37 Comments

I think Maggie, the cat, is my spirit animal! 🐈‍⬛

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Aw, she's a lovely being, that's for sure! 🐈

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The self compassion described here is healing. There were so many quotables but this was my fav: "To recognize that I have a body and a mind, and that of course, just like a tree that grows crooked and thin on a windy cliff-edge, this body, this organic, completely natural life-form, will develop, grow, and act according to its growing conditions."

What I got from this is acceptance and action, but acceptance comes first. Thank you, Don.

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Thank you, Rachel. I really appreciate you reading and taking the time to respond. And so glad you enjoyed the essay! 🙂❤️

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This is a really beautiful, gentle and compassionate piece. And I love the little animal friends along the way. I feel soothed reading it :) that's a gift. Thank you.

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Thank you so much, Ruth! That really means a lot. I’m pleased and grateful that you took the time to comment so kindly. :-)

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Jan 1Liked by Don Boivin

What I take from this is that mindfulness helps give the anxiety a source, it provides understanding. With understanding, change is possible. I have a very creative mind, and it is often prone to catastrophizing, carrying to the extreme any negative possibility. Lately, and mindfulness is helping with this, I am trying fantasticizing (my own word - what is the most fantastic outcome). As with the former, it often doesn't manifest as imagined, but it certainly flips anxiety on it's head.

Grateful, as always, for these beautiful essays.

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Thanks, Bert. I love that you take the time to put these thoughts into context and to share your own thoughts and processes. May your fantasticies come true in 2024!

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What a nice perspective to read in a world flooded with distorted messages about healing, and a subsequent market selling "quick fixes" to all the things that are "wrong" with us. It is nice to just take the journey breath by breath. Ahhhh.

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Thank you, Faye. I like that, take the journey breath by breath. ❤️

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Yes, cats are tuned in!

Former wood butcher here.

Songwriter, old man.

I usually am pretty chipper in the am. Bedtime is when I have to do my breathing exercises.

Further comment:

Zen and quieting the mind

Intro to part two of a discussion

The universe is a magnificent display of polarities,

Positive/negative

Yin/yang

1/0

Zen is the oil that lubricates our brains cylinders,

smooths the vibrations

Into a harmonious concert.

Thus the polarities

become balanced, quiet.

Now part two

My not humble opinion.

The goal of the Zen mind is to achieve mindlessness?

Polarities are not static, they orbit around each other.

Centrifugal force.

True mindless, as I would assert, would be death, so it is a goal to be approached, unless the final object is death.

My metaphor is that life is a fast moving car on a highway with straightaways, slow curves and fast curves. As we ride we are pulled first one way then the other by centrifugal force.

(When our heart beats we feel the pulse in the left shoulder before the right.)

This is the prime force which can be modified by meditation.

Thus we use the Zen oil

To achieve a harmonious concert

With the universe.

Be well.

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Thanks for the comment, Malcolm. Lots of food for thought!

I see that you've read a number of my essays and I really appreciate it! My essay, "What, another writers blog? Or, how I almost became a famous songwriter," (something like that) explains my own experience with songwriting and performing, if you're interested.

In which part of Florida do you live? My wife and I used to spend some time in Sarasota. We still visit friends in St. Pete.

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Will read it.

I live just south of the Boca canal.

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I played music in New England '69 to '79. Band duo and solo

.

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Read about your fioray into music. I can relate.

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Don, That’s one of the most inspirational posts I’ve read. As for Maggie, she’s living according to her true nature.

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Thank you, Michael, I really appreciate that! Yes, I think we could all learn a little something about slowing down from the cats. :-)

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Mar 1Liked by Don Boivin

I like Maggie! haha

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Thanks, I'm glad! And guess what? Maggie is going to appear in the post I'll be publishing in about an hour, alongside a bunch of dog friends. The essay is called "Vanity Strikes Again!"

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Very well said! Thank you! I have a neurological condition called Essential Tremor, that is always with me (hand tremors), but they worsen with stress and anxiety. Your words are great to remember as I am constantly trying to accept what is.

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Nancy, I'm so glad my words are helpful to you. That's what every writer wants to hear! I wish you the very best. 🩷

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Jan 12Liked by Don Boivin

A beautiful essay that expresses the conflict between the inner and outer worlds through conditioning in a way that really resonates with me. Thank you.

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Thank you, Sharon. I really appreciate it!

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Thankyou for gentle reminder. I also deal with anxiety from a Buddhist perspective. Often my anger gets triggered thanks to anxiety rather than the present moment. It is challenging 💜

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Enjoying your writing on mindfulness. Reminds me gently as I also learn to work with anxiety issues using Buddhist techniques. I often find my anger gets triggered by anxiety and nit the present moment. Is challenging 💜

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Thanks, Elly. Most of my posts have a mindfulness/Buddhism theme. "Who Am I?" gets a little more into the practice but really all of them. I try not to just get didactic about it, but rather to tell engaging stories of my own learning, insights, difficulties and struggles. Not sure if you subscribed—sometimes it's hard to tell—but if you did, thank you! If not, enjoy reading my posts anyway, and good luck with your writing and meditation!

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Really interesting to read your experience and I can relate to that constant nature of feeling anxiety grow and subside with the days/weeks/seasons/work... And yes Ive learned also to just recognise it rather than try to eliminate it. Almost sometimes I feel as though I can harness it, if it weren't for the state that it leaves me in I'd welcome the deep emotional discovery and resiliance it provides but personally I'd prefer to be without it.

Thanks for sharing this, new reader. Will stay in touch 😀

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Thank you for commenting, David, and for subscribing! Yes, I would prefer to do without that low-lying anxiety, too. :-) Maintaining awareness and acceptance every day ain't easy!

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I wake up with anxiety too on most days, and I've also been on a similar journey in terms of accepting it, understanding it, and just letting be. Not everything has to be exorcised from our selves so we can turn into perfect, productivity machines. A lot of this spoke to me Don, thank you.

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Thank you so much for your comment, Anagha. It means a lot to me!

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Thanks for your authentic, inspirational words!

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Thank you, Lynn! ❤️

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Thanks, Mike!

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