Mindfulness

In 21st Century society, we experience situations that make us feel like either running away or fighting.  Stress at work, with family, driving or with people we don’t even know can trigger a reaction and yet we do not have the option of fighting or fleeing. When the Fight or Flight syndrome is not able to function we each have a threshold before the stress begins to affect our our mind works.  We create the Dictator.

There is a Dictator in my mind and we are at war with each other.  The Dictator commands the Fight or Flight syndrome that controls my body chemistry that makes my head buzz, causes nausea, makes my leg muscles twitch and creates negative thoughts. The Dictator uses force and direct action to make my life miserable when I am anxious prior to an event or activity. The Dictator knows that once my system gets started in the wrong direction the feedback loops in my body and my mind will keep making things worse for me until I give up, close my eyes and lay down in a quiet place. Afterwards, I am exhausted and have to take a nap during the daytime and that interferes with my sleep at night.

The Dictator depends on me reacting to my own thoughts and feelings about the past and the future to increase his strength and maintain his control. The Dictator listens to all my conscious thoughts and feelings and my unconscious thoughts and feelings. So the Dictator has information about the secret life I live inside my mind that I do not have.

I will lose if I try a direct approach to stop the Dictator triggering his forces. I can not stop him by using positive affirmations, keeping busy all the time or staying home all the time. Medication works for a short period of time or I have to take them all the time and they have side effects. Medication only makes the Dictator go to sleep for awhile but he is still there.

I can not run away from myself, but I can hide in my house for the rest of my life.  I can not fight the Dictator directly but I can use medication to make him go to sleep, and me too. There are many strategies that people use to cope that do not get rid of the Dictator.

Mindfulness is a strategy that does work over time to defeat the Dictator or at least get him out of power so that he is not in direct control over my mind and body. Instead of a direct approach, mindfulness is non-action (not inactivity).  Instead of keeping busy with activities, mindfulness cultivates stillness. Mindfulness is a strategy that gets information over time from the conscious and unconscious mind that the Dictator could use to trigger an attack and instead practicing mindfulness opens me to experiencing those memories, thoughts, emotions and feelings in the moment to accept them and let go of them.

Non-action has a long and successful history. Non-action is engaging in activities to overthrow a Dictator like what Gene Sharp lists in his book “From Dictatorship to Democracy”. An example is a boycott. In my case, I want to boycott the Dictator forcefully hijacking my body and mind.  To do this, I have to train my body and my mind to not react. I have to cultivate non-action and stillness in my mind and my body.

My mind needs to be still and my body needs to not take action. My conscious and unconscious mind both need to not take action. My legs, arms and internal organs that control my body chemistry need to be still. 

Stillness is the renunciation of the stress-induced reaction of the mind and body to daily activities. Stillness is boycotting the Dictator that decides to release adrenaline and cortisol, to suppress the immune system and send excess energy to muscles.  Stillness is non-action, not inactivity. Each time my mind wanders, I am practicing mindfulness by bringing my mind back to the present moment and my breath.

The daily practice of mindfulness opens us up to experiencing our life in the present moment. The Dictator wants to remain in power and uses past and future thoughts to force the body to react. The practice of mindfulness cultivates stillness that grows over time until we are strong enough to use the power of non-action to defeat the Dictator.  When stressful events happen our response to the memory or anticipation is non-action.  The Dictator has no power over us when he is unable to get the mind and body to react.