Meeting the New Year: Mindfully Creating
Written by Radhule Weininger
A New Year often comes with a sense of optimism, a longing to turn over a new leaf, and a hope to encounter fresh opportunities. However, as we begin this year, I notice in many a sense of ambivalence. This means, some curiosity about the future mixed with a sense of dread and unease. Two years of COVID, the new variant, economic and social uncertainty, and the climate crisis have left many raw and in a state of emotional hyper-vigilance.
Getting ready for the New Year can be compared to setting up conditions for a meditation session. When approaching a practice time with much intention and care, practitioners find a quiet space and settle their physical body. In the Tibetan tradition, practitioners are asked to remember the conditions that support their practice, such as teachers, mentors, their ancestors, as well as other sources of well-wishing and inspiration. This could also include places where they may have felt a deep sense of belonging in the past. If viewed in terms of psychological development, for example through the lens of Attachment Theory, this compares to the child needing a secure attachment to have the inner support to venture out. Next, practitioners are asked to remember a quality of mind they would like to strengthen in themselves, such as mindfulness, light-heartedness, kindness, and trust. Looking at a later developmental phase, this can be likened to cognitive restructuring. Subsequently attention is given to the motivation for doing the practice. The intention guiding the practice might be a person’s own wellbeing and/or the well-being of others who are suffering. From a psychological perspective, this could be seen as furthering an existential level of psychological development.
Strengthening these qualities of mind can increase a person’s coping skills in daily life. Mindfulness helps us to be attentive and present. Self-compassion makes it possible for a person to feel empathy for themselves especially when existential anxiety becomes overwhelming. Concentration enables a person to focus when being distracted, and trust furthers an acceptance of uncertainty. Generosity can enhance a sense of belonging, connectedness, and self-worth, and altruistic behavior can bring a sense of enthusiastic perseverance, enabling a person to carry on without falling into hopelessness.
On crossing into the New Year, one might consider how to cultivate such qualities, even when they feel far distant from where one perceives oneself to be. The Mindful Creation Process suggests a possible methodology. This practice works with the creative tension between where a person perceives themselves to be and where they would like to be. The greater the discrepancy, the greater the tension. This tension can feel uncomfortable, so it is natural to experience an urge to lessen its tautness. A person might tell themself that the current situation is not as uncomfortable as it seems, or that they do not really want to achieve their objective anymore. Neither of these approaches are skillful. In both cases, the tension may be lessened but a person will not end up realizing their goals. If this person learns to revision this tension as useful, they can reframe the discomfort and transform it into creative energy. Here is the Mindful Creation Process:
To prepare for this practice, find a quiet place, with pencil and paper at hand.
Divide the paper into two columns, with a vertical line down the middle. Label the left column “Current Reality,” and the right column, “Where I Want to Be.”
As if your paper is a split screen, create two images of yourself. The first image describes where you are right now. List as many details, colors, and smells as possible. Write down with complete honesty what is going on, even if it is painful or confusing. Describe how this current reality feels in your body, heart, and soul. On the other side of the page, fill out the vision of where you want to be. Describe an image of yourself: where you want to be, what you want to do, and what you want to give to the world. Describe what that would look and feel like in your body. Give as much detail as possible and share your felt-sense.
Imagine holding “Current Reality” in your left hand and “Where I Want to Be” in your right hand. Imagine a sturdy rubber band stretched around both hands, and feel the tension created. (You can use a real rubber band to help you feel the tension on a physical, immediate level.) Imagine experiencing this tension as uncomfortable, emotional, burdensome; feel the felt sense of this experience. Then allow yourself to consider feeling this same tension as something constructive, positive, and even useful. Notice the felt sense of this experience, now with a different attitude.
Now, hold both images together: where you are and where you want to be. Let yourself experience this tension as a structural and creative force. Whenever you fall back into experiencing the tension as uncomfortable and emotional, gently, and kindly guide yourself back to the experience of tension as valuable and creative. Readjust, again and again.
Maintain an attitude of mindfulness, evenness, and alertness when holding both sides of where you are and where you want to be. Like an archer with a bow and arrow, the creative tension allows movement to happen in its own time. Holding your own creative tension with determination, patience, and surrender will help your own natural movement to occur—from where you are to where you want to be.
Then with diligence, determination, and patience, we will be able to make positive progress. Instead of getting dragged down by the painful emotional discomfort— or what the author and activist Parker Palmer calls The Tragic Gap -- “the gap between the hard realities around us and what we know is possible” -- we can stay grounded and realize what we are inspired to create.
This practice is from the book “Heart Medicine: How to Stop Painful Patterns and find Peace and Freedom-at Last,” and the practice is available as a free audio-recording on the Shambala website.