The recent earthquake in Haiti (11.1.10) followed by some 40 after shocks should be enough to alert most people that there are significant earth changes underway. The increased activity around the ring of fire is certainly a cause of concern, especially in the event of the tectonic plate cracking and its implication to coastal areas.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php
http://www.iris.edu/seismon/
Combined with the freak weather being experienced around the world suggest that our climate is indeed changing and the impact of freezing temperatures, deep snow and torrential rain already will undoubtly affect global food supplies in the coming months.
We can take the fear approach or manage the adaptation process, in which case of the former, we can discredit the message, fail to do our own research, find “reasons” to deny or suppress the thoughts and emotions generated by the threat of something being amiss and simply rely upon our “leaders” to provide reinforce our world view. Of course, the denial approach will have both a psychological impact and in time physiological impact upon our health.
Thought suppression is to an attempt to forget about it, push it to the back of our minds or some other variation on this theme. Thought suppression a form of ‘experiential avoidance’, it is the attempt to suppress, change or control unwanted internal experiences (thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations or memories), thereby leading to increased stress . psychological research has discovered in the last two decades that this approach is not just wrong, but make the situation worse, even leading to obsessive disorders.
More importantly, emotions are twice as difficult to suppress according to research findings. Thoughts associated with emotional content makes it even more likely to push back against the attempt to suppress it.
This can act like a negative feedback loop, rather than perceive reality as it is without experiential avoidance, i.e. as it is manifesting both externally and internally (emotions, thoughts, intentions, memories etc), operating within this denial therefore fear based paradigm can lead to yet greater hardening of this attitude and consequently actions too.
Mindfulness enables us to cultivate a non-judgmental acceptance while revealing experiential reality in the present unfolding, moment by moment. The significant earth and climate changes underway, combined with a collapsing economy are likely to impact everyone’s life. Mindfulness is an essential tool that will greatly benefit those who wish to adapt to the changes without unnecessary stress and anxiety .
EXERCISES:
Mindfulness (by Dav Panesar)
Symran (by Dav Panesar)
