Surviving A Death Sentence

Post traumatic stress disorder is well documented in soldiers returning from Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan; we can all image why. However, a new field of PTSD candidates are emerging as a cause for study by social scientists: cancer survivors.

Triggered PTSD seems more puzzling, although the horrors or cancer treatment could be a temporary factor. Logically, surviving a possible death sentence should make one joyous, renewed, grateful to have a second chance at life. While that is true for many, for many it is not.

I know about this post-cancer funk all too well. After surviving stage 3B cancer, life felt like a blank slate - not a fresh slate. The difference between "blank" and "fresh" is stark. When one is faced with losing it all and then the All-That-Is says, "Just joking," a state of emotional shock sets in.

We all know that death is the only certainty in life, yet when a summons from the Grim Reaper is declined, something in the bodily molecules gets rearranged and nothing is ever the same again.

No pat answers can quell the disquieting sensation of this cancer survivor except for one pat aphorism:

The thousand mile journey begins with the first step.

So step by step I move through the fog with a knowing that this too shall pass.

What Do the Congress and a Baby Mouse Have in Common?

A mother mouse indwelling on a vineyard nearby must be deeply distressed today. One of her young'uns is not by her side; by a twist of fate, the wee thing has become imprisoned in my room.

For the past four days, I have observed said baby mouse leaping in vain to crawl behind a wall plate that covers phone wires. It cannot wiggle its cute little body under the plate, yet day after day it goes back to that same spot, struggling for naught - hoping that since it can get its paw under the plate, the rest of it can make it too.

There is no way to corner this little thing with a towel or some such item and carry it outdoors. When it senses my presence moving closer, it darts under the bed nearing the speed of light, or worse yet zips into the closet where all my clothing is stored. Most likely, the mouse will either die from starvation in my room or, if liberated, go the way of local predators outdoors.

The mouse demonstrates that definition of insanity: making the same mistake over and over and expecting a different result. In this case, since the mouse has not see a psychiatrist, perhaps it is just dimwitted.

How many members of Congress are like that mouse? 

Grow Your Gray Matter Where It Counts

 Why reinvent the wheel? This article sums it up perfectly.

 by TheAlternativeDaily.com

By now, pretty much all of us know and accept that meditation provides a plethora of benefits, including reduced tension and stress and improved focus and concentration. However, how and why meditation does this has long remained unknown—until now!

Harvard University scientists have published the results of an 8-week study that used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the effects of meditation on the brain. Participants in the study practiced forms of mindfulness meditation every day for approximately 30 minutes. Mindfulness is a meditation style that emphasizes maintaining an objective awareness of sensations, feelings and states of mind.

MRIs were taken at the beginning and end of the 8-week study. From the results, researchers determined that meditation literally rebuilds the brain’s gray matter in just 8 weeks—making this the very first study to document that meditation produces this kind of change over time. The changes observed in the meditators were NOT seen in the control group, signifying that they had not come about naturally over time, but rather that the daily act of meditating had produced them.

We know what you’re thinking: what is this mysterious gray matter that meditation is rebuilding? Gray matter is a major component of the central nervous system, and is found in areas of the brain involved in muscle control, seeing and hearing, memory, emotions, speech, decision-making and self-control.

Research on the brain has shown that the amount and density of gray matter differs from individual to individual, and can determine or signify certain traits or talents. For example, scientists have found that professional musicians have denser gray matter in the area of the brain involved with processing music.

The Harvard study found that meditation can increase the density of the gray matter in the hippocampus, specifically. According to the Harvard Gazette, the hippocampus is, “known to be important for learning and memory, and in structures associated with self-awareness, compassion, and introspection.”

Participants also reported reductions in stress after the 8 weeks, which makes sense, as over the course of the study, the gray-matter density in the amygdala—which is known to play an important role in stress and anxiety—decreased.

This study is groundbreaking and empowering in that it shows that we have the power to change the structure of our own brains: to improve our memory and learning capacities, and to become more compassionate and self-aware.

Britta Holzel, first author of the study, summarized its incredible findings: “It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life.”

Why Meditation

The study of meditation is awash with every garden variety that mankind can conjure up, because the mind is inherently creative. One could chant mantras, stare at a candle (or a flower or nothing), follow the breathe and many many more techniques.

Why do we seek methods to calm the mind? Because the mind is the wild monkey that swings from one thought to the next, alternately screeching, chatting and purring depending on the stimuli.

The road to quieting the mind via drugs, alcohol, sex, shopping, food, war (yes, war), endless partying, or workaholism are filled with land mines that will eventually detonate as we talk that talk and walk that walk.

An influx of meditation techniques from the East has spurred western medicine to study the effects of mindfulness meditation. It is essentially the process of being aware in the now and not getting lost in thoughts and false perceptions. So whether one says a mantra, concentrates on the breathe, stares at a flower or stands on his or her head, the idea is to find relief from the monkey mind.

The health benefits, both physically and mentally, are now well documented. However, like any habit, breaking it means the development of a motivation and intention to change the pattern. In Alcoholics Anonymous, they say that a person is ready to become sober when they get sick and tired of being sick and tired.

So I would say that when one gets sick and tired of being sick and tired of being discontent, try a little meditation. It just might work.

 

Service with a Smile

Many people in the work force report that jobs requiring an interface with the public can be trying. Customers might be demanding, rude, short-tempered, treat the person serving them as if they were a "thing," and other varieties that infect the space around them with bad vibes. Of course there are nice customers who understand that waiting on other people is an act of service and that the people serving them are not slaves but human beings with real feelings. 

A friend recounted a story of being treated rudely by a supermarket checker and chewing out the employee for her unexceptable behavior on the job. As my friend wheeled her shopping cart out to the car in a huff, the young bagger assisting her explained that the checkout lady was a single mother whose only child had been killed in a motorcycle accident the week before.

One never knows the cause of negative words and deeds, but compassion for the afflicted person is always in order. Maybe that grouch is simply a misanthrope, but even then certain causes and conditions lead him or her to live within an unquiet mind.

As we never know for sure who we are speaking to or what their though patterns may be, the safest and most peaceful way to navigate the world is to hold fast to equanimity. It may be hard at times, but the alternatives are not nearly as attractive.

As an addendum: the above thoughts apply to those of us privileged to live in a civilized society more or less. War zones present different problems to be addressed at another juncture.

Alone Together

The phrase "alone together" could be construed as an inherent loneliness even in the midst of a crowd of two or more. Yet, it also has other meanings as well.

One might be the fact that we pass through the birth canal alone despite being literally inside another (the mother). A fiercesome and turbulent push from the weightlessness of the womb to a world of gravity, the passage thrusts the newborn into that place where you have to cry in order to have basic needs attended to.

Another might be that we die alone. Granted, the fortunate have loving attendants of various relations who supply the comforts needed for this transition. Nonetheless, one has to die by themselves, the journey uniquely his or hers.

Then the third meaning: alone together encapsulates the entire nature of duality and unity, the illusion that we are separate and the reality of our interdependence. If we can hold that paradox simultaneously, then being "alone together" represents a great achievement of consciousness.

Aseop's Fable: a Timeless Tale

"The Old Woman and the Physician" (attributed to Aesop)    

An old woman, having lost the use of her eyes, called in a Physician to heal them, and made this bargain with him in the presence of witnesses: that if he should cure her blindness, he should receive from her a sum of money; but if her infirmity remained, she should give him nothing.

This agreement being made, the Physician, time after time, applied his salve to her eyes, and on every visit took something away, stealing all her property little by little.  And when he had got all she had, he healed her and demanded the promised payment. 

 

The Old Woman, when she recovered her sight and saw none of her goods in her house, would give him nothing. The Physician insisted on his claim, and as she still refused, summoned her before the Judge.

The Old Woman, standing up in the Court, argued: "This man here speaks the truth in what he says; for I did promise to give him a sum of money if I should recover my sight, but if I continued blind, I was to give him nothing. Now he declares that I am healed. I on the contrary affirm that I am still blind; for when I lost the use of my eyes, I saw in my house various chattels and valuable goods, but now, though he swears I am cured of my blindness, I am not able to see a single thing in it."