Ian Gawler Blog – A path to inner peace

What if you had it all and it meant nothing? Dr John Kitchen was a neurologist “living the dream” with most things an ordinary person could want – except any deep sense of fulfillment or happiness.

So this week, an invitation to take a few moments when time permits (17 minutes to be precise), make a nice cup of tea, kick back and view a thought provoking film that documents how Dr John took radical action, followed his heart, developed his own unique form of meditation in action and found what he was looking.

Also, some people are experiencing a nuisance with the pop up that appears on the blog suggesting you join the blog email list when it appears every time you visit the blog site. Apparently this occurs if you have your cookies turned off  (don’t you just love some of the language that comes with computers!!!). So apologies if this is the case, but for those with turned on cookies (is that the same as hot cookies???), there should be no problem (the pop up is set to appear very infrequently).

Then details of our next meditation retreat that will support your own inner reflection, but first (and apologies for the language – this is an American quote)




            Thought for the Day

        I am trying to get to the end of my life
       Without becoming an arsehole again

                                         Slomo






John Kitchen reminds me of a surgeon friend from many years back. My friend had a senior surgeon as a father who explained the purpose of life to him at an early age quite simply. Grow up, work hard, be successful and you will be happy.

My friend bought the package. He worked hard and by 40 he himself was a senior surgeon. Nice house, great car, lovely wife, 2 healthy children. Prestige.

Successful? Certainly on one level, but then the accoutrements. Skin rashes over several parts of his body, stomach ulcer, sleep difficulties, not relating well with the kids, wife distant, himself grumpy a lot of the time. Disillusioned really. Followed the formula to the letter, but where was the happiness?

It is fascinating how some people wake up, do the radical thing, change their life and (usually following considerable effort) find what they were looking for all along.

Then there are the others who resign themselves to their lot, find ways of adjusting to a deep disappointment, see no way through and adopt a range of behaviours that mask the inner discomfort. Then there are some like Woody Allen who so famously quipped, “I just grow a tumour”.

This then is a provocative film. Provocative in that it challenges us to consider what is important. The subject of the film makes radical changes in his life. My friend the surgeon also found the happiness he was looking for, but he did it “merely” by making radical changes in his way of living.

He remained a senior surgeon, just dramatically changed his way of living. Learnt to meditate, found inner peace, learnt to really value his wife and children, made time for them and the other things he did really value in his life.

Dr John, or Slomo as he has come to be known, is a natural on camera. His combination of candor and eloquence and his background as a neurologist legitimizes his metaphysical theories about skating (his new found passion and raison d’etre), lateral motion and the brain.

So again, treat your self. When time permits, take a few moments, make a nice cup of tea, kick back, LINK HERE and enjoy the film.


RELATED BLOG
Finding our true identity

RESOURCES
You might enjoy my own biography – a story about doing it the hard way - when life itself demanded, indeed, imposed changes.

The Dragon’s Blessing by Guy Allenby

NOTICEBOARD

1. Meditation, Images and Health - Five day retreat – October 13 - 17

Deep natural peace. Profound insight. With over 50 years of leading meditation retreats and a wide variety of groups between us, Ruth and I invite you to join us for this 5 day residential program in the beautiful Yarra Valley that brings together the best techniques for personal transformation we know.

Details: CLICK HERE

To book: Call the Gawler Foundation - +61 3 59671730

2. The final events for the grand tour are in Adelaide this week but all 3 are fully booked. Once home and the dust has settled, I will file a report on the blog – it has been a marvelous trip!!!

Ian Gawler Blog: Tahiti’s top 5 stress management tips

Maybe it all began with the florid yet languid images of Paul Gauguin. But maybe it was the exotic tale of sailors in Mutiny on the Bounty risking all for the romantic allure of the tropical paradise known as Tahiti that lead to this boy’s life long yearning to visit.


So just back from fulfilling a dream, lets go Out on a Limb once more, share some amazing photos and learn what Tahiti can teach us about stress management. But first


Thought for the day
The mind is a universe 
and can make a heaven of hell, 
a hell of heaven.

                              John Milton, Paradise Lost

My karma with this particular slice of heaven finally ripened courtesy of my older sister and her husband who have been sailing around the world for the last 8 years. Tahiti seemed the perfect place to join them and to experience cruising around paradise. In the process of going somewhere so beautiful, so different, so warm!, some dramatic stress management lessons became crystal clear.

Tahiti’s top 6 stress management lessons

1. Wherever you go, stress is ready to greet you

Here I am floating around, all at sea.


Am I ? A. Blissed out – feeling totally enamored with the opportunity for a real holiday in such a divine setting. Aware of relaxing and letting go while floating on warm and tranquil water, marvelling at the amazing light as the sun settles, and feeling really grateful for the experience.

Or B. Freaked out - aware I am really unfit when it comes to swimming; preoccupied that I am way out of my depth, have just jumped over the side of a yacht well off any shore, am unaware of any currents or even my capacity to get back to the boat and am stressing out?


Many people think stress is an external problem, something that is caused by things outside of them; outside of their control. Going to Tahiti made it crystal clear, you can find the catalysts for stress anywhere and everywhere.

In fact, this is the human condition. If you are alive, you have the potential to be stressed. Sure, some environments, some people can provoke stress more readily than others, but even being in paradise can do it for you.

2. An untrained mind is at the mercy of the currents


Here is Ruth steering the ship (OK you nautical types, I know it is a yacht).

How often do you hear people saying “He is the cause of all my stress”?

“If only we were not so busy at work I would be more relaxed.”

“Once the kids are a little older, they are bound to be easier to manage and life will be OK.”

“ Once we pay of the mortgage, we can relax”.


A trained mind learns that it is how I respond to “her” that determines whether I become stressed or not; how I respond to the work, to the kids, to the mortgage.

There is no need to take stress personally, as if we are the only ones affected. We all have potential stress. What we need to take personally is learning how to manage it.

3. A trained mind learns how to navigate life
Here I am helping to repair a sail (best use of my veterinary surgical skills for many years!)

Imagine taking all the essentials from your house, kitchen, bathroom, laundry, bedroom etc and squeezing them into a long, fairly skinny caravan that floats. Then take it out on the ocean to be buffeted by wind and tide, to have corrosion eat at everything and to find yourself regularly in exotic places where few people speak your native tongue and parts are hard to come by for the regular repairs that not surprisingly are needed fairly frequently.

Sprinkle all this with incredibly joyful times when all is working and the wind is coming from the right direction in the right amounts, and you have the life of the ocean sailor.

You could easily be stressed or blissful. Or alternate between the two. Is it up to the external events? Or is it up to how you manage them?


4. Stress is all in the mind; well almost

Here is an image of peace and tranquility.


Holidays do make sense. It can be very useful to take time out, change you external circumstances if they are proving very difficult.

But while managing our circumstances as best as possible is a vital starting point for effective stress management, the key point remains, doing so does not guarantee a stress-free life - as I am sure we all know.




5. Stress management requires learning and practice – as I am sure we all know.

Here is the vanilla orchard, precursor to the vanilla bean.



Study botany and learn how to grow vanilla.

Study the mind and learn how to grow a stress-free life.

It starts with the knowledge, then we put it all into practice.




My guess is you probably know what to do. I came back from my holiday deeply grateful to Sue and Ross for the privilege of sharing time on their yacht, and more aware than ever that stress is all in the mind! Meditation anyone?

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NOTICEBOARD
WORKSHOPS COMING SOON in NSW and Queensland 
Ruth and I love these events where we get to meet up with people we know, make knew friends, to remind ourselves and others of what works and to share the latest in our field of health, healing and wellbeing.

Please do forward the details to those you may know in any of these places and if you live nearby, we hope to see you at one of the events. Bring your family (we had 5 members from the same family share a day workshop recently), come with a friend, tell your colleagues.


These workshops are interactive, a great way to review what you already know, to be re-inspired and re-enthused, and to learn exciting new things, like the latest breakthroughs in epigenetics, the neurosciences, telomeres and nutrition. And we all get to meditate together!

Something for everyone really!

Brisbane
Thursday June 27; Evening Public Lecture: Health, Healing and Wellbeing
     Weekend workshop: A New Way of Living
Saturday 29th: Meditation and the power of the mind
Sunday 30th: Profound Healing and Sustainable Wellbeing

Coffs Harbour
July 6; Day workshop: Medicine of the Mind

Katoomba
July 9; Day workshop: Health, Healing and Wellbeing

Sydney
July 13 - 14, Weekend workshop: A New Way of Living

RESOURCES

BOOKS  The Mind that Changes Everything

Meditation – an In-depth Guide

The online meditation program: Mindbody Mastery 


RESEARCH ARTICLE
The brains of experienced meditators appear to be fitter, more disciplined and more "on task" than do the brains of those trying out meditation for the first time. And the differences between the two groups are evident not only during meditation, when brain scans detect a pattern of better control over the wandering mind among experienced meditators, but when the mind is allowed to wander freely.

Those insights emerge from a study which looked at two groups: highly experienced meditators and meditation novices, and compared the operations of the "Default Mode Network" -- a newly identified cluster of brain regions that go to work when our brains appear to be "offline."

"I think it's safe to say this is brain-training at work," says Yale University psychiatrist Judson Brewer, who conducted the study with psychologists from Yale, the University of Oregon and Columbia University.

"It makes sense," adds Brewer. "Anything you train to do, you do better."

Reference: Click here  

Ian Gawler Blog: How to increase creativity with meditation

If Jackson Pollock was the archetypal boozing, tortured artist, would he have painted anything worthwhile if he had found inner peace? Or would he have been an even better painter if he had indeed found inner peace.

If Steve Jobs was the super-cool Zen creator, would Apple even have come into existence if he had not meditated?

If, as Spike Milligan said “it is all in the mind”, how does sitting quietly to train your mind through meditation build creativity?

Maybe it is because of the type of mind meditation produces.

A calm and clear mind
Leave a glass of muddy water undisturbed; the mud settles and we are left with clear water. The mind is the same. Left undisturbed, it becomes calm and clear. Then comes the capacity to recognize simplicity amongst complexity. For Jobs, this led to Apple’s elegant, functional design.

The beginner’s mind
As the mind settles and becomes less agitated, there comes a certain freshness. The capacity to bring a new perspective to the commonplace. Meditation fosters curiosity, awe and wonderment.

The focused mind
But for creativity to advance from being a good idea to a manifest work, we need concentration and grounded application. Training the mind through meditation is like going to the gym to develop physical muscles. Going inwards, we develop inner strength and things get done.

Mindfulness
So often good ideas, insights, creativity, get hijacked, diluted, destroyed by the events of ordinary daily life. Trauma from the past, fear for the future, the pressures of modern living, all conspire to overwhelm creativity. Mindfulness teaches us to let go of unhelpful concerns for past and future and to function more joyfully in the present.

The wisdom mind
Science has much to offer, but is based on the intellect, which is analytical and linear, and has little to do with creativity. For true creativity, we need to go beyond the realm of the intellect. Not to become irrational, but non-rational, beyond-rational; and to access that deeper, more profound inner world of wisdom and creativity.

MEDITATION - a TECHNIQUE for CREATIVITY
There are many ways to meditate. A simple and reliable approach is to break it down into 4 east steps.

1. Preparation. This is about organizing 10 - 20 minutes once or twice a day, finding a suitable place, taking up a symmetrical, balanced posture, settling into that posture and turning your mind inwardly – away from day to day events.

2. Relaxation. Then we learn to relax the body and calm the mind. This is easily achieved by focusing the mind and concentrating on the feeling as we relax the body. Doing this frees us from the physical tension so often associated with stress, allows our body’s biochemistry to regain its natural, healthy balance and settles “the mud” in our mind.

3. Mindfulness. As we relax more, we naturally become more aware. This leads to mindfulness, where almost like an impartial observer, we can be aware of the sounds around about us, the thoughts and feelings within us, and remain undistracted and unperturbed. Calm and clear.

4. Stillness. As we progress, we notice a deeper stillness. At first a glimpse, then a deeper experience of the truth and essence of who we really are, what is in our heart’s essence.

ACCESSING MEDITATION
One convergence of modern creativity and technology with the ancient mind science of meditation is Mindbody Mastery. It combines a downloadable meditation program with an innovative support package including daily emails, weekly SMS messages, webinars etc to add to and reinforce your learning and practise.

The biggest challenge with meditation is to actually do it! Evidence tells us that the Mindbody Mastery support system actually does help people to practise regularly. The Mindbody Mastery website is in the final stages of a major upgrade that will be completed any day now.

Happy meditating and may the creativity be with you.

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Mindbody Mastery

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NOTICEBOARD
A reminder I will be in Brisbane, Coff’s Harbor, Katoomba and then Sydney in June and July. Details on the website: CLICK HERE

NEWS
1. A Miracle in a classroom. A fabulous new film available to download Room to Breathe 

Room to Breathe is the first mainstream documentary about bringing mindfulness into education. It is an authentic representation of what it’s like to teach mindfulness in a truly challenging environment. By providing a raw and realistic look at the process, it shows how even the most difficult classrooms can be turned around with patience, teaching skill, and partnership with school staff.

Room To Breathe is a surprising and inspiring story of transformation as struggling kids in a San Francisco public middle school are introduced to the practice of mindfulness meditation.

Topping the district in disciplinary suspensions, and with overcrowded classrooms creating a nearly impossible learning environment, overwhelmed administrators are left with stark choices: repeating the cycle of trying to force tuned-out children to listen, or to experiment with timeless inner practices that may provide them with the social, emotional, and attentional skills that they need to succeed.

The first question is whether it’s already too late. Confronted by defiance, contempt for authority figures, poor discipline, and more interest in “social” than learning, can a mindfulness teacher (Megan Cowan from Mindful Schools) succeed in opening their minds and hearts?

To watch the trailer: Click here 

“This film beautifully and authentically portrays the power of mindfulness to change individuals, families, one classroom, and perhaps, one day, the world.”
 Diana Winston, Director of Mindfulness Education, UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center

Buy the film:  Click here


2. Mindfulness in a Huff
The much read Huffington Post has recognized the value of mindfulness, in 20 different ways! 

They say “Even though the academic research on mindfulness meditation isn't as robust as, say, nutrition or exercise, there is a reason why it's been around for literally thousands of years. And we're starting to get a better understanding of why it seems to be beneficial for so many aspects of life, from disease and pain management, to sleep, to control of emotions.”

To read the full article, CLICK HERE