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4th of July, Celebration, Creativity, Culture, Globalization, Health, Independence, Independence Day, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Psychology, Reflection, Science, Self, Self-help
The Fourth of July is one of my happiest holidays. Fireworks, hot dogs, and cold watermelon—what’s not to love?
Last year around this time, I was preparing for my second hip surgery. Little did I know that it would lead to a third surgery in September after falling and breaking my wrist and the brand new hip. I lost my physical independence!
Recovering my ability to walk has been achieved steadily through regular physical therapy, however my mind-body coordination has taken even more effort to regain my sense of self.
The fear of losing our independence, whether physical, mental, emotional, financial, political, etc., is a continually present—mostly nonconscious— experience for us all.
Today our media channels propagate daily ‘terrorist reports’—are we living in an Age of Terrorism? Is our Independence really threatened by small packs of zealots bent on creating anarchy? Are mega banks, owned by a wealthy few, holding us hostage in a rigged system?
Millions of people would answer “yes,” but I say that our fears are hijacking our brains— we are losing our sense of self.
The issue is a brain-mind problem— Fear and Anger vs. Mindful Creativity.
The feelings of Fear, Anger, and Confusion take our brains hostage in a cascade of stress hormones that can literally drive us out of our minds. We find ourselves worrying more about What If? than living in the ever-miraculous world of What is!
Like all animals, our brains have an innate resilience to stress. However, we have a unique mind that produces a sense of self! This mysterious self can focus attention that actually regulates our brain and rewires the neural circuits through experience and mindfulness training. We can transform our ‘selves.’
When we recruit mindful creativity by focusing our mind’s power to calm the brain, we allow for the emergence of creative problem solving. Science has revealed that daydreaming activates inter-network communication—the essential ingredient for creativity.
The perception of danger triggers the brain to recruit its innate resilience to stress. When we focus our minds power to calm the brain-mind system, we boot up our creative mindful problem solving. We empower our hardwired ability to peacefully connect with each other and coordinate efforts for survival and cultural development. With mindful creativity we have survived the ice age, the fall of the Roman Empire, plagues, averted a global nuclear holocaust, travelled to the moon, and decoded our own DNA!
Independence is not a political, financial, emotional or even physical state.
True independence cannot be given. It is a mindful daily practice that is driven by a true-self motivated to work each day to sustain liberation from suffering—a state of chronic fear, anger, and confusion.
The great liberation starts within true human selves and spreads through culture as a natural dynamic of compassion and creativity.
Inspired by my miraculous body’s recovery, and the gift of a human mind, I plan a mindful celebration of my personal independence from pain, fear, anger and confusion that accompany all human trauma. A focused, calm mind cannot be hijacked for long. And the natural, spontaneous return of feelings of acceptance of the hardship and gratitude for all the things that give meaning to our lives defines our true independence.
Recommended reading:
Self Comes to Mind. Antonio Damasio, Pantheon 2010.
The Creating Brain: Nancy Andreasen, MD. PhD. Dana Press, 2005.
Anxious: Joseph LeDoux, Viking, 2015.
LOGOSOMA Living 