{"id":235,"date":"2011-02-05T18:09:59","date_gmt":"2011-02-05T18:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/expect-the-unexpected-embrace-the-changing.html"},"modified":"2011-02-05T18:09:59","modified_gmt":"2011-02-05T18:09:59","slug":"expect-the-unexpected-embrace-the-changing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/expect-the-unexpected-embrace-the-changing.html","title":{"rendered":"Expect the Unexpected; Embrace the Changing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/Snow_02.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Snow_02.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/96\/import\/assets_c\/2011\/02\/Snow_02-thumb-350x399-21262.jpg\" width=\"350\" height=\"399\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/a><\/span>How&#8217;s the weather by you?<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It&#8217;s snowing here again in my home of Northern Vermont. This is not too unusual. It also snowed in Irving Texas, sight of the Super Bowl tomorrow. That <i>is<\/i> unusual.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Last week much of the country was under snow.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The weather is a great teacher of what the Buddha called <i>anicca<\/i> &#8212; impermanence, especially here in New England where the weather changes so rapidly.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This morning the sun shone brilliant off the foot and half of snow that fell on Wednesday. I enjoyed the smell of wood smoke as I headed out for a snowshoe with my dog, cutting a track in the snow for later hiking and running.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But now it&#8217;s snowing again and will fill in our tracks! Tomorrow we&#8217;ll be at it again. The weather never stops, breathing never stops, all the cycles of life continue.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The changing weather can be a metaphor for our changing moods and energy. It can be sunny in the morning and stormy in the evening. Tomorrow, who knows what the weather will be? We can count on it changing, though, and not take any of it too seriously.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I was editing <i>Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants<\/i> in the winter of 2008. I wrote about shoveling my long driveway. The story of that task was an unpleasant prospect; the actual doing of it was something else. In the moment, one action follows the next. I didn&#8217;t have to shovel the &#8220;whole&#8221; driveway, just this piece right here, right now. I thought about that the other night shoveling the heavy snow of the past storm and I&#8217;ll remember it tonight and tomorrow as I shovel this current storm.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In a way, this is our work in living a mindful life &#8212; keep shoveling. Persist with what we are doing in the moment and don&#8217;t allow our stories to get us discouraged. If we fight the changes &#8212; the impermanence &#8212; we&#8217;ll get weary. It takes energy to resist. If we embrace what is happening now, we can find peace in whatever is happening.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>So, if it&#8217;s snowing by you, enjoy the snow! If it&#8217;s raining by you, enjoy the rain. If it&#8217;s grey by you, enjoy the grey. If its sunny by you, enjoy the sun. Kiss everything as it goes by. Enjoy this moment.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How&#8217;s the weather by you? It&#8217;s snowing here again in my home of Northern Vermont. This is not too unusual. It also snowed in Irving Texas, sight of the Super Bowl tomorrow. That is unusual. Last week much of the country was under snow.&nbsp; The weather is a great teacher of what the Buddha called&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddha-101","category-metaphors-for-mindfulness","category-mindfulnesss"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Expect the Unexpected; Embrace the Changing - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/expect-the-unexpected-embrace-the-changing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Expect the Unexpected; Embrace the Changing - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How&#8217;s the weather by you? It&#8217;s snowing here again in my home of Northern Vermont. This is not too unusual. It also snowed in Irving Texas, sight of the Super Bowl tomorrow. That is unusual. Last week much of the country was under snow.&nbsp; The weather is a great teacher of what the Buddha called&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/expect-the-unexpected-embrace-the-changing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-05T18:09:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2011\/02\/Snow_02-thumb-350x399-21262.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Arnie Kozak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Expect the Unexpected; Embrace the Changing - Mindfulness Matters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/expect-the-unexpected-embrace-the-changing.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Expect the Unexpected; Embrace the Changing - Mindfulness Matters","og_description":"How&#8217;s the weather by you? It&#8217;s snowing here again in my home of Northern Vermont. This is not too unusual. It also snowed in Irving Texas, sight of the Super Bowl tomorrow. That is unusual. 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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\/235","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=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}