Learn From Your Enemy
ISIS is synonymous with mass killings, abductions, and beheadings. Bad Guys! But we should learn what we can from our enemies. And what some people have focused on is resilience. ISIS is tremendously resilient. They are masters of dynamic change.
Trauma, tragedy, and adversity happens. That’s the given. So I’ve been watching ISIS with –– I hate to have this taken out of context–– awe. ISIS epitomizes resilience in the face of trauma and defeat.
The United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Belgium and Russia are all in the war against ISIS. Most conduct daily airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. Difficult to imagine the vastness of tragedy and trauma on the ground.
When the U.S.invaded Iraq in March 2003, a jihad group with allegiance to al-Qaeda joined other Sunni insurgent groups and morphed into the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). In 2014 they seized large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq. They rebranded as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Snuggle up!
ISIS pretty much stopped going after new territory. Instead they morphed again, spreading global disaster. ISIS declared itself a caliphate with authority over Muslims worldwide. By developing a hugely effective social media campaign, ISIS has been attracting a thousand or more young people each month from all over the globe, including the U.S.
Some of those who make it back home wreak havoc.
Be Resilient and Morph
Morph
The message from all this is resilience. Resilience is essential to survival in this irrational world. Being resilient we can absorb shock and awe, learn from it, and regroup anew – morph.
Attention Attention Attention
I interpret resilience as being able to bounce back and morph.
But how?!
It’s all about attention stupid!
Not the kind of “Pay Attention!” you heard all through school. That kind of attention can be a part of the problem.
Open-Focus in part means stepping back and taking in the foreground and background. Very importantly, it means focusing on the space surrounding everything.
Open Focus is a part of Attention Training Therapy or perhaps it is the other way around. Open Focus emphasizes visual and the concept of space. Attention Training Therapy focuses more on sounds.
With both Open-Focus and Attention Training Therapy you practice opening up and widening your attention.
Narrow attention can be a 6′ by 6′ prison of the mind.
Dynamic Change
Like body building, dynamic change is not instant. Opening up your attention comes little by little, day by day. It will not come from reading a blog or book. It will come from putting what you learn to committed long-term practice.
Not intending to contradict what I said just said, dynamic change comes from wide-range reading. Once you begin to open up and widen your band of attention, you can learn something from almost every book you read, fiction or non fiction. Reading is therapy, solace, a window of communion with the world.
Reprogram yourself to believe whatever is going on now is a temporary state. Over thinking situations with no solutions lead to depression and anxiety. Focusing on your unsolvable problems is not a solution. Focus your energy on whatever you can change or adjust to now. Future outcomes might not be perceived or intended.
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
