The Buddha As the First Psychotherapist?

As John Naish so eloquently put in his excellent book “Enough: Breaking Free from the World of More”. Human beings are designed to want, to crave to covet. For good or ill, it is what has got us to where we are today. It has worked very well as a survival strategy and without it, the human race would probably have become extinct by now.

He even posits that the human race should not be called “homo sapien” (thinking or wise man), but “homo expetens” (wanting man).

However, we have now got to a point where those natural cravings have become a hindrance to our development (both socially and evolutionarily) and we need to get beyond them so that we can continue to develop and evolve…

I have been involved in Buddhism since I was about 19. I was sort of aware of it from an early age, when I took up martial arts at the age of 12, but that was really just the draw of a far off and distant land (the mythic “east”) and the iconography and aesthetics of it all.

But I remember when I real became interested in Buddhism was when I was sat in a bar in Cheltenham, I was a little bit drunk and rambling on to this bloke I had just been introduced to about how I thought the majority of problems people have is because they were always wanting more and more things and if they were just appreciated what they had got then the world would be a much better place and we would all be happier (see I was even “Slow” back then…). He interrupted me to ask me “How long have you been interested in Buddhism?”, I had no idea what he was talking about and asked him what he meant, he said I had almost, word for word quoted the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths:

1. Life is suffering.
2. The origin of suffering is craving (or attachment to things).
3. The cessation of suffering is attainable by relinquishing cravings.
4. We can follow the path to the cessation of suffering.

Turns out this guy was an ex-Buddhist monk and he introduced me to Buddhism, recommended books, and groups and events where I could learn more (I feel a bit guilty, as I can’t even remember his name!).

I studied Buddhism through my early 20’s, getting involved with varies groups including The “Friends of the Western Buddhist Order” (FWBO) and “Sanbo Kyodan Zen”, but around 2004 I found myself getting more and more distracted by the world of more, until I peaked in 2007 and found myself the craving, striving, stressed “success coach” that I had become.

What has this potted history of my relationship and involvement in Buddhism have to do with Slow or John Naish?

Well, over the years studying the Buddha’s teachings and methods I starting to formulate the idea that Buddhism was not really a religion but a process of therapy and the Buddha was in fact the first “psychotherapist”! His teachings helped you undo our natural propensity to want and crave and evolve beyond our instinctive urges.

I was not alone in this interpretation and notable Buddhist scholars such as Stephen Bachelor, Caroline and David Brazier, to name a few, have discussed Buddhist techniques and ideology, particularly Zen practices in a therapeutic context. Philip Kapleau has explaines:

“Bompu (or Ordinary) Zen, being free from any philosophic or religious content, is for anybody and everybody. It is a Zen practiced purely in the belief that it can improve both physical and mental health. Since it can almost certainly have no ill effects, anyone can undertake it, whatever religious beliefs they happen to hold or if they hold none at all. Bompu Zen is bound to eliminate sickness of a psychosomatic nature and to improve the health generally.”

This has finally led to Western psychologists and therapists, particularly Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, and Sharon Salzberg, to have researched and studied Buddhist practices, particularly mindfulness, and recent research supports promising mindfulness-based therapies for a number of medical and psychiatric conditions, notably chronic pain, stress, depression and substance abuse and recurrent suicidal behaviour.

The more I study, explore and develop the slow life, in particular the slow mindset (which, to me, is where it is at), the more I recognise that mindfulness is the corner stone to that mindset and the spring from where everything else comes.

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Getting Rid of Want 3: Mindfulness

“Poverty is not the absence of goods but rather the overabundance of desire”

– Plato

Mindfulness is best described by John Kabat-Zinn as “…paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”

Being mindful of the present moment can reduce habituation and therefore craving.

In one study of habituation, 3 Zen practitioners were placed in a room with their eyes closed and a clicking noise was made 20 times in a row at 15 second intervals,  their brain waves monitored. When the study had been done with non-Zen Practitioners (‘ordinary’ people) their brainwave patterns showed that by the 5th click habituation had set in and the subjects no longer noticed the sound. In contrast the Zen practitioners responded to each repeated click as fully as the first.

By cultivating the Zen mindset of being open to moment as you can reduces the sense of habituation, therefore craving.

After starting to discuss mindfulness in 3 previous blogs (here, here and here) I have to admit to distracting myself and I am going to return to the subject in the very near future. If you want to learn more about you can attend my “Day of Mindfulness Seminar” or my forthcoming (if I ever get it finished) guide to mindfulness ebook. Sorry. Plug Over…

So I am not going to go into mindfulness too much here, but the good news is you do not need to become a Zen Master or run off to a Buddhist monastery (far from it, most Zen practitioners are lay people rather than monks – people with every day jobs and lives), you can cultivate mindfulness by following a few simple principles:

1) Draw Your Attention into Your Body.

Pay attention to your body, check your posture and relax any areas of tension, move your attention so that you can feel your hips and “sit” into your hips. When you move, pay attention to the movement, whether that is walking or reaching for something or whatever

2) Focus on Your Breath

Don’t try and force it or change it, just focus on it. By focusing on it you will find it will naturally slow and deepen and you will find yourself calmer and more relaxed.

3) Do Something Deliberately

Pick something you do every day, like cleaning your teeth for example, and really pay attention to it, rather than just doing it whilst daydreaming about something else…

4) Be Polite

By making the effort to be polite to the people around you (saying “please” or “thank you” for example) you are forced to be more mindful of your surrounds and slow down!

5) Be Gentle

The Taoists have a saying of only apply “4 ounces” of pressure to whatever you touch. Now, it doesn’t mean exactly 4 ounces, but means being gentle with everything you interact with, both physically and psychologically.

We will look at my final suggestion for getting rid of wanted in this mini-series tomorrow.

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Your Slow Hour

The one key thing to remember about Slowing Down is to not do it too fast! You need to slow down slowly…

If you try and do too much all at once (as we have a tendency and conditioning to do in our hare-brained society) you will just become overwhelmed and end up giving up on slowing down and go back to your old fast life (it is often why we fail to make any changes in our lives; we try and do too much all at once)

It is much better to do one thing at a time to slow down and build up gradually, but one way to introduce more than one change easily is to do a daily (or weekly, or monthly depending on your timescale) Slow Hour. If you can’t do a whole hour, start with a Slow Five Minutes and build up from there.

So, what do you do in this Slow Hour? Well you introduce the key elements of slowing down such as:

1. Relax

Take a few minutes to relax and de-stress yourself, do a few relaxation exercises, for an excellent exercise try my “deep relaxation primer” audio programme.

2. Breath!

Focusing on, drawing your attention to and regulating your breathing is one of the best ways to relax, become more mindful and therefore slow down! There are dozens, if not hundreds of different breathing exercises that you can learn, I often recommend a simple full breath, counting to 7 on the in-breath and 11 on the out-breath. For more details click here listen to this SlowCast.

3. Be Mindful

Do everything you do in this hour with 100% focus and attention, pay attention and be mindful. If you find your mind wandering, just slowly draw your attention back to what you are doing. To help return your attention to the task in hand, focus on your breathing, take a few deep breaths, scan your body for tension, adjust your posture (if needed), relax and return to the task in hand.

4. Single-task

Avoid multitasking and do one thing at a time. With everything that you do in this hour, don’t allow yourself to be distracted or interrupted. Being mindful will help you to be more single-task orientated and by single tasking you will be surprised hoe much more you actually get done.

5. Do something Slow that you want to do!

Turn off the TV (unless, of course, you want to watch a classic movie) and do something slow that you have wanted to do for ages. Maybe read a book, bake bread, paint, learn to play a musical instrument…

And Finally

6. Be Gentle!

Remember the Taoist principle of “four ounces”; everything you touch you should not apply more than four ounces of pressure to it. Now, this is obviously a metaphor and doesn’t mean using exactly four ounces! It is about being gentle, both physically and psychologically. Don’t beat yourself up if you find yourself being distracted or agitated or interrupted during your slow hour. Just relax, refocus on your breathing and carry on. You will always have the next Slow Hour.

You will find, very quickly (!) that if you do this regularly for an hour a day, soon an hour wont be enough and you will want to spend two hours a day being slow, then three and you will also find you will be more spontaneously slow even when you are not “meant” to, you will find yourself being more focused, less stressed and being able to do one thing at a time rather letting your attention scatter…

Give it a go over the weekend and see how you get on!

Want to learn more? Check out the “Welcome to the Slow Life” audio programme.

I will be back on Tuesday
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Slow Seminars – Some Tortoise Training Events

I have added some seminars to run this autumn. I have done my best to make the price as fair as possible at £55 per place.

If you can’t attend don’t worry, hopefully the events will be recorded and made available on this site (for a small charge).

All seminars are taking place in Birmingham UK. If you are interested in running any events near to you and would like to organise one, please contact me to discuss it.

Welcome to the Slow Life

Date: 10th October 2009

The Slow Life is the Simple Life is the Easy life. But how do you start slowing your life down?

This day will introduce you to the slow philosophy including the key steps to help you start slowing down straight away!

Learn how, my developing your “slow” mindset you can:
•    Increase focus and concentration
•    Relax and de-tress
•    Become calm and collected
•    Focus on the things you really want to get out of life
•    Reconnect with life and appreciate the present moment
•    Sleep better
•    Become healthier and more energised
•    Get control on your spending and your finances
•    Melt away worries and concerns
•    Much, much more

Finding Time to be Slow

Date: 7th November 2009

The biggest excuse I hear for not slowing down is that “I just don’t have the time. I have FAR to much to do”.

This seminar will take you through a tried and tested process that will help you organise your tasks so that you free up your time and allow to concentrate on what you really want to do.

You will learn to stop reacting to the external environment and banish “to do” lists once and for all you allow you take control of you time and your life!

A Day of Mindfulness

Date: 21st November 2009

Slow is about savouring the minutes not counting them. But how much attention do you really pay to the present moment?

Mindfulness is originally a Buddhist concept and although mindfulness meditation techniques originated as spiritual practices, they have a long history of secular applications with teachers and authors such as Jon Kabat-Zinn introduced Buddhist mindfulness to the West.

Psychotherapists have adapted and developed mindfulness techniques into several promising cognitive behavioural therapies. Clinical research shows Buddhist mindfulness techniques can help alleviate anxiety, stress, and depression.

Present moment awareness is at the core to the Slow philosophy and in this day you will learn ways to be more mindful in your day-to-day life (without needing to spend hours contemplating your navel – unless you want to of course!)

For more details and to book, go to the training page

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Idle Accessories #1: The Humble Dressing Gown

I have to admit, today, I have no idea what to write. I am going to continue the mindfulness mini-course (for want of a better word), next week (I have a bit of a hectic week this week and want to give that subject a bit more time as it is very important to being Slow) and I am working on a new SlowCast (out soon, I promise).

So, I have a list of “blog idea’ that I keep in a document on my Mac, some are quite well developed, some are just a word or a phrase. One just said “Slow Film?”, I have no idea where I was going with that one!

But the one that jumped out was another idea of a random series I was going to start “Idle Accessories”, stuff that help you slow down or that all tortoisem minded people should own. Not a great title I admit, I may change it at a later date.

And number one on that list was the humble dressing gown. It was freezing here yesterday (in the middle of June! Where is the summer?!) and so, to keep warm, I wrapped myself up in my dressing gown whilst doing work. I have a lovely dressing gown, soft, warm, thick and with a hood! A perfect piece of clothing to wander round the house in, whether you are in your pyjama’s or fully clothed. And there is something relaxing, comforting and soothing about pulling on a dressing gown, tying round your waste and collapsing onto the sofa.

Just remember to take it off before you go out.

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How to Slow Down Again

I thought since I have recently falling off the Slow train I would discuss in this blog some ways to start slowing down again if you find yourself accidentally slipping back into those fast, hare brained ways….

1. Don’t Give Up!
We are used to demanding and getting results very quickly and if we don’t we become impatient and give up and move onto the next thing that will give us that instant gratification.

But don’t give up, it is natural that we will slip up and make mistakes from time to time, doesn’t mean we have to give up. Thomas Edison took over 2000 attempts to make a light bulb after all…

2. Don’t Beat Yourself Up About It
We all make mistakes, beating yourself up will just mean it will take longer to get back on the slow train. And it will make you feel bad. So, what’s the point. Self criticism, like over-confidence, is a hare brained process.

3. Pay Attention.
Become mindful of your thought processes, and the feelings you are getting. Don’t judge it, just be mindful of the thoughts and feelings, this will help you stop associating with the mistake and give you some distance and perspective to remind yourself why you want to slow down. Use that thought to motivate yourself to start slowing down again.

4. STOP!
Don’t rush to get back on the Slow train. Rushing to Slow Down in is rather absurd don’t you think? Take some time off, an hour, a day, a week, however much time you have and think you need. Chill out relax, don’t actively do anything either slow or fast, just make some space

5. Learn From It
What was it that caused you to fall off? Was it a specific event? Or a series of things? Was it your thinking? Your organisation skills? See what it was and then focus your time in sorting that area out…

6. Start Slowing Down Again. Slowly.
Pick one of the key area’s of slowing down. Maybe de-cluttering your life, maybe practicing being mindful, maybe focusing on single tasking and slowly start adding more slow processes. Before you know it you will be back in the Slow swing of things!
I am still tinkering with the site, adding bits and bobs, if you find anything that isn’t working, please let me know

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