a grand tectonic shift

I spent last week at a writing workshop at Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, NY. Usually, when I go to Omega, I spend an inordinate amount of time in the bookstore, and I come home with a small fortune in books I can't wait to read. But something changed this time. I walked away empty-handed again and again. It dawned on me that I had read what I wanted to about Buddhist psychology, meditation, healing, and consciousness. Of course, what I know is barely the tip of the iceberg, just a smattering of the literature, the teachings, and the practice. But leaving the bookstore with nothing, it struck me: It's time for me to start writing my book. 

"If there's a book

you really want to read,

but it hasn't been written yet,

then you must write it."

~Toni Morrison~

I felt a twinge of panic. This is going to be hard.

"Write about disturbs you,

what you fear,

what you have not been willing to speak about.

Be willing to be split open."

~Natalie Gildberg~

What will I write about? This is about those tectonic shifts that dismantle the foundation our lives. That make us question what we have always believed, or been taught is true, or have tried to live by, and where we go from there. Sometimes it concerns physical healing...when cancer strikes, or the heart gives out, or a disabling injury occurs. Sometimes it requires emotional, psychological, or spiritual healing...from trauma, or abuse, or shame, or guilt.

"If you never heal

from what hurt you,

you'll bleed on people who

didn't cut you."

~various attributions~

When did it happen to you? How did it change you? How will you heal? When will you begin writing about it?

"We write out of revenge against reality,

to dream and to enter

the lives of others."

~Francine du Plessix Gray~

jan

a change of mind, a change of heart

 

 Anyone who knows me, or reads this blog, knows that I am fascinated with the human mind. How little we understand about how it works. How thought is generated. How memories are retrieved. So it's no wonder I am intrigued by the concept of neuroplasticity--the property of the brain that allows it to change structure and function in response to changes in the environment, our personal experience, and our intentions. It accounts for how the brain changes over time, and specifically, how we can consciously generate those changes. In other words, it allows us to rewire our brains. We can change our minds.

"Nature has given us a brain

that survives in a changing world

by changing itself."

~Norman Doidge~

This came into focus for me in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. While most of us are compliant with the simple mitigation practices that have been shown to contain the spread of the virus, and are eager to get vaccinated, not everyone agrees. Some people are skeptical of the science behind Covid research, and the physicians who are trying so hard to explain it to them. There is an oppositional-defiant edge to their attitude and behavior. They cannot, or will not, change their minds despite the proven efficacy and safety of such simple measures as masking and social distancing. They refuse the vaccine. Their defiance puts their lives at risk, and it threatens the rest of us.

"The highest form of ignorance is

 when you reject something

you don't know anything about."

~Wayne Dyer~ 

As a physician, this frustrates and angers me. There is a tiny voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me that people like this deserve to get sick. To suffer. To die. To watch their children get sick and die. It was the choice they made, and nothing we have said or done so far has had any effect on them. They don't care about us, so why should we care about them? And on and on...

This little voice is not one I welcome. This is not me speaking. It is social media exerting its pull. It is political commentary pushing back. It is, in fact, human nature going down its well worn path. But it is not what I know in my heart to be true, so I'm making an effort to change my conditioned and deluded mind about it...

"It is not the strongest 

of the species that survives,

nor the most intelligent that survives.

It is the one that is most adaptable to change."

~Charles Darwin~

...because I hate to see anyone suffer. Certainly, not a child on a ventilator. Not his mother in tears at his bedside. Not even a turtle stuck on its back, or a robin with a broken wing. I wouldn't wish Covid-19 on anyone. No one "deserves" to suffer, and if the decisions they make cause them pain, my intention for them is comfort, solace, and healing. If I could speak with them, I would tell them that they'd made a mistake. That people lied to them. That there's a lot of misinformation out there.That they didn't understand how viruses are spread, how they replicate, and mutate. How vaccines work. 

Then I'd teach them about neuroplasticity. I mean, if I can learn to change my mind, maybe they can learn to change theirs.

"Sometimes you change your mind...

sometimes your mind changes you."

~Binyomin Scheiman~

jan