{"id":249,"date":"2011-03-07T08:49:21","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T08:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/metaphor-monday-untying-your-knots.html"},"modified":"2011-03-21T22:10:20","modified_gmt":"2011-03-21T22:10:20","slug":"metaphor-monday-untying-your-knots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/metaphor-monday-untying-your-knots.html","title":{"rendered":"Metaphor Monday: Untying Your Knots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/bells.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/96\/import\/assets_c\/2011\/03\/bells-thumb-350x168-21775.jpg\" alt=\"bells.jpg\" width=\"350\" height=\"168\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<div>I&#8217;ve had these bells for many years; sufficient ringing to wear the leather string that holds them together. When the string first wore out I just tied a knot to hold them together. This worked, or so it seemed.<\/div>\n<div>I quickly accommodated to the clipped sound that the shorter string produced, perhaps I never even noticed.<\/div>\n<div>One day the knot came undone at the close of a meditation session. I held the two ends by my fingertips and rang the bells. Surprise! A resonant sound, one that I had not heard for a long time.<\/div>\n<div>The more knots, the less resonant the sound.<\/div>\n<div>Mindfulness practice is the practice of untying knots. When we sit we&#8217;ll recognize where the knots are tied; we&#8217;ll see all the places we&#8217;re holding onto things (like old stories or attachments to certain outcomes).<\/div>\n<div>Once we see them, we have an opportunity to untie them. We can recognize that we don&#8217;t need to be shortened in these ways. We can recognize that freedom lies beyond the tangle of stories and desire.<\/div>\n<div>That freedom gives the sound of our lives a chance to resonate &#8212; to sing it purest voice; it&#8217;s most sincere purpose that is heard as playfulness.<\/div>\n<div>So sit down and start untying your knots.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve had these bells for many years; sufficient ringing to wear the leather string that holds them together. When the string first wore out I just tied a knot to hold them together. This worked, or so it seemed. I quickly accommodated to the clipped sound that the shorter string produced, perhaps I never even&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddha-101","category-metaphors-for-mindfulness","category-mindful-living","category-mindfulnesss"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Metaphor Monday: Untying Your Knots - 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\/03\/metaphor-monday-untying-your-knots.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Metaphor Monday: Untying Your Knots - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;ve had these bells for many years; sufficient ringing to wear the leather string that holds them together. When the string first wore out I just tied a knot to hold them together. This worked, or so it seemed. I quickly accommodated to the clipped sound that the shorter string produced, perhaps I never even&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/metaphor-monday-untying-your-knots.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-07T08:49:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-03-21T22:10:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2011\/03\/bells-thumb-350x168-21775.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":"Metaphor Monday: Untying Your Knots - 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\/03\/metaphor-monday-untying-your-knots.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Metaphor Monday: Untying Your Knots - Mindfulness Matters","og_description":"I&#8217;ve had these bells for many years; sufficient ringing to wear the leather string that holds them together. When the string first wore out I just tied a knot to hold them together. This worked, or so it seemed. 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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\/249","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=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}