Alan watts and a simple way through the never-ending mental mish-mash (Spiritual Snack series)
Spiritual Snacks are a new collection of small bits and bobs that I have collected and curated for you throughout my time exploring the world to find my own purpose in life. Stuff that I noted down at the time, and thought "THIS IS INCREDIBLE! One day I want to tell people about this...". Well, this is the first of those days.
They are exactly as described, little bite-sized bits of spiritual advice carefully selected for you by me from the wonder of the woo-woo world and brought to you directly by the magic of the internet.
"I'm not saying that thinking is bad...like everything else it's useful in moderation; a good servant, but a bad master"
Alan Watts
If you don't know who Alan Watts is, no matter gorgeous friends, I am so happy to be the one to introduce you. He is a master philosopher, sage advisor for our times and one of my "brain crushes".
In fact, my hope for this article is that one day you look back on your present self that listened to this man one Sunday morning or afternoon, and you are able to say that your perspective on life changed. Even if in a really small way. #yourewelcome
If you do know Alan Watts, you already know what a soothing balm this man is for our addled monkey minds. He is like a Valium for your busy brain and overblown nervous system, just one or two minutes of listening to his sage counsel, and off you drift, consciousness seeming a million miles away.
He is truly a tonic for humanity's modern-day ails. Give him a try, I promise you will not regret it. Try the one at the bottom of this piece, it's my personal fave.
Perhaps like you, I only came to the genius of Alan Watts later in life (by that I mean my late 30s) thanks to a gorgeous and wise yoga teacher of mine in Bali, Rusty Davis (more on that special human later on).
So as I lay there, in the steaming heat of my fave yoga studio in Ubud, Radiantly Alive, the room was filled instantly with wisdom and beauty, as Mr Watts' words and magical classical music washed over me in waves. His voice rinsing off all the useless yip-yap attached to my mind, that had been going around and around the whole time I had been practicing yoga, but now, upon hearing this voice and these words all this noise suddenly...just...stopped.
Just like that. Some people speak to us in a way that a million others cannot. We hear their message as if it was spoken just for us. There are many people like this for me, Pema Chödron, Abraham Hicks, Yogi Bhajan, to name a few, but he, Alan Watts, he has a way to cut through that which many do not. Anyone who says something as wonderfully profound, but startlingly simple, as "trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth" has my complete attention.
I like his no mess, no fuss approach. His advice wasn't fluffy or typically woo-woo, it was real, jarring and a wake-up call to my mind to "QUIT IT ALREADY". Reminding me that without some effort on my part, this would continue in perpetuity. I may have little patches of peace, but nothing long-lasting. Easier said than done right? Yes...but also no.
Alan goes on in this particular oration to describe "thinking" as "chatter in the skull, of reckless repetition of words...and through excessive thinking, they (civilized peoples) have lost touch with reality".
Who alive cannot identify with this? Come forward if you DO NOT experience this helter-skelter of the unsupervised mind because it's highly possible you are the next Dalai Lama. Whatever you do, don't tell China who you are ;-)
My brain box when left to its own devices, and not gently brought into submission through mindfulness and meditation, is like a strung out ADHD child off their meds whilst being high AF on 10+packets of Allen's Red Frogs (a kind of gummy lolly for all the non-Australians in the room). It's not pretty. Actually, it's unreserved chaos. It's so incredibly busy. Busy busy busy. Really, just ask it. It'll tell you. Just carve out an hour to listen to what it has to say, because once it gets going, it NEVER shuts up.
On an average day, it's endlessly making to-do lists, censuring me for things not done, judging all the happenings of any given particular moment, making judgments on everything and everyone happening around me, and of course anticipating a million other things it should or wants to be doing. It's not enjoying this minute, no no no, which let's face it, minute to minute is all we have, it's waaaaaaaay too busy planning for things that may happen, could happen or worst of all SHOULD happen.
As a little experiment, I once write down every thought I had for half an hour, out of idle curiosity, and let's just say that was so undeniably terrifying, how ANYTHING could think so much garbled and random nonsense at once, that I never did that again. Ever.
But it taught me something about quality over quantity. The quality of my thoughts was undeniably poor. When in this state, they are scrambled and non-sensical. Somewhat like an internet connection trying to run HD Netflix, an Audible book, powerpoint slide shows on 10 different topics, Spotify playlist for meditation (#irony) and 20 open tabs on Google Chrome all at once, at 1990 dial-up speeds. Pixelated images, flashing on and off the screen intermittently, a mish-mash of words and a really horrible persistent buzzing and beeping noise. And let's face it, that's not really of much good to anyone, and for you particularly is generally kind of irritating. Really irritating. Frazzled, frantic and frenzied, certainly not coherent, clear or concise. Nope, not that. That's for sure.
Mr Watts says so eloquently, "...we're so tied up in our minds that we've lost our senses...". We have. We truly have. When I let my mind control my day, I vacillate from joyful to shame to happy to addled to calm with breakneck speed. It's unpredictable and unsettling, to say the least.
So, I have made a concerted effort to focus on quality over quantity. I used to pride myself on how fast my brain worked, thinking it an indicator of how smart I was: faster was undoubtedly better. Whoops. That turned out to be incorrect. Like a toddler, I now make an effort to do one task at a time, be present with whatever it is I am doing. Yes, this seems incredibly inane advice to people like you, but take it from me, it is extraordinarily challenging when you are conditioned to believe multitasking is a marker of success. It's not, it's actually the fastrack to implosion.
So, how to get your mind back before you completely and utterly lose your marbles?
Well, below is the lazy person's guide to a bit of mental space which was a great entree for me into the woo-woo world, and getting some space in my day. I still do all of these now, sometimes a pre-cursor to silent meditation when it just isn't happening for me. Yup, this happens a lot. I'm cool with it, I just down-shift and go slower and embrace that a little pre-game action may be required, or indeed enough in itself.
So, these are super-simple go anywhere type suggestions that may be of some use to you, because they have literally at times, saved my life. They may appear mind-blowingly obvious, but trust me, when your mind starts running at a million miles an hour, it often takes someone else to make the suggestion for you to allow it to happen.
I have included spoken word meditations or speeches, mantras (these are magical for transporting you elsewhere - never mind the words in the beginning, just listen) and some binaural beats that really work for me when I am stuck in my own head. This is nothing more than giving you pieces that work for me, but sometimes, having someone do it for you is half the battle. I have limited them to under 15 minutes, because we are all busy, and sometimes just need a "hard reset" before moving on.
Try these little gems:
1. Find a (preferably dark-ish) place to lie down without interruption. I like being on the back, knees bent and together, and feet splayed out about shoulder width (your spine is nice and neutral here - and prevents napping). If you have something to put under your head to elevate it slightly, unreal. If not, no worries, it's just to prevent the nods.
2. Put on your headphones on and find someone, or something, to listen to that will inspire you (whether it's mantras, music or a person). If you are stuck for ideas a small selection of my personal go-to's are listed below.
in an effort to be helpful, these are also properly linked at the end of the article where I could find specific links that were embeddable:
3. Remember you are training your brain to take a nap, rest and recharge, you're not shutting down the body. Don't sleep if you can help it. That's not the intention here, but if you do, meh. It's all good.
4. If you keep it sort of short-ish, anywhere from 15-30 mins of dedicated time (not while you are doing 1000 other things - that defies the point), you are going to get benefits without losing track/nodding off.
5. As mentioned in a previous post, I find it incredibly helpful to say the word "thinking" everytime a thought arrives in your mind begging for your attention. Simply and gently say "thinking" when it happens, and then let it go off into the ether.
6. Relax, let everything go limp. Let it ALL go, flop out I say, and just ENJOY this moment for yourself. I find for me setting a timer helps if you have any kind of time crunch, so that you are not constantly wondering "what time is it?". #notetoself
I hope this brings a little love into your day and a little peace to your mind that you didn't have before.
Big love always,
Miss Cook xoxo
Meditation & Spoken Word
- Alan Watts - not much else I can say really (just do this)
- Jason Stephenson - spoken word meditation. This man is GIFTED. I have included a non-spoken one for all my main mamas out there for you and your babes below, you guys are champions and need every ounce of help you can get. :-)
- Lillian Eden - she does an amazing guided meditation. The one I posted below is one of my favourites. It's uplifting and relaxing and joyful. Her voice allows you to drift when that's what you need.
Mantras
- Tina Turner - yes. Tina effing Turner. As if I don't worship her enough - but from Nutbush to Lotus Sutra mantras: I died. Ugh. Seriously. She is heaven. Those legs, that magical personality, the magnificent resistance to things that could have broken her, and that voice. THAT VOICE. She's one you'll have to You Tube or buy yourself. Savvy queen that she is.
- Jai Jagdeesh - the mantra queen. Her voice is like liquid silk. I have included her soundcloud link below.
- Awahoshi Kavan - crystal bowl sound healer goddess. This earth angel is a beloved friend whose bowls are like magic for the soul. Link to come.
- Shrinari - a little 2 person London band with a cult following in the yoga circuit, I am obsessed with her voice. They are on soundcloud, and currently (hoping for them this changes), they are free. Grab it while it's hot.
Music meditations
Shamanic drums and rattles - I am starting to study these incredible ancient practices at the moment, and the use of drums and rattles (gently - not intensely like for journeying) is so soothing for me. Give it a try: it's my musical pick of the minute.
- Celtic music - for Outlander fans this is a gimmie, but for the rest of us mere mortals, it's gentle and like a lullaby and great for meditating. Just let your mind go.
- Binaural beats - these are designed to achieve specific results within the body and mind; reprogramming at a base level so I believe. There are so many on You Tube it's almost impossible to choose, but for me, I love the heart opening and anti-anxiety ones best. For best results headphones are required.