adaptation
December 2008 
How can we adapt to meet the changes predicted for this century?
Posted on Mar 26th, 2008
by 
synonym for light
synonym for light
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for March 26, 2008:
isn't it funny how we are now as likely to pay our hard earned cash to limit stimulation as we are to pay for stimulation. for instance, we pay to go to yoga or meditation class to help us find quiet. we pay to get gaia or another site ad free. we are overstimulated in many ways.
yesterday I didn't wake up early enough to do my one hour meditation before work, so I wanted to do it at my lunch break, but I sit all day at work in a chair while my ears are overstimulated and I wanted to move my understimulated legs rather than sit. but the instructions for "most effective" use of this holosync meditation sound recording that I bought are to do it while sitting and with eyes closed. i can tell you it isn't easy to walk around with eyes closed and ears filled with the sound of rain and bells. I am apparently not very good at following directions. I played a game of walking as many steps as possible with my eyes closed while listening to my meditation recording. I was also carrying my camera. I'm sure the various joggers on the bike path might have thought I was a little nuts, well, I for sure thought I was---- walking around with my eyes closed with my camera out-- but with meditation one ought to just observe thoughts and not be attached to them, so I let the I'm nuts thoughts go and continued to see how many steps I could take with my eyes closed. I made it to 19. then I would always have to open my eyes to see if I was still safely on the path. once I ran into a snowbank at the side of the path on the 15th step. I took pictures in between eyes closed sessions. I do not know if it was an effective meditation technique, but I was quite absorbed and relaxed. I was late getting back from my lunch break.
today I walked to a still covered in 2 feet of dirty snow park. the only bench that wasn't covered in snow had a magazine lying on it, as if someone had just set it there a moment ago. "real simple" --6 ways to manage the clutter was one of the articles listed on the cover. I left it sitting there next to me and sat down and closed my eyes and started the meditation recording. the idea was to be able to sit there, out of doors at the park, with my eyes closed for 1 hour and listen to the recorded bells and rain and observe my thoughts, but not be attached to any of them, positive or negative. I squirmed. I felt the wind on my face. I felt the sun on one side of my face. I thought I was sitting crooked. I squirmed. I opened my eyes and looked around at the blinding brightness of the sun on the dirty melting snow. I closed my eyes again. I thought it was kind of silly to be listening to recorded rain when it was a sunny day and I was sitting right next to a babbling brook. I laughed at myself. but I sat there listening with my eyes mostly closed for the whole hour. then I walked around and took pictures and got lunch. I was late getting back to work from my break again.
on npr this morning they said something about people having bought less large manufactured goods lately and how this was a worry for the economy. I thought-- isn't that GOOD? that we're buying less stuff. and I thought-- hey-- isn't npr the supposed "liberal" news? well why can't they be a little more out of the box and report about the great news that people are buying less stuff-- how it'll be great for the environment, etc.
then there was a story about the big ice shelf breaking off of antarctica-- a piece as big as connecticut, but it's not going to make the oceans rise because this piece was already in the ocean??!
I'm not sure how we can adapt to the changes predicted for this century. I'm not sure one can adapt to predictions. I can see the way some of us are adapting to our current fast changing environment-- we're cutting down on the mental and physical clutter, probably emotional clutter too. we're practicing non attachment, which can be helpful in times of rapid change. we're keeping our minds and hearts open. we're investigating new ways and old ways and listening and learning. We reach out to one another. We buy less and relate more. We keep living and loving. We are adapting everyday, already, but not to predictions, instead we are adapting to what we each percieve as our reality.
the next several blog entries will be pictures from the perambulations of yesterday and today.
yesterday I didn't wake up early enough to do my one hour meditation before work, so I wanted to do it at my lunch break, but I sit all day at work in a chair while my ears are overstimulated and I wanted to move my understimulated legs rather than sit. but the instructions for "most effective" use of this holosync meditation sound recording that I bought are to do it while sitting and with eyes closed. i can tell you it isn't easy to walk around with eyes closed and ears filled with the sound of rain and bells. I am apparently not very good at following directions. I played a game of walking as many steps as possible with my eyes closed while listening to my meditation recording. I was also carrying my camera. I'm sure the various joggers on the bike path might have thought I was a little nuts, well, I for sure thought I was---- walking around with my eyes closed with my camera out-- but with meditation one ought to just observe thoughts and not be attached to them, so I let the I'm nuts thoughts go and continued to see how many steps I could take with my eyes closed. I made it to 19. then I would always have to open my eyes to see if I was still safely on the path. once I ran into a snowbank at the side of the path on the 15th step. I took pictures in between eyes closed sessions. I do not know if it was an effective meditation technique, but I was quite absorbed and relaxed. I was late getting back from my lunch break.
today I walked to a still covered in 2 feet of dirty snow park. the only bench that wasn't covered in snow had a magazine lying on it, as if someone had just set it there a moment ago. "real simple" --6 ways to manage the clutter was one of the articles listed on the cover. I left it sitting there next to me and sat down and closed my eyes and started the meditation recording. the idea was to be able to sit there, out of doors at the park, with my eyes closed for 1 hour and listen to the recorded bells and rain and observe my thoughts, but not be attached to any of them, positive or negative. I squirmed. I felt the wind on my face. I felt the sun on one side of my face. I thought I was sitting crooked. I squirmed. I opened my eyes and looked around at the blinding brightness of the sun on the dirty melting snow. I closed my eyes again. I thought it was kind of silly to be listening to recorded rain when it was a sunny day and I was sitting right next to a babbling brook. I laughed at myself. but I sat there listening with my eyes mostly closed for the whole hour. then I walked around and took pictures and got lunch. I was late getting back to work from my break again.
on npr this morning they said something about people having bought less large manufactured goods lately and how this was a worry for the economy. I thought-- isn't that GOOD? that we're buying less stuff. and I thought-- hey-- isn't npr the supposed "liberal" news? well why can't they be a little more out of the box and report about the great news that people are buying less stuff-- how it'll be great for the environment, etc.
then there was a story about the big ice shelf breaking off of antarctica-- a piece as big as connecticut, but it's not going to make the oceans rise because this piece was already in the ocean??!
I'm not sure how we can adapt to the changes predicted for this century. I'm not sure one can adapt to predictions. I can see the way some of us are adapting to our current fast changing environment-- we're cutting down on the mental and physical clutter, probably emotional clutter too. we're practicing non attachment, which can be helpful in times of rapid change. we're keeping our minds and hearts open. we're investigating new ways and old ways and listening and learning. We reach out to one another. We buy less and relate more. We keep living and loving. We are adapting everyday, already, but not to predictions, instead we are adapting to what we each percieve as our reality.
the next several blog entries will be pictures from the perambulations of yesterday and today.
Access: Public
I like what you did; and especially 'reporting' about it. It kinda shows what everyone has to go through with sometimes, balancing a feigned reality with what each of us 'knows' is true, and processing it and coming up with some answers, some empowering ones I might add. [I'm pretty chuffed that you got back twice from lunch late! hahaha Yayyy Control!!!]
Anyway, by doing this process and even setting out your less than perfection status, I actually think you're more help to the skeptics and others that still don't have a clue how to make change. I'm pretty happy that you've still kept an open mind and your heart. I'm happy to know you. : )
Much love from your friend in Barbados
Sherrilene
I'm happy to know you too. I think taking my meditation or yoga TOO seriously is counterproductive for me. Keeping it light is the only way to go for me. Life has to be play for me or I get SAD. :-)
much love to you from your friend in colorado.
I totally relate to your reaction about manufactured goods… I had one those 'huh-wha.. what-the…' reactions when reading something similar last week. The other thing I find really silly, is organisations growing for growth's sake. I was reading an article in one of the business dailies about one of these Indian companies that just bought over some companies in UK - one part of the business funding another's growth which then feeds into another and so on… none of them being green businesses, unfortunately. Now, this company is BIG. no HUGE. And its pushing its targets, making more cars and other stuff that causes environmental damage, providing newer ways for people to SPEND more of their money… and my (internal) commentator kept wondering what the point of the whole excercise was….
What we need to look at is a complete paradigm shift - one where people help others SAVE money, not spend. Remove barriers to our health, and to the health of the generations to come, by encouraging businesses that are green! Produce less, consume less. Personally, I would love to save, and once I have my nest egg secured, cut back to working just enough for sustenance and spend more time developing myself and aiding my environment (by that I mean the entire gamut - people, green activities, animals, everything). I KNOW that a shiny new car could never bring me as much gratification on a daily basis as hanging out with a bunch of underprivileged kids, or volunteering with a stray animal rehab center, or pottering around with some plants by the road… The really sad thing is that most peope I know share this view, but find it so hard to resist the lure of advertising! That brand new car, that new energy guzzling device, those cool new jeans, that really great watch, and what not… And then, when I think about all the crazy money that gets spent on advertising to peddle these goods, makes me think about about all of this cost being built into the cost of the goods, which makes them inflated, or our currency undervalued… which means, that as every year goes by… producers will produce more, advertise more to peddle them and embed those costs into the prices, which will lead to inflationary pressures, which will devalue my savings (unless invested very, very wisely), which means I will have to hack away at my job for more years than I originally envisioned, which means I need to wait longer/strive harder to get to my nest egg and start my 'sustenance' plan, which makes me a RAT… just like the rest. Even though, I don't succumb to temptation or consume as much! Aaaargghhhh!!!
Mad world, eh? ;)
mad and also beautiful. :-)
there is beauty in the fact that more and more and more people are recognizing just what you said. more and more people ARE resisting the crazy advertising. it's true. and everytime we share our absolute JOY about something not to do with consumption, we increase that awareness.
right now– I am delighted to see snowflakes falling ever so slowly and leisurely, very few snowflakes each taking their own route, dancing, twirling, floating to the ground– and just in the time it took me to type this they disappeared. if I don't acknowledge the utter, breathcatching beauty in the world, moment by moment I would be overwhelmed by the often apparent madness.
beautifully put, as usual! :) :)
:) :) !