What is the deeper meaning behind a mindfulness challenge that asked you to become aware of the territories that you declare for yourself, the labels that you affix to who you are? Territories are fixed, immutable entities. They are declarations of how everything should be now. Territories that are here today however are oftentimes gone tomorrow.
The high school which I attended, Sandy Springs High School in Atlanta, Georgia, no longer exists. It was torn down and replaced by a Home Depot. The navy base where I worked as a navy officer in Puerto Rico known as Roosevelt Roads has just been sold to private developers. The graduate program I attended at Cornell University has been deleted. It was a Masters of Public Administration in the business school. They decided that they would only offer a Masters of Business Administration rather than a Masters of Public Administration. Many of the publishers who’ve published my work no longer exist. They have gone out of business.
Here today. Gone tomorrow.
Our ideas are also territories in themselves. I have throughout my lifetime possessed many ideas that I was absolutely certain were correct; I knew my thinking was right and the thinking of others was wrong. I was willing to do anything to assert the righteousness and correctness of my thoughts. Over time I’ve begun to recognize that many, many – and might I add one more, many – of these ideas have been actually dead wrong. My thinking was, I must confess––flawed. What I thought to be true and right as it turns out was just the opposite.
When we get upset about invasions of our territory, we often – and my hand is raised – get angry or irritated. When my territory is invaded, I feel my blood pressure rise. I have a chair which I declare to be my chair at the dinner table. When anyone else sits in it I can feel my blood pressure rise.
Might I now admit, isn’t that reaction absolutely silly? Consider the many ways territories get invaded. A neighbor has a dog that barks late at night. The response is to think,
“Now, if my neighbor would just move, all of my problems would be solved.”
Of course we all know deep down inside that this hope is seldom delivered in reality. If the old neighbor does move for whatever reason, the new neighbor might not have any dogs whatsoever, or camels, or deer, but they may like to have parties that go on until two o’clock in the morning.
Are we going to spend our life hoping that someone will leave and die so that our lives will be made perfect? We may think to ourselves,
“I look 60.”
What a label for a person who is 40. That is a declaration that certainly is not in their best and highest good. The reality is that most of us are very ignorant about our true self. The self is always changing. The body is always in flux. And yes – our age is always shifting.
Take an imaginary super-microscope and apply that microscope to any tissues on your body. You will see a living organism that has many, many living entities that are interacting, interfacing and communicating with one another. There are billions and billions of life forces contained within our body. Your body, my body is not the same now as it was when you began to read this presentation.
We are always in flux. We are always changing.
A thought form that says,
“If symptom X or symptom Y or symptom Z will just vanish I will be good to go.”
is the same as imposing a territorial requirement on your body. Symptoms will emerge and symptoms will vanish. Our bodies are in continuous flux. Our bodies do tend to push out of balance during one point of the day or another. There are biorhythms that we must respect. There are cycles of sugar levels in our body that are always moving upward and downward as a function of what we are ingesting.
The body may be able to vanish symptoms, but your kidneys, liver and heart will likely be compromised! That is certainly a side effect no one wishes to experience.
Reifying and concretizing a sense of self only creates anxiety, stress and suffering. Acknowledge and accept that your body is a miracle, always able to respond and adjust, though at times those responses and those adjustments may create pain, discomfort and even emotional uncertainty. Respect the self as a living, mutable, gorgeous entity that is changing moment by moment. Becoming mindful of the current situation (rather than labeling it) reduces anxiety, releases stress and ensures that symptoms are unable and unlikely to flare.
Enjoy the rest of the week as you become more and more mindful of all of the territories that you declare for yourself, of all of the anger and irritation that arises when those territories are invaded. I say again, much of what I was certain is true turns out not to be true today.
I admit at this place and this time and this hour that much of what I think in this hour may also prove to be untrue and false.
- May my thoughts be fluid.
- May they be agile.
- May I accept my body as a creative entity able to respond to whatever challenges it confronts.
The mantra of the week is –
In this space of fluidity, of flexibility, of malleability, of openness to change, of being in the moment
I declare here and now to be in the present, celebrating all that the present entails.
Becoming mindful is the gateway to true health and wellness.
Robert
© Parkinsons Recovery