Welcome to the Jungle

We love sharing the science behind mindfulness

This being human is so very complex.  Humans are classified as "Homo sapien sapiens" - the ones who know and who know they know". This ability to engage in self-referential thought is both a blessing and a curse.  Much of our day-to-day discomfort comes from our mental activity.  Most of the time, we're safe and sound, but our nervous systems tell a different story because they are responding to what's happening up in our heads.

In the moment it can be really, really hard to shake rumination, looping thought, self-flagellation, worry and dread…. unless we practice seeing thoughts as just thoughts, opening to our emotions, and resting in awareness of “right here, right now” vs. past or future.  Unhooking ourselves from our own mental activity takes as much skill and practice as playing Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29, or hitting a hole-in-one.  

We can think of our brains like jungles. Each time we engage in any activity - a thought, a physical movement - we are hacking through the vines in the jungle along a certain path.  The more we engage in that activity, the wider that path becomes, making it easier and easier for us to travel that path.  If we stop traveling along that path, the vines regrow.  

All of this is to say that mindfulness and meditation are practices.  The more we do them, the better they work when we really need them. And, how we do them matters.  Shauna Shapiro, Phd tells the story of how she became frustrated with her practice and her meditation teacher said, “You are not practicing meditation.  You are practicing judgement.”  When we practice mindfulness with an attitude of kindness, we are building superhighways to self-compassion AND present moment awareness.

And, of course, CMP is here to support you in your practice.

May we all create wide pathways to peace and ease!
Erika Long
Co-Founder
 

If you, like me, enjoy tossing fancy science terms into everyday conversation, here are the two terms to describe the jungle-like activity of our brains:

Myelinization:  Myelinization is the process by which Myelin is laid down along axons to speed the transfer of information.  Myelinization helps us to clear pathways through the jungle of our brains.  Every time we do something we lay down myelin, which makes doing that thing faster and easier in the future.  It’s how we learn to walk, to talk, to speak a new language, etc.  But myelin can also mean that if we worry or stew or beat ourselves up, we will become better at doing those things too.  So we need to train our minds very intentionally, so that we practice healthy habits of mind and so we can respond with skill when our minds try to drag us to the dark side.

Neuronal Pruning:  This is the counterpart to myelinization.  When we don’t use certain pathways in the brain, the brain eliminates them.  It’s like a very efficient closet organizer - “Haven’t worn it in a year?  Let’s get rid of it.”  This is why all the French we studied in high school seems out of reach in our 40s if we haven’t used it.