Calm & Quiet Heart 4 Step Method

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Many patients come to me asking for help with a busy mind and the anxiety, overwhelm and sense of disconnection that comes with it.  Between work, ambitions, raising children, caring for aging parents, bills, constant input via phone use & social media, it can seem impossible to achieve inner silence and have peace of mind. 

I want to tell you that it is possible.

I have heard it said a million times:  I am too ADD to try and calm my mind, There is way too much going in my head to stop, I am really bad at being still and quiet, I’ve tried to meditate and practice deep breathing but I still can’t seem to settle my mind.

The anxiety, worry, and sense of disconnection that comes with an untamed mind can be blinding at it’s best and crippling at its worst.

Without looking inwards, a lifetime of psychological junk remains to blur and cloud the clarity and intuition of our most authentic self. It takes great courage to look within because many of our thoughts embody what we struggle with. This is the biggest obstacle to inner peace and a calm, non-reactive state of mind.

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The following is a 4 step formula for you to follow when you’re mind is going crazy and you feel out of sorts because of it. 

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1. Acknowledge thoughts and the resistance to being still

We are used to achieving things by working hard, applying our logic and pushing ourselves with willpower. This will not work when quieting the mind. Internal silence is not achieved through force but through willingness & allowance.

This first step is an acknowledgment of what is going on in our minds without the usual avoidance and self-judgment. It is the practice of being willing to become the observer of thoughts. We learn not to fight against our thinking but to recognize the simple, yet confronting, choice we have each time a thought comes by.

This acknowledgment of thinking should be done with non-judgment and a sense of acceptance.

2. Recognition of Conditioning

With each passing thought, we have a choice. We can engage with a thought and react to it, or we can make the decision not to. When reacting to thought it is always done based on our conditioning as an individual.

Conditioning consists of points of view dependent on perception, beliefs, ideas, and sense of self. Engaging a thought with our conditioning involves our habitual way of reacting, our desires, aversions, instincts, and personality. As you can imagine, conditioning is infinitely different from person to person. Each of us has a unique value system based on our life experience. 

In this step, we allow ourselves to acknowledge that when we make the decision to get involved in a thought, it is always done so through our unique conditioning. This means that the feelings and ideas we have in response to a thought are completely based on our very own point of view. 

3. Honesty about attachment and aversion

There is great resistance to recognizing our conditioning. I know for myself that this is true. Once we recognize that we react to thoughts from a conditioned state of mind, we can be honest about what week seek and avoid. 

It is challenging to recognize that how we feel about something is based upon our point-of-view, desires, and aversions. 

Especially when there is a payoff in the form of putting guilt onto someone or something else for causing your suffering. It takes great and consistent honesty to recognize our attachments and aversions. This is the step in which we recognize why our mind is busy. We are confronted with our desires, worldviews, plans, and dreams. We are also confronted with how we feel when these don’t pan out as we want them.

4. Choose Again

The other choice we have is to not engage with the thought through our conditioning and remain aware of the present moment as it is. Choosing to not engage allows us to become aware of a deeper part of ourself that is beyond our thinking and more intuitive. The more we practice “getting out of the way” the more access to this deep, calm and intuitive part of our self we have. From this state of mind we can take action that is aligned with clarity, intuition and deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

This 4-step formula works great for me. It is not always the most comfortable exercise but it is always helpful. It can be quite confronting to go through the 4 steps. This is becuase I am called to look at what I cling to for happiness, whether it be through seeking something or putting blame on somthing or someone. May this Calm & Quiet heart method serve you! 

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• What do you notice when you try these four steps?

• What does it feel like to make the choice not to engage with thought? 

• Are there particular thoughts you find resistance to giving Acknowledgement?

Accessing The Current of Your Spirit, Now.

Accessing the Current of Your Spirit, Now. 

Inspired by Hua Hu Ching Chapter 21 

I am sitting here with my copy of the Hua Hu Ching, an inspired Taoist teaching that I refer to every now and then. It is written in a beautiful and poetic form in which many taoist teachings are expressed. With many ideas presented through metaphors based in nature, I feel spacious and connected to something bigger than myself after reading a passage.

Chapter 21 is a teaching in the form of a rushing river, whose current continuously moves and that one cannot grasp and make her own.

It has been my experience that the expansive awareness of the spirit is like the refreshing and cascading flow of a river. It cannot be paused, analyzed or anticipated, it must be directly experienced in the moment. I’ve learned with practice that this only happens when I get myself out of the way.

To get out of the way simply means to become the observer of thoughts, feelings, images, sounds etc. without getting entangled in them. With practice there begins to be more space in between the thoughts and eventually a different kind of awareness arises that cannot be expressed in words. The closest I can get is to describing this awareness is : peaceful, expansive, complete, timeless, loving, satisfied & One.

An inner-purification begins to happen when I am consistent in this practice. My mind slows down, I become less attached to things, I become more understanding and present with those around me.

So I encourage you to become like the rushing river, whose current is unique in every instant. A powerful movement that cannot be molded into something else. Let it be as it is and observe. Allow the expansiveness of your inner spirit (which has always been there) encompass you.

Try this:

Set a timer for five minutes. Sit comfortably, relax the body and take a few deep breaths. Become the observer of thoughts and watch all that crosses the screen of your awareness. It doesn’t matter what the content is, just watch without engaging it. Simply try this and notice what happens with practice.

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Quieting The Mind by Letting Go of Limits: Hua Hu Ching Chapter 13

I have read this chapter from the Hua Hu Ching everyday for the past month. I read it a few times slowly, let the words and the energy behind it sink in, let go of my ideas and simply notice. 

This particular chapter is absolutely profound and has challenged the rational part of my mind, helping me to zoom out.  In those moments as I let go, there are no thoughts, no conditions to think about and nothing to hold onto. It feels like I am free-falling, with complete trust and and joy, deeper into myself. It can’t describe the state of mind except as: Awesome, Loving, Secure & Unchanging. Just like a picture can’t capture the grandeur of a beautiful landscape, these words can’t even come close to capturing that feeling. 

I have come to learn and experience that there is something deeply peaceful, quiet, wordless & mysterious underneath my thinking & ideas. It feels whole, total, loving, shared and powerful.

I have only gained access to this peaceful state when I allow myself to get there. Willingness seems to be the key. When I become willing to let go of the knife that is the habitual and conditioned mind, that same exact experience is there to greet me each time. There can be a lot going on in my mind, as I am sure it is the case with most people. However, No matter how much content is swirling in my mind, emotionally charged experiences, whether I am active or sitting in meditation,If I am willing to take a few breaths & let go of my perspective and limits, It’s there: That quiet, loving & wordless guiding force. 

Read this passage slowly, over and over. Let it “Stir the pot” for you. Let yourself experience it conceptually and non-conceptually.  let it challenge you and, even if it is only for a second, allow it to guide you into the experience of limitlessness.

Tea Sessions #5 2016 Qianjiazhai Harmony Xiao Jin Gua (Raw Pu'er)

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This is a tea that I really love. I took one sip of it and instantly ordered another cake. This tea is a Raw Pu'er tea. It is a mixture of Spring and Autumn harvests from trees of varying age. Apparently, the age of the trees varies from 300 years old to 1000 years old! It is interesting to note the difference in the taste of Pu'er teas from different aged trees This tea comes from the Qianjiazhai forest in Yunnan, China. I ordered it through one of my favorite tea sources Verdant Tea. This is a well-blended tea that has a great taste and very invigorating qi. 

You can order the tea here: 2016 Harmony Gua

Leaves

Like most Pu’er tea, the Harmony Gua, is a tea compressed into a “cake”. The compression is light and I am able to separate the leaves into small chunks without breaking them. The leaves are dark and filled with little silver hairs. I have been aging this tea cake for a little over a year now. The leaves have become more fragrant and darker as it has aged. 

Aroma

Dry: Unwrapping the tea cake there is a strong floral aroma that stimulates qi to simultaneously rise up into the head (at the crown Baihui/GV20) and down through the chest into the feet. Interestingly the aroma stimulates the qi in the chest first then simultaneously rises into the skull and descends markedly through the belly to the feet. As the qi descends it slows in the digestive system.

Wet: With Pu’er tea, I love the aroma of the leaves after the first initial wash before drinking it. With this 2016 Harmony Gua that aroma is AWESOME. It is hard to put words on. The aroma is smokey, floral, fruity and spicy all at the same time. The wet aroma invokes a similar qi reaction. It is more forceful with the wet leaf. It strongly shoots upwards to the crown of the head and then descends through the digestive system to the feet. interesting. 

Taste 

1st brew (200 Degree, 8 seconds) 

Sweet, floral & Smokey 

As with many Pu’er teas, there is something about the exhale after drinking a cup. This  2016 Harmony Gua leaves a lasting  sweet & smokey flavor/aroma in the throat and nose. There is a lot of upward qi stimulation as I drink the first brew. The qi goes all the way up through the skull to the crown of the head. There is a secondary descending motion that I notice that slows in the lower abdomen. It circulates through the bladder and then descends down the inside of the leg to the big toe and bottom of the foot. This energy sensation is felt faster than the feeling the of tea going down the pipes. A minute or two after drinking my final sip of the first brew, the flavor still lingers and feels as if it is a mist rising up into my skull. 

2nd  (200 Degree, 15 seconds) 

Pu’er can be brewed many times. It is usually the 2-4 brew where the flavor is strongest. Normally when I brew this particular tea I look forward to the 2nd brew.

The flavor is FULL. Some bitter tones start to come out in the 2nd brew which is a nice contrast to the sweet and smokey flavor. With the bitter flavor, there is a more descending qi stimulation. The qi still rises up but it strongly comes down. Again a few minutes after drinking my last sip, the nice sweet/smokey flavor lingers.

3rd-5th brew 

I brewed this tea many times. Each time the qi was similar. Over time the bitterness becomes more dominant. This tea could probobly go up to 10 brews

Color

The color of the brew is dark yellow/orange.

My Thoughts 

When you find a Pu’er that you really like, buy a few cakes of it. There may never be another one quite like it, even from the same trees next year. There are a lot of variables that change the tea year to year. I ordered this last year took one sip and ordered another one. I really like this tea. 

In my experience, the 2016 Harmony Gua initially stimulates the qi of the chest, which quickly rises up strongly to the crown of the head and then descends strongly through the digestive system to the feet. The energy center at the top of the head is called BaiHui and is the point where the Pure Yang Qi / Celestial Qi of the heavens is taken into the body. This tea initially stimulates Yang (Quick, warm & activating) Qi. After the initial shoot upwards in, it goes straight down through the digestive system, where it swirls around the intestines and bladder down the inside of the leg to the big toe (spleen meridian) and bottom of the foot. 

This downward direction is pretty neat. In my opinion, this tea invigorates (but doesn't build) the qi of the spleen. The spleen’s energetic function( in TCM) is basically the transformation and transportation of the fluids and food essence into useable energy. This is definitely a tea that moves dampness, a condition that affects the spleen's energy matrix. Dampness feels soggy, heavy, slow, foggy and cumbersome. Mentally dampness feels like slow and cloudy thinking. This can be the result of a poor diet and a constitutional tendency towards dampness among many other things. This tea is activating and grounding at the same time. I would say slightly more activating than grounding though. After my 5th brew, I am almost "tea drunk”. 

The 2016 Harmony Gua gently wakes up and invigorates energy. It stimulates yang with it's Sweet, Smokey, floral taste and aroma. It grounds that active energy with its slight bitterness that desecneds down to the feet. This is a tea to drink when feeling bogged down or slow, cold, mentally cumbersome and lethargic. It is a good tea for those who feel creatively stuck or those who have a hard time mustering up the energy to get things done.  This would also be an excellent tea to drink after a heavy meal.