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We, as Westerners in particular, give a lot of credence to the concepts of independence, autonomy, self-determination and freedom.  Our social and political consciousness is embedded with these notions, and when we are faced with disturbing issues such as health care system changes or incipient terrorism, we reflexively latch onto these abstract concepts believing they are what is at stake.  We get frightened and we become resolute in our desire to hang onto these so-called privileges of civilization.  We believe that what freedom is is not to be controlled by others; that it is the absence of external control.  But perhaps real freedom is the presence and awareness of internal control.

It is our birthright as human beings to have bodies that are imbued with an innate wisdom.  This wisdom includes knowing how to guide and heal ourselves.  Our access to this wisdom requires only that we get out of the way.  We have to establish time and space to attain the mindfulness that enables our inborn compass, but we also have to cultivate awareness—awareness of the everyday ways we “go unconscious.”  One of these ways is the automatic, habitual thinking we engage in.  This is actually not thinking at all; it is the mindless recitation of thoughts we are accustomed to repeating to ourselves in our heads, and out loud to others.  We have long ago stopped assessing whether we actually believe these pronouncements.  They are just place-holders for true thought; but they do take up that mental space where something more authentic could be taking place.

The same is true of our health and healing.  We let superficial symptoms and the soft and not-so-soft addictions that quell them hijack our attention from what our body knows is wrong.  We tend to add, rather than subtract something when we are ill-at-ease, again, not creating the space where wisdom can operate.

The mechanism by which we can cultivate this space is mindfulness.  Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present and aware in our lives from moment to moment.  Mindfulness is a teachable skill, and even the attempt to attain mindfulness is richly rewarding and healing to the body and the mind.  It is my wish that each of us would achieve even a little bit of mindfulness this coming year and beyond.  The payoff would be immense.

Please visit the other pages and resources on this website to find ways that you can be helped and can help yourself.