Archive for August, 2008

“For he who has no tranquility, there is no concentration.” Bhagavad Gita

Many years ago I made a short film, 5 minutes in length. Digging through the garage last week, I uncovered the VHS tape of this film and had it scanned so that I could share it on the Internet. It wasn’t long before somebody told me, “5 minutes? That’s way too long. Nobody’s gonna watch something that’s five minutes.”

Since when is 5 minutes too long?

It led to my thinking of the days when I dated a lovely women with 2 children. She’d get a babysitter for the kids, and we’d go on romantic dates to nice restaurants. I’d see her carving an expensive piece of fish into little tiny pieces; so deeply ingrained was her habit of prepping the food for her kids, even when they weren’t with us.

In much the same way, information in today’s world is chopped into little byte size pieces easily digestable to the modern mind. The age of You Tube, text messaging, and email mayhem is affecting the depth, width, and grasp of our attention spans. Our attention is primed to digest only small bits and pieces of life. With a jumping bean for a mind, it’s harder and harder to savor life’s finer moments, to explore deeper meaning, to discover greater passion. Following are 3 ways that shorter attentions spans are affecting our quality of life.

1. It’s Harder to Perceive Meaning

“The deeper sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine, the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?” Kahlil Gibran

If you were to watch only one great scene from a classic movie, you might be intrigued. But without seeing the whole movie, the scene would not make sense. Such is life. There are stories that evolve over the course of an entire lifetime. When we perceive random events as standing alone with no connection to the past or future, they make no sense. We’ve all endured those long days where we lose touch with the meaning, and wonder what’s the point of this whole thing?

But when you put certain events into the context of your entire life, you begin to sense rhyme and reason. For instance, when’s the last time you pulled a dusty photo album from the shelves and looked at pictures of your life as a youth? It brings up emotions and memories, some of which are really intense. And you realize how much you’ve changed, grown, matured; how the lessons taught by some of those people in the pictures made no sense as a kid, but now, they make perfect sense; how memories of the hard times evoked in the pictures made the subsequent good times so much better.

Sometimes, you gotta peel your mind away from all the 2 sentence emails, 2 word text messages, and mashed up You Tube videos that scramble your attention. Lie back, put your feet up, close your eyes, and perceive your life as something much richer and more complex than a series of random and meaningless moments. “When you reach an advanced age and look back over your lifetime, it can seem to have had a consistent order and plan, as though composed by some novelist. Events that when they occurred had seemed accidental and of little moment turn out to have been indispensable factors in the composition of a consistent plot.” (Arthur Schoepenhauer)

2. It’s Harder to Sense the Feeling of Life

“Life is not about the meaning. It’s about the feeling.” Joseph Campbell

With all the stimuli streaming from our computer, TV, and cell phone, our minds go into overdrive. Technology is an evolution of the mind, not the heart. Thus, the modern human tends to be stuck in her head, sifting through her email inbox, deleting voicemails, surfing endless URL’s. It has become difficult to turn down the mind and sense the underlying feeling of life. Think for a moment how wonderful it feels to lie on the beach on a warm summer day; or to ski down a powdery mountain in a winter wonderland; or to bite into your favorite comfort food on a lazy weekend afternoon. Those memories evoke a special feeling which, when accessed, embraced, and emitted to others, is very powerful.

The modern science shows that a human being reacts much more to feelings than she does to thoughts*. When you come from a place of positive feeling, you become significantly more powerful as a parent, professional, and spouse. Your co-workers want to be around and work with the one who makes them feel good. Your children are more likely to want to respect the one who makes them feel comforted. Your spouse or lover will want to be close to the one who makes them feel relaxed.

By taking time away from the high-tech gadgets, you effectively stretch open your attention and create space to sink into the heart. A wise one said, “Feeling and longing are the motive forces behind all human endeavor.”

3. It’s Harder to Achieve

“The sword will always be defeated by the spirit.” Napolean

The yogis define a rarely accessed form of strength which, in the language of Sanskrit, is called “vajra.” Vajra translates to mean “an invincible quality” and in Western Culture, we call it the indestructible quality of an impassioned spirit.

As the world continues to scramble our attention, our minds are no longer configured to focus on any one thing for prolonged periods of time. And it becomes more difficult to search out your passion. A human being living without passion is like an automobile living without fuel. It’s hard to get anywhere. But passion is not hard to come by. It’s like a match in a dry forest. One strike of the match, and everything will soon be ablaze. Using that analogy in a more positive light, all it takes is finding that little thing you love in life, and before long your brain lights up like a time machine. Anthony Robbins says, “Passion is the genesis of genius.” Just a little passion can set your life on fire!

So many humans beings sputter across a lifetime, with plenty of vision, but lacking the fuel to achieve true greatness. Give yourself a chance to step away from the madness of the Information Age and ponder your dreams, stoke the imagination, turn up the radio, and stir your passion!

*Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation, by Drew Westen

by David Romanelli (Yeah Dave)

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“Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him?” ~Pierre Troubetzkoy

This past Spring, my brother said to me, “I think we should go to Alaska because I’m not sure how much longer it’ll be there. Being that we’re both from LA, I initially thought he was talking about the IMAX, so I grabbed my wallet saying, “Great idea, just not too late of a showing or I”ll fall asleep. But I soon realized he wanted to go on a real life adventure to the nation’s largest state. Having just seen the movie Into the Wild, he was deeply touched by the notion of freedom.

So a few weeks ago, we began our journey starting in Anchorage and traveling in and around the Prince William Sound before heading over to Homer, Girdwood, and The Godwin Glacier. The most poignant moment was walking through Kenai Fords National Park. We walked right up to the glacier and heard the warm sun’s effect on the ancient ice: a sound, which heard close up, resembled the weeping water suddenly converted from its million year icy slumber and set forth in a new liquid life. It was beautiful but sad, much like seeing a child say goodbye to her parent for the last time. I could swear I heard the earth crying.

This blog isn’t intended to scare you but rather to educate you. The earth is a lot like the infamous and ill-fated Titanic. When the Titanic hit the iceberg, the passengers in steerage were the first to sense the impending disaster as the boat took on water. But the first class passengers were still being treated as such, being handed handed drinks, life-jackets, blankets even after the collision. Then, as the wealthy realized the ship was going down, they tried to pay off the deckhands for a spot on the life-boats. What good was money to the deckhand going down with the ship?

Those of us fortunate enough to be economically comfortable might not yet feel the earth taking on water. But what we must realize is that while there is $30 trillion in the world economy, half the world earns $2 a day or less. The steerage portion of our planet is vast and starting to feel the effects of global warming. We all saw what happened after Hurricane Katrina and this is happening all over the world. In one part of Bangladesh, over 3,300 families have lost their land to river erosion. * On the the small South Pacific Island of Tuvalu, the people are furiously hashing out an agreement to be relocated to New Zealand before their island is completely submerged in the rising ocean. By 2050, experts estimate over 150 million refugees will forced to leave their homes due to the effects of global warming. **

So you’re safe, you live in a nice house, you’re not affected. Why should you take an interest? Just like when the Titanic’s designer says, “This ship will go down. It’s an mathematical certainty,” the experts in the empowering movie The 11 Hour emphatically state, “The atmospheric conditions are reaching a tipping point. It’s not too late to make a difference but we need all hands on deck now.” So if you, like me, are sitting pretty sipping your wine and watching the poor people on the news fighting for their lives, let us consider heeding the experts’ warning.

It’s one thing to start recycling and switch to fluorescent bulbs and minimize your use of paper. But there’s something much more important to consider. Harmony. Because the worsening conditions of the earth are an outward mirror of an inner condition, the single greatest contribution we can make to the health of the planet is cultivating inner harmony. Whether that harmony comes from a delicious bite of chocolate, or the scent of an orange blossom, or a soothing yoga class, here are 3 suggestions to saving the outer world by illuminating the inner one:

1. Harmony through your Senses

“There are children playing in the street who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.”
J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER

Anosmia is a condition whereby one loses their sense of smell. It’s often much worse than one might expect causing depression, severe weight loss, and claustrophobia. We often take for granted the fragrant, gorgeous, even gross smells that define meals, illuminate flowers, and enhance attraction. There’s the sad story of Michael Hutchence, the lead singer from INXS who committed suicide several year ago. It was reported that he struggled with anosmia and with his worsening sense of smell, the temptations of food, the sweaty funk of sex, the essence a of walk on the beach, the feeling of nostalgia, the texture of life itself were robbed from him.***

Reading that article made me order up from my aromatherapist this amazing spray, Neroli, made from the blossoms of an orange tree. Maybe it will encourage you to breathe in the freedom of a summer morning or something more domestic like the scent of clothes straight from the dryer. The bottom line, we derive so much harmony and connection to life through smell, touch, taste, sight, and sound. But when we’re stuck, grinding out the day in our mind, we’re unable to experience the music hear through our senses. “The sweetest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.” (Rabidranath Tagore)

2. Harmony through Stillness

“One can act and do much for the world in the silence and stillness of one’ss own body. A clinging illusion makes us confuse agitation with action.” Satprem

To still the mind is to experience the brilliance of nature. Often in yoga class, one will reach a point midway through class where she rests her forehead on the ground in the childs pose. It’s the most beautiful feeling. But in the midst of a crazy day, to put your head on the ground would be strange if not boring. When we reach stillness in the mind whether through yoga, deep breathing, good tunes, or exotic CHOCOLATE, we access a hidden power. Said Oscar Wilde, “Action is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.”

3. Harmony through Relationships

“People don’t need your presents. They need your presence.” Anonymous

My friend is currently living and working in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. I asked him for the greatest lesson he’s learned while doing business on the other side of the world. He told me you can’t get stuff done on email. Your presence is absolutely necessary in order to do business. So often in the Western world, one can send an email expecting a result. But technology diminishes the human experience. Tim Sanders, in The Likeability Factor, proves that the emotional value we bring to our career and relationships is far more impactful than anything else. In other words, how you make people feel goes a long way toward success. Being kind, open, and attentive to another will encourage them to want to help, work, and support you. “People never remember what you say, and they never remember what you do, but they always remember how you made them feel.” (Maya Angelou)

4. Harmony through Chocolate

“Research shows that 14 out of every 10 individuals like chocolate.” - Sandra Boynton

I travel around the country presenting the Yoga + Chocolate experience. The idea being that when you are really present and relaxed, a bite of chocolate is a symphony of flavor in your mouth. Chocolate is a metaphor for anything in life: when experienced in the moment, anything and everything is better, richer, sweeter. I encourage to you take a look at your everyday passions (chocolate, wine, music) and embrace them as rituals. For instance, carve out 5 minutes in your evening. Sit down with an exotic piece of chocolate (I recommend Vosges Chocolate), light a candle, put on some Mozart, and take a bite. Notice how the amazing flavor enables you to “disengage from ordinary rules of perception.” You’re suddenly able to peel your mind away from all that binds you to the world. In that moment, you sense greater harmony with your soul, with your surroundings, with your sensory perception. It might seem trivial, but if everyday for the rest of your life you indulged mindfully in a delicious chocolate, your life would be exponentially richer, harmonious, and alive. “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” (Howard Thurman)

by David Romanelli (Yeah Dave)

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