Episode #4 Building Focus & Intent
In this episode, we look more closely at HOW to grow into coherence.
There are four obvious types of meditation, mindfulness, contemplation – whatever you want to call it– and we explore how these four types form the foundation of this work. All of them help us to build our focused attention into intention.
As we’ve said already, the key to successful practice – to building enduring habits – is to evoke a background affective texture (that is, a feeling) that is intimately woven with the act of our practice. The feeling of Joyful Curiosity – the child-like wonder of something truly magical happening – is the key to this. If each breath, or each moment of watching a candle flame, or a leaf or whatever we choose, is utterly magical, then it’s far more likely to be engaging and we’re far more likely to want to bring our mind back again to the single point of focus.
And then we move to Open Focus meditation, which is the same kind of life skill, but spread out into everything we experience in the moment: everything we see, hear, smell, taste, feel – all of it, as it happens, in the moment. This is an eyes open meditation and a really good grounding for becoming fully present through the days.
The music that book-ends the podcasts is created by Caro C and is called ‘Sense Ability’ – you can find it here.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE THESE RECENT EPISODES
Eco-Spirituality – Exploring Deep in the Woods of the Divine with Woodford Roberts and Rupert Read
In this deep, thoughtful conversation, two of the men at the heart of the Climate Majority Project discuss their own journeys into eco-spirituality – what they believe it to be and why it’s a core, foundational bedrock of their lives.
What do we really think about Food? Revolutionising what we eat with Sue Pritchard of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission
This conversation was sparked by the FFCC’s inspiring Food Conversation – which brings together ordinary people and begins to unpick the web of deceit surrounding our food – and replaces it with something that is real and decent and nourishing on a physical and systemic level.
How do we live, when under the surface of everything is an ocean of tears? With Douglas Rushkoff of Team Human
Douglas Rushkoff shares with us the palpable “ocean of tears” lurking beneath the surface of our collective consciousness—a reservoir of compassion waiting to be acknowledged and embraced. His candid reflections on the human condition, amidst the cacophony of a world in crisis, remind us of the importance of bearing witness to the pains and joys that surround us. He challenges us to consider the role of technology and AI not as tools for capitalist exploitation but as potential pathways to a more humane and interconnected existence.
Evolving Education: Building a Doughnut School with Jenny Grettve of When!When!
Jenny Grettve’s heart-mind is huge and deep and we explored many areas of the transformation that’s coming, from the evolution of a primary school along Doughnut Economic lines to the future of architecture, to the role of systems thinking in our political, social and, in the end, human, evolution. It was a truly heart-warming conversation and I hope it helps you, too, to think to the edges of yourself.
STAY IN TOUCH
For a regular supply of ideas about humanity's next evolutionary step, insights into the thinking behind some of the podcasts, early updates on the guests we'll be having on the show - AND a free Water visualisation that will guide you through a deep immersion in water connection...sign up here.
(NB: This is a free newsletter - it's not joining up to the Membership! That's a nice, subtle pink button on the 'Join Us' page...)