Sending empathy and compassion to you for your journey with cancer, Brit. And thank you for sharing all of this resource in context of your lived experience and practice. It was only after I became severely ill in 2012 that I began to understand truly what it means to practice "standing, sitting, walking, lying down." Working with fear and anxiety around my condition (what might happen, what ifs, especially after being in the cardiac ward for four days) became more and more important over those 7 years, and recognizing my own immune system was going to have a harder time of it if I was spending 24/7 in that fear/anxiety spiral. Bringing myself again and again into the present moment literally became something that could help me recover. Strong motivation to practice.
Like you, I also adore and have learned a tremendous amount over the decades from Thich Nhat Hanh, his community, and concepts such as Interbeing.
I also have drawn a great deal from the concept of the Window of Tolerance, which I was introduced to via Amanda Blake's Body=Brain (neuro-biology of coaching) course last year. Amanda's wonderful pith-wisdom statement on this is one I refer to daily "Awareness creates choice; practice creates capacity."
Unpacking this - if, as Staci Haines says "Action coming from resilience is action that has a pause in it," the purpose of that pause is so we can reflect and respond, rather than merely and reflexively react. That is the same pause Viktor Frankl referred to when he said "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." By practicing this pause, and working through what feels threatened or unstable when we get grabbed by circumstances, we begin to practice that awareness -- which leads to the choice of how we want to respond (as opposed to merely reacting). Practice is what builds capacity, what you refer to as widening our window of tolerance.
What that wider window feels like: as we practice resilience, we are less likely to be grabbed or triggered by a given level of stimulus, and we are more quickly able to regain stability when we are knocked off balance. Definitely mindfulness is a key aspect of this practice, how do we cultivate present moment awareness so that we can see when we are being grabbed in the moment, so we can take that pause, and respond in a way that is generative and healing.
Gosh, what a beautiful article, what an inspiring person Megan is. Thank you for sharing Britt.
Sending empathy and compassion to you for your journey with cancer, Brit. And thank you for sharing all of this resource in context of your lived experience and practice. It was only after I became severely ill in 2012 that I began to understand truly what it means to practice "standing, sitting, walking, lying down." Working with fear and anxiety around my condition (what might happen, what ifs, especially after being in the cardiac ward for four days) became more and more important over those 7 years, and recognizing my own immune system was going to have a harder time of it if I was spending 24/7 in that fear/anxiety spiral. Bringing myself again and again into the present moment literally became something that could help me recover. Strong motivation to practice.
Like you, I also adore and have learned a tremendous amount over the decades from Thich Nhat Hanh, his community, and concepts such as Interbeing.
I also have drawn a great deal from the concept of the Window of Tolerance, which I was introduced to via Amanda Blake's Body=Brain (neuro-biology of coaching) course last year. Amanda's wonderful pith-wisdom statement on this is one I refer to daily "Awareness creates choice; practice creates capacity."
Unpacking this - if, as Staci Haines says "Action coming from resilience is action that has a pause in it," the purpose of that pause is so we can reflect and respond, rather than merely and reflexively react. That is the same pause Viktor Frankl referred to when he said "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." By practicing this pause, and working through what feels threatened or unstable when we get grabbed by circumstances, we begin to practice that awareness -- which leads to the choice of how we want to respond (as opposed to merely reacting). Practice is what builds capacity, what you refer to as widening our window of tolerance.
What that wider window feels like: as we practice resilience, we are less likely to be grabbed or triggered by a given level of stimulus, and we are more quickly able to regain stability when we are knocked off balance. Definitely mindfulness is a key aspect of this practice, how do we cultivate present moment awareness so that we can see when we are being grabbed in the moment, so we can take that pause, and respond in a way that is generative and healing.