{"id":1423,"date":"2011-06-25T09:53:28","date_gmt":"2011-06-25T13:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/?p=1423"},"modified":"2011-06-25T09:53:28","modified_gmt":"2011-06-25T13:53:28","slug":"how-to-train-a-wild-elephant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/06\/how-to-train-a-wild-elephant.html","title":{"rendered":"How To Train A Wild Elephant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Do we really need yet another book on mindfulness? In this case, yes. Jan Chozen Bays, M.D., author of Mindful Eating<\/em>, has written How To Train a Wild Elephant & Other Adventures in Mindfulness<\/a><\/em> (Shambhala 2011) a collection of mindfulness practice gems in this accessible, helpful, and thoughtful book. Starting with the Buddha’s metaphor of training a wild elephant, she presents 53 weeklong practice designed to integrate mindfulness into daily life.<\/p>\n

The first practice is to use your non-dominant hand. So for most of us, this is the left hand. Why do this? For one, it interrupts our capacity to be on automatic pilot because it forces us to be more deliberate with hand movements. The more we do something the more automatic it becomes. The actions become controlled by the unconscious parts of the brain rather than requiring conscious attention. Using your non-dominant hand brings you back to conscious attention. And since we are always using our hands, this is a good portable practice to infuse your day with mindfulness.<\/p>\n

I first learned of this technique from Charles Tart, consciousness researcher and pioneer in transpersonal psychology. Bringing mindfulness to our actions wakes us up out of the trance state we are walking around in most of the time.<\/p>\n

There are a plethora of books on mindfulness and more coming everyday. They all address the same thing. Most don’t break any new ground, for what ground is there to break? We mindfulness teachers quip that we are “selling water by the river” because you already know how to be mindful. Nevertheless, finding the right mindfulness book for you is a matter of fit. Perhaps, between where you are in this moment and the style of the writing. Does the author speak to you? Reach you? Different strokes for different folks.<\/p>\n

I think you’ll find this book inviting. You can take one practice at a time and try it out for a week. The practices seek to infuse mindfulness into all aspects of life, from eating to speaking. And, after all, this is the point of inviting mindfulness into our lives — to be mindful as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Another practice is looking out for filler words in our speech. I started doing this many years ago when my mentor told me how distracted he was by my use of “you know” during a presentation. Since that time, I’ve sought to expunge this filler word from my speech. It’s a challenging practice, and that phrase slips out on occasion, usually if I am talking in a hurried or stressed manner. I hear it though; it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard.<\/p>\n

When I listen to radio interviews, I’m keen to “you knows” and its astonishing how many talented celebrities use “you know” in distracting quantities, “you know?” These fillers make our speech tentative, diluted, and coy. She points out that great orators don’t use them. Imagine if Jesus had said, “Love your, you know, neighbor, as, sort of, like, yourself.”\u00a0The writing is often funny like this and always forthright.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do we really need yet another book on mindfulness? In this case, yes. Jan Chozen Bays, M.D., author of Mindful Eating, has written How To Train a Wild Elephant & Other Adventures in Mindfulness (Shambhala 2011) a collection of mindfulness practice gems in this accessible, helpful, and thoughtful book. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1430,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions\/1430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}