instead of feeling stressed and frustrated I found myself calm and actually smiling/laughing about the whole situation. Some might call it maturity or acceptance for where I live, but without having the moment to breath and let it all go, I would definitely have had a good long rant to my friend when we met up! 😀

So, I really recommend this. It has also propelled me down a new path of exciting possibilities – on which I will elaborate in a future post.

Until next time,

-T

Mindfulness Summit 2015

 Going Mental  No Responses »
Oct 012015
 

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My friend, T posted this on her FB page as an event she was planning on attending. I had seen it before on another friend’s post, but had only glanced at it then. So, this time I took a closer look at it.

In the past, people have suggested the idea of meditation and tried to explain what it is; however, I have generally chalked it up to a Buddhist idea or some exotic activity that those who wander into a ‘hippy-like’ spiritual journey undertake. Of course, I thought this about yoga as well – until I tried it. Calling this ‘mindfulness’ seemed to work better to pique my interest.

So, I decided to take the challenge. It’s 31 days – how can it hurt? Becoming more aware of my mind is a path I have undertaken since I first admitted to having bipolar tendencies. Since doing so, I have gotten a much better handle on how my mind works and what I need to do to ensure a stable mindset. Therefore, learning mindfulness or meditation is just another way of helping me along this path – I think. 😉

At the end of every yoga session, we generally take a few moments to focus on our breath and to bring focus to our bodies. This isn’t a traumatizing or funky spiritual activity, but it has calmed me and brought me “zen”. Therefore, I’m really looking forward to doing 31 days of training on this for a regular part of my day. Some might consider prayer time the same – for I used to commune with God regularly each night when I was more of a church-going spiritual person. Now, I’m more of a yoga and ‘humanist’ spiritual person and looking into mindfulness for communing. 😀

Today was the first day and I gotta say…NICE!

-T 😀

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