BAM!

Breathing in, I know that I am walking in the park,

Breathing out, I know that I am walking in the park.

I rounded the corner of the paved walking path of my local park, and noticed how they had recently trimmed back the undergrowth on the sides of the trail.  They cleared everything to the ground for six feet or so back from the path.  It's spring time, and this is something they do.  I immediately thought of all the rabbits, birds, and other creatures I see in this protective overgrowth while walking.  I wondered how this change would affect them.  I wondered how it would affect predators in their ecosystem.

And BAM! My brain suddenly did that thing where it connects seemingly random processes it was running in the background together and provides a solution or insight.

I realized that is just like any ecosystem, it's a balance.  One change to a factor in that system such as clearing the undergrowth, can - does - ripple across the entirety of it causing change.  Sometimes positive, other times negative, sometimes negligible.  But always change. If the change is minor, the ecosystem adjusts.  If the change is dramatic, it can cause collapse. And sometimes, even if the change is minor, collapse can happen!

The "BAM!" moment happened when my brain connected this thought stream to my health.  I had recently been pondering how - for the last several years - I had created and maintained a nicely balanced group of factors which made up my health/wellbeing.  When one of those factors was neglected (my exercise) for a year, things began getting all wibbly-wobbly in other areas. I gained some weight, started having trouble with sleep, and various other areas of my life.   

And walking in the park, on a lovely afternoon, I suddenly realized that my body is an ecosystem.  My mind is an ecosystem.  My body/mind is an ecosystem!  And when I let my exercise falter, I caused a ripple effect on my ecosystem.  It made me realize what I already knew.  Balance is a requirement for a stable ecosystem.  Balance is a requirement for my health to be good.  Balance is a requirement for my mind to be strong.  And balance is a requirement for my Body/Mind to be well. 

How many of my meditator friends out there have fallen off of a regular meditation practice, and suddenly found that things just weren't quite right? You're a little less patient, a little more edgy, or a little less mindful and you don't know why?  Then you meditate, and you think "That's what I was missing!"

And you think about that and then you think "How did I let this slip in the first place?!  I know better!"  And yet we do.  As I did with my exercise. Transforming energy, typically, is the primary function in an ecosystem.  If one aspect is out of balance, this transformation is also out of balance. Whether we are trying to break addiction, improve relationships, or improve our health the energy we are trying to transform is that of suffering.  

In a typical ecosystem, such as a lake in a park, your input is sunlight.  This grows plants, which feed animals, and so on, until we get the output which is life energy.  That's simplistic, I know, but it was a real eye opener for me related to health and practice.  If we are a practitioner of the Eightfold Path, and we let one spoke on the wheel atrophy, then the whole is weaker for it.  If we focus on one too strongly, and the others only get standard attention, the result is similar.  Only through balance, do we achieve optimal transformation of energy like a stable ecosystem!  

NET CHANGE = INPUT + OUTPUT + INTERNAL CHANGE

I realize I'm not discovering a cure for a disease here, but rather just making it easier to understand for myself and, hopefully, for you the reader.  It's these kinds of realizations that help us deepen our practices and pursuits.  This metaphor may not be the one that does so for you, but perhaps it will.  I know it widened the door of understanding for me, regarding my need to be consistent and persistent with my health efforts, as well as practice. 

So next time the path is feeling a little bumpy, stop and run a quick check.  See if there's any aspect of your ecosystem that is out of balance.  

M.E.A.L.S. - Mindful Eating And Living Sangha

In 2010 I started this blog to capture my process of learning about Mindful Eating and Mindful Living (from the book Savor - Mindful Eating, Mindful Living by Dr. Lilian Cheung and Thich Nhat Hanh).  I lost over a hundred pounds, and became a vegetarian, and a Buddhist.  All of which have dramatically enhanced my life and, hopefully, some of the lives I touch.

Once the weight came off, and stayed that way, I kind of drifted away from this blog.  That’s mainly because I had written primarily about my weight loss and not so much about Buddhism.  When my life focus turned from weight loss to maintaining weight and exploring buddhism, I didn’t feel I had as much to write about.  Or, more accurately, I didn’t feel qualified to write about the things I was deeply experiencing at the time.  I was in a deep period of learning and exploration (and I still am) but over these past few years I’ve started a couple of Buddhist Sangha’s and participated or helped run several other groups of various kinds and I’m sort of feeling like I’ve come a bit full circle in a way.  I feel like if I re-read Savor (this will be something like my 4th time) I’ll get a whole different perspective on it now that I’ve been a Buddhist practitioner for a handful of years and because I learn best when I'm explaining or teaching others.

This time, I’m not only practicing the teachings from the book, but I’m helping others do the same.  I’m starting a group, local to me, that will study the book.  Sort of like a book club, but deeper than that.

I'm calling it M.E.A.L.S. - Mindful Eating And Living Sangha.  And I’m extremely pleased to have the support of Dr. Cheung as I launch this effort.  She’s always been supportive of my efforts personally, and when she heard that I was thinking of this, she offered some guidance and some incredibly kind words of support.

The year-long group will meet every other week and will:

• Recite the Five Contemplations
• Share a Mindful Eating Experience
• Read and discuss the book Savor
• Practice Mindful Movement

My hope is that this year-long grassroots-group exploration will deepen my own practice further, help others establish mindfulness as a way of healthy living, and - hopefully - encourage them to go out and spread the practice through starting similar groups the following year, and so on.  If successful, it could see a viral growth since those who complete the year, may hopefully create groups of their own and repeat the process, again and again.

I’ll try to get back to posting here along the way to track the progress of this endeavor.  When it’s done, I hope that this blog can serve as a blueprint for those who wish to replicate this process.

Best wishes!
_/|\_

A list of Vegetarian Apps I thought was cool.

I saw this online yesterday and just wanted to share it with you all.  As you know, I promote the use of technology in helping us to lose weight, and if you're losing weight by becoming more of a vegetarian or if you're a budding Buddhist who's turning to a vegetarian lifestyle these apps might help out some.

Let me know if you have any successes with any of these you'd like to share!

Thanks!

Want to be smart? Walk Hard.

Since I walk about three miles a day just for exercise purposes, I found this article interesting.  I also can't resist a slam dunk reference to Dewey Cox.  Anyhow, it seems that if you walk you actually become smarter (or is that 'get more better smarter'?).  So Walk...Walk hard!

Walking May Increase Brain Size and Boost Memory

And just for fun.....Enjoy: