I wrote in Essay 1 that much of our learning comes from contacting and working with the
subtle inspirations that Gestalts provide us, and how important it is to keep our
personal awareness space uncluttered. This supports the emergence and
recognition of Gestalts, which are naturally occurring, and ensure our
survival, growth, and movement toward health. In this essay I will write some
more on building the self-awareness space so that when Gestalts come to visit
you can receive them.
One of the best ways to build a self-culture of awareness is
to keep a small gestalt journal. When a great urge or idea emerges, pull out
that little notebook and write it down, no matter what you are doing. I knew of
two composers that kept such journals. One was a celebrated Canadian songwriter
by the name of Ian Thomas. Thomas had several hit records in Canada during the
1970’s and early 1980’s. In 1991, Thomas came to a workshop I attended on
eliciting the structural components of expert behavior through behavioral
modeling. The lead interviewer asked Thomas how he got his ideas for a song. Thomas
replied that it often happened while driving his car, and that sometimes it
would have a connection to a funny or ironic thought in his head. So when a
lyric or melody, or both emerged, he was ready because he always kept a small
voice recorder beside him in the car.
He would then pick up the recorder and record his words and melody before
he lost it to something else.
That’s the challenge with Gestalts. They are sometimes out
of our awareness. Or we are too pre-occupied. Or other thought enter and take
centre stage. Gestalts come like waves on the beach. There are many and we
don’t act on all of them. But there are important Gestalts, like big waves,
that can change our lives. When we feel the urge to go to the bathroom we
usually attend to that urge as quickly as we can. That’s because the body
carries the urge. Developing Gestalt awareness is key to working with your own
Gestalts. Another way to enhance this is to allow yourself to scan your body.
You could start with paying attention to your gut area and notice what you
become aware of. Coupled with that, you could notice how your breath comes
into your lungs, and feel it moving against the inside of your nostrils,
throat, and into the lungs. Lastly, notice how it presses against the gut organs
as it fills the lungs. This last part is sometimes called abdominal or belly
breathing, and it has a calming effect and is a support for developing emotional
intelligence.
The trick with working with your own Gestalts is to create a
calm space within yourself, rather than a space of thought-induced inner
conflict. In the early 1970’s I spent almost four years living in an ashram and
following specific practices. All practices revolved around building
self-awareness and taming the mind. So mindfulness, or meditation, was
practiced in everything we did, from sitting meditation, to eating and cooking,
to communal gatherings and also in work and service. There are many ways and
traditions of practicing mindfulness. Suffice it to say, that if one is
creating a calm awareness space, s/he is tapping in to mindfulness. More
importantly, s/he is also creating a Gestalt wave-catching awareness.
Takeaway from this essay: Get a small notebook journal and
begin to record the Gestalts that you experience. Don’t worry about recording
all of them. Just start to notice them and record whatever you want to. Also
note if any Gestalts moved you to action. Did the action happen in the here and
now as the Gestalt emerged? Or perhaps you stored it for later… This essay
emerged today at 5:45 a.m., as I got out of bed and struggled in the dark to
make my coffee. :-)
Copyright 2013: Dr. Earon Kavanagh. Readers can use and repost as long as
they cite source.
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