Last month’s discussion of meditation began with ‘Simply Pause’… Now, I suggest again, Simply Pause but also…Well Use the Moment.
As we Simply Pause, it becomes apparent that more information is always at hand than we can possibly take into account. As we pause, it becomes possible to milk the moment for all it’s worth to better inform ourselves. We then increase the likelihood that we will make good decisions on our own behalf.
Picture this: someone comes home after a few hours out and about. Upon arriving home, their habit is to have a glass of wine or a cocktail ‘to relax.’ There comes a time when this habit becomes problematic. This can be fought head on with a variety of techniques or one can Simply Pause and take stock, well using the moment prior to having the drink.
Not infrequently, folks attempting to overcome the habit of drinking alcohol too much or too often report that after Simply Pausing to take stock, they became aware that they didn’t feel well. Taking stock of the complex factors in play at the moment, they were able to recognize that they were dehydrated. They then chose a beverage not to ‘help them relax,’ but rather to replenish their fluids. Interestingly, after choosing a beverage to replenish their fluids, they often reported that their desire for an alcoholic drink ‘to relax’ dissipated.
This device, ‘Simply Pause and Well Use the Moment’ is anchored in a new theory of mind: the theory of mind as an information processing system, a system that’s very purpose is to help you navigate your life. Looking at mind in this way puts the awesome information processing powers of mind at your fingertips.
Some of you may know that we now have a very sophisticated science of information management. Computer programming is built upon the foundation of information management science.
Would it surprise you to know that Sigmund Freud, Father of Psychoanalysis, is now considered to be the first psych theorist to see ‘mind’ as an information management system? His identification of one function of ‘associations’ in the mind is analogous to our current understanding of the function of ‘keywords’ in a search engine. Information management science is helping us gain new understandings of mind and new understandings of mind are helping develop the information management sciences!
Simply Pause and Well Use the Moment is indeed a healing technology anchored in cutting edge science. Try it. Simply Pause and Well Use the Moment. Move into a quiet space internally (one step removed from your ‘busy mind’) and milk the moment for all it’s worth to gather information. You will become privy to much information that was just at the periphery of your awareness.
The amount of information at our fingertips is amazing. More variables than we can imagine are contributing to our thoughts, our actions and our feelings, always. There’s information on screen so to speak and there’s information off screen so to speak. Any time we Simply Pause we become privy to more. If we do so often, we also see windows of opportunity to use the power of the moment to do what we determine to be is indeed in our best interest.
Diane Richardson has taught college and practiced psychotherapy in California for many years. She has utilized meditative practices to explore consciousness and mind. She has been tracking developments in the new science of consciousness and in particular, theories developed from quantum psychology, for over ten years. She teaches Power Up Your Mind Classes and can be reached at [email protected] or 925-943-5503.
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