by Maya Frost

Years ago, a client (let’s call her Gina) told me about a dream she kept having over and over again.

In her dream, Gina goes to her favorite ice cream shop. A confirmed chocoholic, she looks forward to treating herself to her favorite flavor on a regular basis.  But when she gets to the

shop, she realizes that all of the cartons of ice cream are now vanilla.  Every single one.

She asks the clerk if there are any other flavors available.

“Actually, each of these flavors is different.  This vanilla has a subtle hint of almond, for example.”

“But it looks like plain vanilla to me,” she says.

“Well, true, it DOES look like vanilla.  They all look the same, but there is a subtle difference in the flavor of each.”

“Okay, well, what about toppings?  Can I add chocolate sauce on top?” she asks.

“Oh, no,” says the clerk.  “We don’t offer toppings here.”

Resigned, she tries a few flavors, and yes, she can tell that there is a bit of an essence of strawberry here, or a whiffof coffee there, but there’s no question that it’s still vanilla.

She looks around and sees plenty of people enjoying their various vanilla flavors.  Some are rhapsodizing about the taste of one version of vanilla while others are insisting

that theirs is the most sublime of all.

And then she wakes up feeling sad, unfulfilled and hopeless.  It’s not that she doesn’t appreciate vanilla, but she really LOVES chocolate.  She feels like she has lost interest in

the whole idea of eating ice cream if the only optionshe has is a variation of vanilla.

I asked Gina how she felt about the choices available to her.  She told me she’d spent the previous three years exploring different types of meditation, but despite the time and effort she’d put into her daily practice, she felt that she’d lost her way.  She was sad that she felt she wasn’t “built” for meditation as everyone she knew seemed to find it profoundly beneficial.  She even confessed to feeling guilty about considering giving it up, but she longed to break away from her vanilla world.

Where was the chocolate?

First of all, Gina was looking for permission to try something other than meditation.  I was happy to tell her that she could certainly develop mindfulness in chocolate ways!

Second, Gina needed to incorporate mindfulness into her daily life in activities that engaged and enlivened her naturally.

Gina was startled to realize that she had set aside many of her favorite activities in order to create more time for meditation and quiet reflection.  She was spending 30 minutes each morning and 30 minutes every night in meditation plusanother 30 minutes writing in her journal. But despite committing nearly an hour and a half a day to getting connected, she felt truly disconnected from what she loved most.  In addition, she was dejected about a weight gain prompted by less exercise (more sitting)!

And so, that’s where we started.

Because she had always loved swimming, Gina started going to the pool several mornings a week. She focused on a particular technique and simply used her time in the pool

as her meditation. She was an accomplished gardener, and so we came up with great ways for her to make gardening a focused and calming mindfulness activity to soothe her after work.  And as a cellist, she had a deep appreciation for music and learned how to strengthen her connection

to sound while building new friendships with others in a small musical group.

In other words, she quit meditating but swam, planted, played and laughed her way to greater mindfulness! She started to think of her days as being “delicious” and relished the flavors of each activity.

Mmmm.  Chocolate.

By tapping into her

**bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (swimming)

**naturalistic intelligence (gardening)

**musical intelligence (playing the cello)

**interpersonal intelligence (making friends)

Gina developed a deeply fulfilling mindfulness practice that didn’t require

a single minute of meditation. She felt calm, clear and creative and experienced a new sense of awe about the world around her.  She was happily eating— and truly appreciating—chocolate in more ways than one.

Not everyone is into vanilla, and even those who are can appreciate opportunities to explore the complexity of a full range of flavors.

If you find that meditation leaves you with a taste for something that reflects and inspires you more authentically, head for the chocolate– or strawberry, daquiri ice, peppermint, or

jamoca almond fudge with extra nuts and chocolate on top.

Add some new flavors to your mindfulness practice, and you’ll be savoring the richness of life with a big smile on your face.

© Copyright 2007, Maya Frost

Maya Frost has taught thousands of people how to pay attention.  Her playful, eyes-wide-open approach to everyday awareness has been featured in over 100 media outlets worldwide.  To read her free tips and tricks for getting calm, clear and creative, visit

http://www.Real-WorldMindfulness.com

In his book, the Mindful Brain, Daniel Siegel talks about the top-down approach we use in processing incoming experiential information. “I will use top-down to imply how ingrained brain states can impinge on emerging neural circuit activations and thus shape our awareness of ongoing experience in the present moment.” I’d like to break this down in order to show how our lives can come to feel like the daily grind and how cultivating present moment awareness with mindfulness practice can break up what might be considered a misperception.

“Ingrained brain states.” Our capacity to turn experience into learning has been, and still is, one of the essences of our survival as a species. As we convert experience to a knowing of the world we naturally come to check experience against our database of knowledge.

“Can impinge upon emerging neural circuit activations.” Simply put, we come to over rely upon this interpretation of experience through past learning. We come to see the world through filters of past experience. And this seems to be a matter of variety in that we apply this strategy across the broad spectrum of our experience. It is one thing to take in factual data about something like a job search and quite another to interpret the feeling state of your spouse and rather unconsciously relate it to past experiences of intimate relationship and draw the same conclusions. This is an example of NOT seeing what is in the moment. This is how the top-down process comes to, “shape our awareness of ongoing experience in the present moment.”

It is because this process is automatic and mostly unconscious that we need to practice actually being present with things as they are in the moment, the essence of mindfulness. We practice so that we come to automatically interrupt the top-down process and make a conscious choice as to whether or not the stored data is relevant to the present moment circumstance.

And with regard to the daily grind feeling; if we come to view our experience predominantly through filters of past experience we are bound to see the present as a repeat of our past. Further, we actually come to expect things to turn out a certain way. We actually miss opportunities right in front of us because we are wearing these increasingly opaque lenses. Let’s call them past glasses. It’s catchy, no?

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievment is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.” Quoted from “The Mindful Brain” by Daniel Siegal.

Hey Chime users, find a nice meditative/contemplative ring tone and assign it to the Chime number. Meditation gongs, temple bells, whatever sound will help drop you into the present moment and get in touch with your Being in the everyday.

I think most would agree that the ever-expanding breadth and speed of information is stretching our individual and collective capacities to integrate the information in useful and meaningful ways. I also believe that many of us feel, at times, overwhelmed. There is so much to respond to, so many virtual entities vying for our attention. And with the advancement of mobile technology we can now connect with whatever – whenever. We need and seek out better and more efficient organizational and productivity tools to help us integrate the information, to bring it into some sense of coherence with who we think we are and what we are doing.

How is this impacting us, individually and collectively?  What do you notice in your own life? Any and all comments welcome.

The original idea behind Chime was to use technology to foster everyday mindfulness by delivering simple messages that directed the user to the present moment. It is one of those ideas that is so simple, that at times I questioned its utility. But each time, I would return to the fact that the practice of mindfulness IS simple. However, if you have tried mindfulness practice you know that simple does not equate to easy. In fact, it can be quite difficult, repetitive and boring. Originally my intended user was the mindfulness practitioner. Therefore, I didn’t give this much thought initially, as I assumed that those with prior experience would understand that repetition is just part of the practice. So, I assumed that the messages of Chime could be experienced as repetitious at times and even boring, and that users would simply roll this into practice, just like you do in sitting meditation.

But then I started getting feedback and realizing that not only have I gotten non-practitioners signed up for Chime, but also that mindfulness has come into the mainstream to such an extent that there is most likely a growing variance in the interpretation and practice of mindfulness. There are those that know that mindfulness is essentially present moment awareness, who may have never meditated. Further, they may have no interest in doing so, but do want to cultivate present moment awareness.

I’ve gotten some feedback that suggests people might like more of a variety of messages including mindfulness-based aphorisms. So I have begun to include some of these like, “mind is but one aspect of Being.” This is a contemplative phrase rather than a practice phrase.

I would love, need, to know what users think. Please let me know. And thanks for giving it a try.

Devin

This is the first public articulation of the tool we originally set out to build, the healthy habits tool. Well, as far as operating under the moniker Mindful Apps anyway. The way back (9 months?) original vision was a web-based treatment program for depression called Mindful Action Training, which grew out of my local therapy practice Mindful Action Therapy for depression. Then it was Therapist Tool Box … I’ll spare you the fascinating entrepreneurial journey that lead from there to here and just talk about the essence which has survived the quite necessary shedding of startup fat.

The essence? Behavior change. How to create and sustain change towards a healthy lifestyle that leaves one feeling good much more of the time than not. Just to put it out there right now- feeling good all the time? – haven’t seen it yet and I’d have to be some kind of crazy futurist to tell you that’s what we’re going for here. Further, it’s really still a question as to whether or not feeling good could exist without feeling bad sometimes. Don’t think about that one too long; just read on.

And in case you haven’t noticed, we don’t simply think our way to health and vitality. It typically involves a fare amount of action, mindful action to be exact. As opposed to careless, cavalier, unconsciousness action alternating with a kind of ruminating inaction accompanied by self-loathing and self-slander, as just one example.

In treating depression, action is essential because you can’t trust your feelings to some extent. And you sure as hell can’t trust your thoughts. So hopefully, you find a therapist that helps you find your underlying sanity so that you can use it, with a little help, to formulate an action plan. These are actions that you know deep down are healthy and good for you and even lift you out of depression. The trick is slogging through the lack of motivation and actually activating (behavioral activation in psycho-professional parlance).

And out of this was born the healthy habits tool, various ways to de-cogitate the self, de-couch the self, incentivize the self, motivate the self; put simply, get thy-self moving. And obviously you don’t have to be depressed to benefit from such a tool.

The base of the healthy habits tool is an activity log. It is a highly interactive activity log that supports making a behavior a habit. It will allow you to enlist friends and family for support. You’ll be able to set reminders or encouragements in your quest to consciously make a behavior unconscious, ie a habit. You just do it. Yes, in case you haven’t noticed, life is absolutely riddled with paradox. It’s actually quite funny when not just out n’ out heart wrenching, or both simultaneously, which is my personal preference. I digress.

A habit is something you just do without giving it much thought. Like, what if you just went to the gym every other day without much thought, without all the psychological accoutrement that is much heavier than the weights you will lift. What if doing it was so powerfully connected to the sustained health and vitality it produced, that not doing it would seem outlandish, strangely silly, an ontological impossibility? What if you became one of those get up at 6am everyday yoga people, bopping around town with that yogic glow?

I know that habit creating, goal striving software tools are nothing new. But none are actually habit forming for the user and you know, how are you going to make a behavior a habit with a program that doesn’t make a habit of itself? Yes, we are a service with self-consciousness. In fact, its a new tech category, SasSC (pron. sassssk), service as self consciousness. (techie joke)

Finally, we are going for extensive social media integration so that users can draw support from friends and family in the most convenient ways. It takes a community to raise a healthy self. Stay tuned.

One of the results of being called to the present moment through-out my day with Chime is that I notice how the majority of my moments are so laden with my hopes and fears. The impact of this is a palpable inhibition. And I have to wonder as to the impact on my creativity, social capacity, intimate relationships … the list goes on. My next question is: what would returning to my endeavors feel like free of these hopes and fears? I imagine a fluid interaction with what is as I endeavor towards what will be, which may or may not look anything like the vision I use as the proverbial carrot. And what I understand in this moment is that it is not the vision, but the values and qualities which are the foundation of that vision. There is an innate drive to create something of benefit to others and myself. For satisfying the longings of the self only is truly a fool’s errand. My experience has told me this many times.

And, I don’t think I am going to fall in to that enlightened fluidity today. But perhaps there is an in-between, and it is this. I proceed holding my hopes and fears in front of my eyes as I look beyond to the future I envision, that future which embodies the qualities and values that have remained consistent over time: selflessness, curiosity, kindness, generosity, compassion, communion, right livelihood, unity and love. I welcome comment and if you are interested in trying Chime, just shoot me an email at devin@mindfulapps.com with name, cell phone#.

I am hardly alone in leading a pretty cerebral daily life. Much of it is spent in front of this computer. I’m not complaining mind you; I am passionate about my work and constantly amazed at how almost all facets of my vision are implemented through this small machine and the perpetual revolution matrix we call the internet. As I am pulled into the pace of an ever-expanding information flow, I notice that my days fly by fast. I sit down at the computer, zero in on the day’s tasks, look up in what seems but a few moments later, and it’s lunch time. Same in the afternoon. Look up, the day is done. When I add this to what I’ll call the age accelerator, you know, that sense that the days, weeks and years are passing by, each faster than the one before, it’s a bit like falling from a great height; one’s perception of speed accelerates exponentially in relation to the ground. Ok, that’s a bit macabre, but I think it really gets the point across. There is some desire to slow down and not reach the end so quickly.

But the fact is, our culture is speeding along, seemingly, at an ever-increasing rate and as an entrepreneur, can I really afford to slow down? Also, I’m excited about where I am going, so in that sense it only seems natural that I’d be in a hurry. But it’s kind of exhausting, no? So what I really want is to be like Neo in the Matrix when he is fighting the machines at warp speed yet his subjective experience is one of being in slow motion. This is actually an experience I have had as the result of regular mindfulness meditation and Tai Chi practice. I’ve also experienced this with regular yoga. These glimpses have lead me to believe that our perceptions of time passing can be altered through attending to the body and its relationship to both the internal and external environment. In particular, by cultivating a comprehensive coherence to our central nervous systems through our various sense perceptions and the breath, we can not only stretch or slow our perception of time but utilize our energy stores in more efficient, focused and productive ways. This is one of the many benefits of regular mindfulness practice.

And this is what I want to do with Chime, the daily mindfulness practice tool. I want to slow down my subjective experience of my day by returning again and again to the present moment and becoming attuned to the totality of my experience in this body in whatever environment I am immersed. This is one of the ways I envision using these simple text reminders. Consider them an invitation to relax the nervous system, calm the mind and focus your awareness on what it is you really want to do. Please share your thoughts and experience if you feel at all compelled. I’d love to read them. And let me know if you want to give Chime a try. devin@mindfulapps.com

If you are interested in being an alpha- tester for Chime, the daily mindfulness practice tool, email me with your cell phone number and I will sign you up. It’s considered an alpha test because we do not yet have a store front as it were. But, that is in the works. With this free application you will receive three texts a day that call for a specific present moment awareness action. So if you want to give it try, send your email and phone # to devin@mindfulapps.com.