Opening your Mind
CORE continued
CORE Psychology involves 4 sets of interrelated practices/strategies. I have provided a description of CORE here and discussed centering here and here.
O refers to opening the mind to possibilities.
Opening expands our capacity so that we can see beyond our challenges and even beyond our goals. When we open we enter a larger creative space by seeing life more broadly. We can see the forest as well as the trees. Opening involves being able to get outside our belief boxes and shifting to positive emotional states so that we can access our own wisdom and intelligence.
Generosity
One important and perhaps counter intuitive way in which we can open involves engaging in acts of generosity. Generosity activates oxytocin and shifts our neurological activity. It also builds social connections thereby adding additional resources. A simple rule for generosity is the 5-minute favor discussed by Adam Grant. Simply put, you should be willing to help anyone when their request would take 5 minutes or less. I frequently take the time to respond to individuals for whom I cannot offer services by connecting them with someone who can help them. I have heard that this, in part, helped create my reputation as someone who genuinely cares about the welfare of people. As you can imagine, a reputation for caring increases credibility in my profession.
Gratitude
In addition to practicing generosity, we can also open by practicing gratitude. When we activate a feeling of gratitude, we increase our heart rate variability, thereby calming down our nervous system and opening our cognitive resources. Researchers at the Heart Math Institute point out that in doing so we also activate the intelligence of the heart which has its own neural network. This creates heart-brain entrainment in which the combined intelligence or wisdom is greater than the sum of its parts.
Gratitude is simple to practice. You can start a gratitude journal as many authors have recommended. You can also take a few moments every day and just attend to something (or someone) for which you are grateful. A one-minute focus on gratitude can be enough to create a shift. With practice, you can activate a state of gratitude at any time.
It is important to understand, however, that to achieve the shift in state you cannot simply think about what you are grateful for; you must also feel it. It must be a full mind-body experience. The object of gratitude is less important than the feeling activated. You do not have to be grateful for something large; it can be as simple as a good cup of coffee. It is the quality of the feeling that counts.
Soft Eyes
We can also practice the Aikido technique of soft eyes. The practice involves relaxing the muscles around our eyes and letting ourselves see with our peripheral vision as well as with our central, focused vision. It is a form of three-pointed attention practice. You simultaneously attend, for example, to the walls on either side of you as well as the wall in front of you, thereby opening your gaze. You can also place your hands on your knees while sitting and add an object in front of you. Practice attending to all three areas at the same time. Remember this is called soft eyes. It is a gentle practice so let go of any tension as you do this. Don’t force it. The goal is to take in the whole field without being distracted or fixated on any one thing. In this way, the brain learns to become more open to the diversity of possibilities that surround us.
In a follow-up article, I will add strategies for opening through connections with others.