Issue IX Feb. 2008
CONTENT
Contact
Next courses & registration New class offer / Content Book recommendation Preventing burn out / Call for helpers
NEW
Valérie Saintot (Uta Elbers) (Sandrine Corvoisier)
NEW CLASS OFFER E-mail course
NEXT PROGRAM 18 February – 15 April 2008 We are looking forward to being in contact with you in a form or another. The journey of self-discovery is a rewarding one. Maximising the use of one’s own potential takes commitment and self-discipline. It helps becoming more focused, increasing the ability to concentrate AND relax. One can benefit from it in all aspects of life, at work, at home, when practicing sport or leisure activities, for oneself or at the collective level. TO REGISTER, PLS SEND AN E-MAIL TO valerie.saintot@ecb.int
The meditation room th CB 6 floor 907
Our website
www.mindfulnessatwork.org Our mission is to create a space empowering colleagues to acquire a real-time work/life balance and to integrate personal insights and empathy into their work ethic.
Book recommendation st
How can I navigate the 21 century? Over the last 30 years, access to knowledge has also become global. The sum total of human knowledge is available to us. The experience, wisdom, and reflection of all major human civilisations are open to study by anyone. The American philosopher, Ken Wilber, has taken up the challenge to map this reality in the so-called ‘Integral model’. He has written an incredible number of books on the topic. Recently, an accessible ‘very short introduction’ to this stream of post-modern philosophy came out. If any question in relation to systemic thinking, human potential, personal and spiritual development interest you, it is very valuable to get in touch with this source of knowledge. The web portal is also very rich and a hub for more, much much more… www.integralinstitute.org
Preventing burn out / Call for helpers We are starting to gather information material and intend to make contact Europe wide with professionals and centres dealing with the issue of stress at work. We would like to make this project move faster. We welcome input in the form of helping hands, web links or book references. Please contact valerie.saintot@ecb.int.
Our new class offer Mindfulness Mindfulness
Meditation
E-mail course
Tuesday 12:45 – 13:30
In this class, we will offer a supportive framework to explore the body & mind interactions. It is a process where the participants are invited to increase their awareness of what they are experiencing. The backbone of any Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program is to use the body and our senses as entry doors into our inner space. The qualities discovered can only become unconscious competencies if the experience is repeated a sufficient number of times. In the first classes, we are particularly learning to concentrate, developing body awareness, accessing the information provided by the senses, learning not to judge, cultivating the beginner’s mind. In the following classes, we take particular aspects of the practice and deepen them: emotional mastery, the observer position, the wise mind process. It is an invitation to engage in a never ending quest. To get to the level where you can actually harvest lasting benefits, we need to develop a number of competencies over a number of sessions which are interconnected. We therefore expect participants to attend regularly after they have registered.
Meditation Thursday 12:45 – 13:30 The content and format of this class has not changed since we started the mindfulness project. We practice meditation in a rather classical set up, inspired by the way of Zen. Upon arrival, we practice a few body awareness techniques to settle into the class mood, we alternate two sitting periods separated by either a silent walking time or a moment to listen to a passage from the major world sources of wisdom. It is a drop in class, meaning that while regular participation is highly recommended, sessions are not interconnected. Registration is nevertheless needed to be able to let you know about the possible absence of the facilitator. NEW
E-mail course Dispatch on Thursdays The world goes virtual, us too. We received the feedback that a number of colleagues would really like to attend the classes but do not manage. We thought of creating an e-mail course and give it a try. On a weekly basis, over a period of eight weeks to start with, registered participants would receive on Thursdays an e-mail with some suggestions for their individual practice and selfreflection. We will take over some of the steps of a program created by a UK based acclaimed meditation teacher David Fontana. It is a progressive method of approaching meditation and can be summarized in four main phases: In the first 8 weeks e-mail dispatch, we will concentrate on phase 1. The four phases are: Phase 1: Beginning self-awareness Phase 2: Concentration and mindfulness Phase 3: Tranquility Phase 4: Insight
Special edition (A) Feb. 2008 ECB meditation room th CB 6 floor 907
CONTENT The present one pager is copied from David Fontana books, an acclaimed meditation teacher. By reading this page, you might form an impression on what the Mindfulness at work project is about. How self-aware are we? www.mindfulnessatwork.org What is meditation? Why meditate? valerie.saintot@ecb.int
HOW SELF-AWARE ARE WE? Self-awareness begins in the third year of life. Before this phase of life, we are driven by physical needs (food, drink, comfort) and by intuitive reactions (fear, interest, pleasure). But with a dawning sense of self there comes the recognition of personal likes and dislikes, and the drive to make decisions and demands in order to satisfy them. From this time onward, we grow increasingly autonomous. The way in which the self develops depends very much upon temperament and upon life experiences. The self is therefore, from an early age, our companion in life. The way in which we think of ourselves, and the way in which others think of us, help determine the person we become. But how self-aware are we? How well do we know ourselves? What degree of control do we have over ourselves – for changing those things in ourselves that we dislike? The self is a dynamic process and life events are constantly changing the way in which we see ourselves. Can we take responsibility for this process of change, or are we largely at the mercy of whatever life brings? Meditation is a way of answering some of these questions.
WHAT IS MEDITATION?
WHY MEDITATE?
Meditation is the direct experience of your own mind. How surprising you may say. Surely we are continually experiencing our own mind! Not so. For most of our waking lives we experience only the thoughts, emotions and sensations that fill our minds, an everchanging stream of distractions – joyful and sad, welcome and unwelcome. This fleeting flow of thoughts and impressions is no more the mind than the water in a cup is the cup. In meditation, we distance ourselves from this flow instead of identifying with it. We become an observer instead of a participant. And as the practice develops, so the flow becomes a trickle, sometimes ceasing altogether – if only briefly, enabling us to recognise that the mind is still there even when thoughts are of being instead of doing, of tranquillity instead of confusion.
Meditation is less the discovery of a new skill, than the re-discovery of a natural state of mind that is always there and has always been there, behind the surface chatter that usually claims our attention. One of the best ways of illustrating why we should meditate is to think of a crowded and cluttered room, a room in which we are always trying to find space for new things, while we are reluctant to throw out the old. A room in which we are continually falling over things heaped on the floor, where can never sit down without having to remove things from the chairs, and a room where we can never find what we want without a frustrating and time-consuming search.
If meditation sounds like entering into a light trance, nothing could be further from the truth. Meditation is a state of poised alertness, not one of drowsy forgetfulness. As the mind settles into meditation, ot frees itself from exhausting effects of its own mental chatter. The mind becomes concentrated and focused, and after the meditation it remains calm and refreshed. And if the practice of meditation seems like withdrawal from the world into an introverted state that cuts off from fellow beings, this isn’t so. Meditation, by helping to free the mind from an excessive concern with its own restless chatter, enables us to be more aware of others, more conscious of their needs, and better able to relate warmly and compassionately to them. By assisting the development of concentration, meditation also allows us to act more efficiently and effectively in the world, and to meet the challenges of daily life with greater clarity and equanimity. Often, it is supposed that meditation requires sitting on a cushion in a quiet, still room. This again is a misapprehension. Certainly a daily session of quiet sitting is essential for progress, but even in the early days of practice it is possible to meditate at suitable moments during the day – for example, while travelling by train, waiting for a friend, or taking a walk. A few minutes of meditation can help to calm the nerves before a stressful event and refresh the mind after a tiring meeting or a hard day of work. All the great spiritual traditions have placed major emphasis upon meditation as a path to personal growth. In recent years psychologists have also recognised its value as a method of relaxation and of mind training. For many people in the East meditation is a normal way of life from early childhood onward, and although the practice suffered neglect in the West for some centuries, all techniques taught in the East are now once more being actively and widely taught in Western traditions.
Now think of the same room with much of the unwanted clutter removed, a room in which we can now operate with greater ease and mush less stress. A room where we can enjoy the colours and the decor, a room in which it is now a pleasure to sit and relax. The room is of course our own mind, and the transformation in the room is the result of meditation. Meditation is thus a form of mental spring-cleaning, or if you prefer, a form of mental purification. It rests and relaxes the mind, develops powers of concentration and awareness, helps us deal with daily challenges and assists us to operate more efficiently and effectively. But it goes much further than this. In a real sense, we are most of us strangers to ourselves. Faced with the hectic pressures of modern living, we have little time for self-reflection, and even less time to experience who we are – what lies behind the surface activity that occupies so much of our attention. So meditation is also a path toward self-knowledge. It allows us to see into ourselves, almost as if a window, hitherto obscured with dust, has been wiped clean. These are reasons enough for learning to meditate, but there are also physical benefits. As the mind becomes calmer, so the body learns also to relax, to re-discover its equilibrium. As we become better able to handle stress, and better able to experience the wellbeing that comes with tranquillity, so there is often a reduction in blood pressure and in heart-rate that persists even outside meditation. Released from tensions, the body seems better able to ward off infections and perhaps also other illnesses. There is evidence that regular meditators may live longer than nonmeditators, and eveidence that tey take more pleasure in the natural world, in the beauties of the earth and the sky. Meditation may also help in pain control and healing. It is thus a form of treatment that is free and has, for the very great majority of people, no-side effects or contra-indications.