Finer & Finer Distinctions Are Needed
Find Jack Canfield's CD.
As you know, the mind is very complex, and so is mindfulness.
The more complicated something is, the more you need finer and finer distinctions.
More techniques, skills, values etc are required to excell.
Trash and folders is a technique and skill. Absorbing is a technique and skill Knowing when to use each is an understanding.
Mastery of Mindfulness Means Conquering FLOWING Thoughts
My mindfulness sessions and hands on to the point where most of what i am observing is also very much my own construction. Its very inception-y in the sense that i am creating and observing simultaneously.
The issue is, since its created by the meditation, once i leave its hard to keep it going as i have not been observing a natural flow of thoughts.
My goal is mastery with the natural flow. So there needs to be a dramatic change in my frame on this.
Frame Change: How well you hold on is NOT the key.
THE KEY IS IN THE SNAP BACK. "Catch & Take Control"
The most important aspect of mindfulness is snapping back often and being able to really gain wide control and awareness when you do. But this can be 10 seconds or 10 minutes, that is less important because it WILL VARY based on the circumstances.
For instance, if you need to be very creative, you almost are REQUIRED to get lost in thought to some degree. If you want to hold on, then you've at the very least got to look at a whole new way of doing that.
Frame Change: Value "Good Catch, IF" 10 to 1 Over Your "Grip"
This all means that there will be a lot of catch and release. It means i can be scared to get lost for 5 minutes, and i cant be upset with myself for that. It means i have to be more highly valuing the catch and snap back and continually looking forward, without car for how or why i got lost, how long, etc.
Just gotta focus on getting more and more catches and more powerful focus upon snap back.
Moving forward, the only way I see to progress is to
compare mindfulness to sight, due to the limiting qualities of trying to be 100% in the moment.
Its slowing and difficult to think when you are staring down every thought as it enters your mind the same way its almost impossible to win a fight while staring at a single point.
You have to bob and weave and use your vision as much as necessary to know whats going on, where the next punch is coming from, where the opening is to hit the guy... but you need to look around and cover up and allow your head to move to win the fight. 100% staring would not be competitive.
This is where the 20% attention to thoughts come into play. Its been a debate due to the misnomer that mental mastery = >50%.
If mental mastery is about >50%, then were talking about an entirely different continuum.
Continuums:
-% of focus on the object.
-% of time with some degress of focus on object (aka % of the time you are thinking and KNOWING that you are thinking as Sam Harris puts it.)
Mental Mastery would then be about:
-the right amount of focus for each object.
-aware of the majority of objects.
This is just the first advanced distinction. More than likely, additional distinctions will be needed for mental mastery.
So its important to understand the principal of comparing mindfulness to sight. Thats how this distinction was derived and it may be very helpful in determining other distinctions moving forward.
Another distinction: "Snapping back" = bobbing and weaving.
The better you bob and weave, the better youe chances of winning right?
Similarly, when you have a powerful line of thought, you dont want to slow it down by trying to stare at it.
This concept right here is being produced with very little staring at the thought process.
So snapping back is not just a rule of thumb - its actually how to progress and how to achieve mental mastery to some degree.
The more you can see the thoughts, choose one, let it take the focus, and then snap back to awareness as soon as its helpful again, the better.
So its about see thought, let thought guide me with minimal awareness, then snap back once the next thought comes on and decide whether that one should guide me or be absorbed with a stare down.
Thats where it gets tricky. But the principal is to catch as much as possible and want to drop % awareness sometimes and increase at other times.
Embracing & Absorbing vs. "Trash Can & Folders"
Absorbing everything is not smart.
That's only half the equation.
Most thoughts are random nonsense and can be disregarded as such immediately.
The ones that are persistent need to be absorbed.
Acid test may be "do i need to learn to work with this? Will it be back if i try tossing? Is it persistent? Sticky?"
Start observing stickiness and make use of the "trash can and folders" again. Both are tossing the thought aside.
Folder trashcan is a solid mindfulness tool. It was more or less forgotten and replaced. Now a days, i absorb. These are TOTALLY DIFFERENT tools by their nature, so they play into mindfulness very differently, and they are both important.
It goes something like this:
Simple, half awareness noticing thoughts as they flow by, and not interfering = majority of the time.
Tossing thoughts into trash or into folders = majority of the minority.
Absorbing thoughts with mindfulness = minority of the minority.
It's time we reviewed the principals of mindfullness - I think you'd understand them better now and they'd guide you forward at this point. Find Jack Canfield's CD.
Why Reprogramming Should Be At The Forefront - Intel NEEDED
Its not at the forefront like it should be.
It should be coming up as a solution every time i get stuck.
I dont even recognize when im getting stuck.
I write emails and delete the drafts and then write another email without really stepping in and modifying the programming. I could instead change my mindset to be far for powerful. If I asked what would cobey do? You can see how that could transform my behavior.
Transformation. You need to become a mental transformer. But youre laxking some intelligence here. Take some time to think about HOW to so this in the practical sense. Its not as simple as saying i gotta do it or putting in a reminder.
