Accept, Contextualize, Intend: A Mind-Hack for Chaotic Times

Mike Thompson (0:10): And welcome. Welcome to a Resonant Life produced by the Time is Now productions. I am Mike Thompson, your host and reflector in chief. Over the next twenty to thirty minutes, we will discuss experiences and insights about living a life devoted to uncovering our authentic selves and finding fulfilling purpose from the past, the present, and the future. To kick off our discussion, I'll share my opinions gathered from my life and experiences.

Mike Thompson (0:44): Opinions between people are various, and we don't all need to hold the same ones. But it is fun to hear the opinions of others as it gives us an opportunity to freshen up our own. If you enjoy and gain insight, please subscribe and share. If you have questions, please email them. And as always, nothing we cover here is a prescription or a prescription.

Mike Thompson (1:13): It is a discussion of life and life's internal and external experiences. Experiences. So let's get to it. Hello. Hello again and and life's welcome back.

Mike Thompson (1:34): Thank you for sticking around with me and engaging in this project of of of creating our resonant lives. Despite despite the seeming irregularity of me putting out an episode, I deeply appreciate you sticking around, listening, and joining in on this project. So remember, the foundation of everything we're working on is based on a a a fundamental Buddhist tenet. And that tenet is altruism is the path to abiding happiness for ourselves as well as for others. Putting others before ourselves in in as many ways as we can while learning how to uncover and overcome our ego and all of the impediments it puts on that be they be they personal, societal, historical, whatever they are.

Mike Thompson (2:45): These impediments. Despite them, we're uncovering them so that we can be altruistic. So that's our fundamental tenet. Now let's just get into it on today's topic. And today I want to start with a confession.

Mike Thompson (3:05): Every time in the past month that I've sat down to work on this episode, my mind has become swarmed by distractions. And the distractions won. They won over and over and over keeping me from making any progress at all. And to be clear, I'm not talking about daily life kinds of distractions. Although those are relevant too.

Mike Thompson (3:36): But the real distractions, what I've been really affected by, are these larger world distractions. The distractions of of chaos, the distractions of war, competing narratives in the the fungibility of truth, stories of people being horrible to each other, and of nations trying to destroy other nations. This may sound like an understatement in terms of sort of evaluating distractions. But we really are living through some very difficult and challenging times. And we shouldn't underestimate their impact on us.

Mike Thompson (4:23): And you might ask what makes these present days more distracting and challenging than any other in historical time, recent or past, especially times of war and chaos. And and and that is a fair question. But I think the answer is technology, algorithms, social media, and those media ecosystems which focus on engagement and our bubbles and they focus on this and echo chambers and they focus on this rather than sharing facts as distinct from opinions and truth is wiggly and malleable. And from pushing agendas is distinct from reports and stories which sort of traditional media used to be. So we we we live in a time when a message or a meme or a story can be seen by billions of people in the space of minutes, seconds.

Mike Thompson (5:24): That is new. In the vast untethering of messages and memes and stories from fact and truth, this is also fairly new. Combine those things together, the speed and saturation, we have a problem. Do you know what I mean? I mean, all of our media accessed through our phones, our computers, our TVs, podcasts, even this one, and other vehicles, all of it is competing for our attention.

Mike Thompson (6:04): And much of it is using uncertainty and especially rage as fuel. Rage is the formula that drives engagement and the social media companies have figured that out. And so they've really amped up the algorithms to to generate and tune into rage. And this all creates stress, individual stress. It stresses me.

Mike Thompson (6:35): It it also undermines personal confidence. It shortens our fuses and it makes it difficult and sometimes impossible to to communicate openly, to communicate openly with colleagues, to communicate openly with friends, with family and loved ones. We're we're all now walking on eggshells all the time, everywhere we go it seems. For example, I have had several instances in my life where I was communicating with a dear friend and of course it was by text which isn't really the best way always but anyway communicating with a dear friend and we had diverging opinions and in that divergence of opinion I got angry and I lashed out. And that hurt my friend.

Mike Thompson (7:34): And sometimes apologies don't work as well as we'd like after we hurt someone. The hurt kind of remains. How about you? Does any of this sound familiar to you? I've noticed another aspect of how I've reacted to this this increasing chaos of information and flood of diverging and conflicting reports of reality that we experience today.

Mike Thompson (8:11): I've gotten spiritually passive. I'll confess. I I think I've become spiritually lazy. And I didn't really even notice this slide into spiritual idleness, just really until the other day. I was at a a Shinyo Buddhist service for, international practitioners here in Tokyo And we had a discussion, each language group had its own discussion.

Mike Thompson (8:45): And the topic was the month of May being, the theme being, the month of change and transformation. And one of the people in my group shared her own experience of of what I'll call spiritual idleness. And she said that she often thinks of things to do especially her spiritually engaged actions. She thinks of them. But then she doesn't act on them.

Mike Thompson (9:18): So all of her her good intentions remained in her head. Her her personal realization and commitment from that realization was going forward, in the month of change and transformation, going forward she would not hesitate to act. That thought and ideas would be put into action, especially spiritually motivated altruistic actions. And this struck me like lightning. I realized that not only wasn't I not acting on spiritually engaged actions with intention but that I wasn't even I wasn't even thinking of spiritually engaged actions not to act on.

Mike Thompson (10:12): You know what I mean? Ouch. That was a jarring wake up call for me because I like to think I'm pretty spiritually active and engaged. Right? So anyway, quick pause.

Mike Thompson (10:25): What do I mean by spiritually engaged actions? Let's recover. Let's go over this again. So basically, spiritually engaged actions can be summed up in one word, practice. Doing practice.

Mike Thompson (10:36): Leaning into practice. Putting into practice. Into action. All of the things we talk about here at a Resident Life for example. Actions.

Mike Thompson (10:47): Actions like consciously looking for ways to help someone. Or being sufficiently aware of those around us so we can tune into to who might need our help or our kindness. Being mindful of others in a way that we are awake and sensitive to the needs of those around us. And then acting on those opportunities to help and support. Noticing, seeing, acknowledging, then acting.

Mike Thompson (11:29): Let's call this spiritually engaged living. So I was so grateful to the woman in our discussion group for sharing her own experience. That when it was my turn, when it was my turn to speak really I could only say thank you to her. I felt so grateful that she shared her experience and that it helped me to see that I've been coasting. Not acting.

Mike Thompson (12:09): Not even thinking. Just spiritual laziness. And later on, me being me, I I spent time quietly thinking about how I got to this point. And what I noticed as I did this was my mind kept turning to current events, To media that was blaring out false narratives. To news reports of the outrage of the day.

Mike Thompson (12:44): And as I was trying to think about spiritually engaged living I kept picking up my phone to look at social media to catch up to see what developments had had occurred in the last minutes, the last hour, whatever. Basically basically I had no focus. It was like I was in a black hole of algorithmic slop. And looking back, I I can see what happened. The noise of the day didn't just distract me from practice.

Mike Thompson (13:25): It moved into the space where practice used to live. With this recognition, I was able to face my idleness and start to figure out how to reengage. To become spiritually active again. To fill that space of practice with practice rather than with noise. A better a better way to think about it is I think, I committed to becoming spiritually proactive.

Mike Thompson (13:57): So how do I do that? What is the prescription? What is what is the mind hack? Should I do a social media diet? Should I tune out current events?

Mike Thompson (14:12): Stop watching and reading news? Should I block and excise from my life any social media consumption and block out those who disagree with me or whom I disagree with. That seems like a viable solution right? That's often what's recommended social media diets, media diets of all kinds. And these are all viable actions for handling that black hole of algorithmic slop, yeah.

Mike Thompson (14:47): But let's let's look at that closely. What do all those possible solutions or prescriptions have in common? Can you see it? There's a unifying theme to them all. They are all about blocking out.

Mike Thompson (15:12): Shutting down. Closing the door. Narrowing the aperture. Filtering. Pulling back.

Mike Thompson (15:21): Is that what I should do to preserve my own sanity and to find a way I can reengage and start living again a spiritually engaged life? Shutting down? Closing? Blocking? Filtering?

Mike Thompson (15:39): No. No. Not as a Buddhist. Not as someone working to cultivate a resonant life. Someone working to experience and cultivate abiding happiness.

Mike Thompson (15:56): We've been we've been working here at A Resonant Life really in every episode to to open up and to accept even to embrace, embrace especially those things we viscerally want to reject, including people. And this seems counterintuitive, doesn't it? If you're getting poisoned, for example, you should stop eating the poison. Right? Stop consuming the poison.

Mike Thompson (16:34): But that leaves me with the question that why is embracement the path forward? Because the way to a life of abiding happiness and we can call it wisdom. We can call it enlightenment, realization. It does it doesn't matter. That path forward is via equanimity.

Mike Thompson (17:00): And we've talked about equanimity before in other episodes. But as a refresher here's a quick refresher, okay? Here's a quick refresher. Equanimity is the mindset. It's the, it's the heart of openness and being accepting.

Mike Thompson (17:28): Our egos and ids, the instinctual parts of us programmed by DNA and trained, are always commandeering our our conscious intentional minds in the service of ensuring our biological survival and expanding opportunities to physically thrive. That's what the ego and the id are doing, driven by DNA, right? They are instincts, raw instinct. They are zero sum. That is zero sum living.

Mike Thompson (18:04): Zero sum means if you have something then I don't. And if you have something and I don't, I need to get that something. I need to take it from you or I lose because there isn't enough to go around and I must take. This is the zero sum mindset. And it manifests it manifests in countless ways in our cultures, especially in economics, the world of business, work, etcetera.

Mike Thompson (18:36): This is always sort of driven a bit by zero sum thinking. And it always leads to conflict, be it subtle competition or overt and aggressive conflict. That's just the nature of zero sum thinking. Zero sum thinking and mindsets they need to be transformed if we are going to be altruistic and cultivate abiding happiness. But for now, let's focus on equanimity as it pertains to my spiritual idleness.

Mike Thompson (19:12): The way for me to reengage, the way for all of us to reengage when we're ready is to accept all of the cultural media societal technological human noise and chaos as it is. Just that. Accept it as noise. Accept it all as it is. Noise.

Mike Thompson (19:49): And while I might be a bit irritated by noise or even a bit distracted, I can steer it into the background and focus on other things, positive things. If I can see the noise objectively, stepping back from it without labeling it as good or bad, desirable or undesirable, or a nuisance. If I can step back from that and not label it then I won't experience it as a tidal wave coming in to drown me. I won't panic in response to it. It it won't be fight or flight.

Mike Thompson (20:38): Rather, I can experience it, the image that comes to mind is I can experience it as a gentle surf that comes and goes like waves at the beach washing my feet. All of this can shift with my conscious effort to accept all of that world. Algorithmic media chaos as simple noise, background noise. It is not to be changed. I can't change it.

Mike Thompson (21:11): It is not to be rejected because it is still there. It is not to be ignored because that will minimize my attempt to be spiritually active in my life, to live a spiritually engaged life. There's another element. When when I accept the craziness as simple noise, waves lapping at my feet, I can reengage with a full, open, and willing heart. And I need to think and act in ways that are not selfish, not zero sum, and instead act in ways that are of benefit to others.

Mike Thompson (22:03): These actions, these are my re engagement. Maybe it means I free up my schedule to initiate lunch with a friend. I should especially do that with the friend I lashed out at maybe, right? Doing that I can be present for that friend, for any friend. Maybe I can overcome malaise and do a household chore that that I've been avoiding.

Mike Thompson (22:34): Maybe I can put on a smile when I leave the house and maintain that smile throughout the day. Maybe I can tune into the small things that need to be done around the office or the house and do do those things without do them without needing acknowledgement or, reward. Just taking care of the business of the day for others. So that is easy to to remember and do isn't it? So so and to keep it that way, let's break this down into a formula we can use as a mind hack.

Mike Thompson (23:18): So number one, accept. Accept the noise without judging it. Number two, contextualize. Think of all the noise and the rage baiting as just small waves washing your feet at the beach. Not a tsunami that will wash you away.

Mike Thompson (23:39): Just those small waves. This isn't our power to do. And if you can come up with a better calming, image do that. But it's about contextualize. And then three, intention.

Mike Thompson (23:50): Do something out of the spiritually lazy habit. Have lunch. Do a chore. Call a friend. Smile for others.

Mike Thompson (24:00): Act. Act. Rinse and repeat. Action. Positive, concrete, altruistic action is the secret sauce to happiness, isn't it?

Mike Thompson (24:18): When we stop acting, altruistically or otherwise, that is when we start to slide into mild depression, into sadness, into powerlessness, defeat, overwhelm, ennui. Some some people might even go into a panic state. And in those states of mind, it is really really hard to be present for others. And if we can't be present for others, we can't actually be present for ourselves. And if we can't be present for ourselves how can we be altruistic?

Mike Thompson (25:07): How can we sincerely help others? And if we can't be altruistic, then we have fallen away from the path of creating lives of abiding happiness for ourselves and for others. And it is important to remember that when we ourselves are happy, when we are living active, spiritually engaged, happy lives, we benefit all of those around us. They are positively impact and will reflect that happiness. The image of ripples in a pond is used in Buddhism for a reason.

Mike Thompson (25:59): Right? Because all good things create more good things. They ripple out and multiply. One positive action creates multiple positive effects. And we are agents, we are doers who can create good things when we work on living a resident life.

Mike Thompson (26:34): Thank you for joining me again today. I'm I'm using these reflections and techniques to to reengage myself and to step out of being spiritually lazy and idle. It's a project. It's in it takes time and I hope you'll continue to walk this path with me. I'm gonna keep working on it.

Unknown Speaker (26:58): And until next time, I'll see you later. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining today. If you enjoyed what you heard here and want to hear more, please subscribe and share.

Mike Thompson (27:22): If you'd like to share your own experience, thoughts, or ask a question, please send an email to mike@resonant.social. Theme music is courtesy of stock audios distributed by Pixabay. A Resonant Life is from the Time is Now Productions. Your support in all its many forms is deeply appreciated.