Thanks for another great post, Victor (Is “post” the right word for Substack? It seems too small.) You won’t be surprised that this is a topic I care and think about.
What guides me, and gives me hope, is that “what you practice you become.” Whatever we do repeatedly we naturally get better at. Unfortunately, for individuals and for society, we mostly practice things that drive fragmentation and dissatisfaction. But we do have a choice, at least as individuals. The question is: What do we want to become? And then go practice that.
In my humble view you nailed it when you talked about three things: First, “constant re-commitment.” And yes, it is a mindfulness practice (I prefer the word practice over technique), but of course we will never really “break the spell” of unhealthy distractions in the background. That’s just the way our minds work. Random and discursive thoughts will fire all day long, just like our hearts beat and our lungs breathe on their own. The best we can do is to not believe them all and not attach to them.
Second, find out what brings you alive and go do it. For you that’s writing, hiking and enjoying people.
Third, pay attention to the “in-between” moments. Life is in the everyday mundane things as much as that’s hard to appreciate. We just don’t think that that could be it. We think it has to be somewhere and something else. The hard part for all of us -- present company included -- is practicing that.
Awesome comment as usual Mike, appreciate these thoughts. Love mindfulness "practice" vs. "technique" and am going to switch to that moving forward. And I'm totally with you on all three points — particularly the last one, which isn't something that I addressed in this post/article/essay (I also don't know). Add up all the moments and that's what makes a life, but to your point most of them are "mundane" and that's hard for us to reconcile. Enjoy each of them though, and there you have it — a life enjoyed. Way easier said than done, for sure, but a nice idea to remember.
Thanks for another great post, Victor (Is “post” the right word for Substack? It seems too small.) You won’t be surprised that this is a topic I care and think about.
What guides me, and gives me hope, is that “what you practice you become.” Whatever we do repeatedly we naturally get better at. Unfortunately, for individuals and for society, we mostly practice things that drive fragmentation and dissatisfaction. But we do have a choice, at least as individuals. The question is: What do we want to become? And then go practice that.
In my humble view you nailed it when you talked about three things: First, “constant re-commitment.” And yes, it is a mindfulness practice (I prefer the word practice over technique), but of course we will never really “break the spell” of unhealthy distractions in the background. That’s just the way our minds work. Random and discursive thoughts will fire all day long, just like our hearts beat and our lungs breathe on their own. The best we can do is to not believe them all and not attach to them.
Second, find out what brings you alive and go do it. For you that’s writing, hiking and enjoying people.
Third, pay attention to the “in-between” moments. Life is in the everyday mundane things as much as that’s hard to appreciate. We just don’t think that that could be it. We think it has to be somewhere and something else. The hard part for all of us -- present company included -- is practicing that.
Awesome comment as usual Mike, appreciate these thoughts. Love mindfulness "practice" vs. "technique" and am going to switch to that moving forward. And I'm totally with you on all three points — particularly the last one, which isn't something that I addressed in this post/article/essay (I also don't know). Add up all the moments and that's what makes a life, but to your point most of them are "mundane" and that's hard for us to reconcile. Enjoy each of them though, and there you have it — a life enjoyed. Way easier said than done, for sure, but a nice idea to remember.