Cognitive-Attention Therapies (CATS)
Though Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) proved ineffective for me, “C” is an essential part of Cognitive-Attention Therapies (CATS). At the heart of Attention Therapies “A” is Ki Breathing Meditation and Open Focus. Vipassana (Insight) Meditation is the core of Cognitive Therapy “C”.
Meaning
Finding Meanng in Your Life
“S” is for the search for meaning. Bibliotherapy might be a part of “S” for the search for meaning. Bibliotherapy would include reading, writing, and research. Finding meaning in your life means finding your own meaning. Mine is writing/reading/research. Most times I am involved in one of these three activities. It is a key focal point of my attention. I don’t have time to focus on how I am feeling or negative issues. I get much of my reading in with mp3s, so I can be doing some rather mindless activity that needs to get done. At night if I wake – and I awaken a minimum of three times during the night, my mind goes to my blog that I am currently writing or planning.
In Viktor Frankl’s book “The Will to Meaning,” he describes a mass shift of focus by a group picketing on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. “When the picketing started, the number of admissions to the psychiatric department of the student hospital suddenly dropped. And it sharply increased once the picketing was over.. For some months students had found meaning in the freedom-of-speech movement.”
Tom Harrell
Tom Harrell is a composer and trumpet player with paranoid schizophrenia. For him the flow starts the instant he puts the trumpet to his lips and blows. No cliches, intricate notes flow from deep twisting and turning and lifting and carrying you on them. Every solo is a communion with the soul.
It is his means of reaching out to the world. He cannot hold the simplest conversation. From the first note floating from his horn, the slouching, disturbed old man morphs to the supreme maestro of The Tom Harrell Quintet. It is beautifully, tragically, insanely poignant. The notes penetrate deeper than words. And when he stops and mumbles, “Don’t worry, don’t worry, don’t worry . . . be positive . . . .believe in yourself . . . . “
Paul Dirac
In 1933 at age 31, Paul Dirac won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of antimatter. He was the youngest theoretician to ever win the Nobel Prize in physics. Through the power of his imagination, he used quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of relativity in the form of an equation to describe the electron.
He used this equation to predict the existence of antimatter, previously unknown particles with the same mass as the corresponding matter, but with the opposite charge. He did not actually discover antimatter, he predicted it with his equation. He made his prediction of antimatter purely through mathematics and changed the way scientists would think of the universe.
He would say that he used his mathematical equations to describe the universe with a beautiful equation. His belief in the beauty of the mathematical equation was spiritual, if not religious. For all of his life Dirac was known for his equability, reserve, and logical, rational, and genius mind. His contributions to quantum physics were on par with Albert Einstein. He was a leading player on the international stage of science and moved among the elite.
But he was like Harrel who lapsed without his music. The source of his flow was in the equations of theoretical quantum physics. For almost all of his life he was operating at a peak or optimal flow level of experience. He ate, slept, and breathed in the equatuions of theoretical quantum physics. When he retired all the implicit memories of his traumatic childhood flooded him and he caved.
J
I have a friend who would go out for runs that seemed to last forever. Never seemed to tire. He said he could take anything as long as he could continue to run. His wife of maybe 375 pounds could shut him up with a side glance in his direction. She did whatever she wanted and that included going out nights to dance in bars, while he stayed at home with the kids. But as long as I knew him he continued to run and was true to his word. He was content in his own boots.
Seek out what magnifies your spirit
Patti Smith, in discussing William Blake and her creative influences, talks about writers and artists who magnified her spirit — it’s a beautiful phrase and a beautiful notion. Who are the people, ideas, and books that magnify your spirit? Find them, hold on to them, and visit them often. Use them not only as a remedy once spiritual malaise has already infected your vitality but as a vaccine administered while you are healthy to protect your radiance. (From one of my favorite blogs, “Brain Pickings by Maria Popova.”
Self-help books that help:
Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus
The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body
