{"id":2209,"date":"2012-03-20T08:01:03","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T12:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/?p=2209"},"modified":"2012-03-20T08:01:03","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T12:01:03","slug":"the-color-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2012\/03\/the-color-blue.html","title":{"rendered":"The Color Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In How to Train a Wild Elephant<\/a><\/em>, Jan Chozen Bays suggests an exercise: notice the color blue as you move through the world. Of course, you could pick any color.<\/p>\n

I tried this mindfulness exercise one day walking from my office in downtown Burlington to the University of Vermont. It’s a mile long walk up a hill. In the grey interior of winter, I would sometimes listen to music as I walked up the hill. The music provides a soundtrack to the movement and the passing by of life feels like a movie with its musical score. This particular day of record-breaking precocious spring, I decided not to listen to music. I wanted to “listen” to the sun and the sounds of spring instead.<\/p>\n

As I walked up the hill, I also decided to attend to the color blue. Blue jeans, the occasional blue car, handicap signs in parking lots all popped out. The more I opened to that particular sensation, the more attentive I became. After a while, the blues started popping out–the odd blue trim, the blue fraternity sign, the glint of a blue shirt of the students walking by.<\/p>\n

Attending to the outside world is a good way to get yourself out of the storytelling mind. Looking for the color blue–or whatever you like–is a good way to connect you to the world, more as it is rather than how you imagine it. Picking a color gives your busy mind something to do other than spinning stories, pressing on the to-do list, and worrying about the ten thousand things you can worry about.<\/p>\n

Mindfulness practice does not need to be complicated, stationary, or interior. Any time that we attend to something with interest, we are practicing meditation. Any time we set aside the anxious preoccupations of the mind and pay attention to what is in front of us, we are practicing meditation. Any time we notice the color blue, we are meditating and can enjoy a wink of awakening.<\/p>\n

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

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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\/2209","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=2209"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2232,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209\/revisions\/2232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}