Successful warriors stay out of their own way
Can distraction really help with healing? Directly, probably not; but indirectly, probably so. There’s a Zen saying that the successful warrior knows how to stay out of her or his own way. Could this mean that wisdom is about learning how to trust in letting the positive things in life occur without trying to control them?
Can you focus too much?
Knowing how much focus you should apply to your goals seems a mystery. A daily prayer for health may help you heal, but researching an ailment until you can think of nothing else but the disease can be counter-productive.
In fact, if focus drifts into obsession, it can create health hazards. Excessive worry can take over the body’s metabolism in negative ways. Eventually, continual release of cortisol, hormonal imbalance and other conditions can lead to adrenal fatigue and eventual system shut down.
The concept of relaxed focus
Since the body and mind cannot withstand unrelaxed focus without negative health consequences, the key to creating distraction that encourages healing lies in learning how to create and sustain relaxed focus. Exploration of relaxation techniques, such as meditation, physical exercise and yoga, logically promote this.
Exercise body, mind and spirit
You can stay out of your own way and encourage healing if you are relaxed in body, mind and spirit. For this to occur, you should continually look for opportunities to exercise all three levels of perception. These opportunities for exercising body, mind and spirit provide excellent distractions from trying to make things happen our way.
Using exercise as a way to shift focus from the things we cannot directly affect, allows us to train our bodies, minds and spirits for the coming challenges. It’s like having training games that prepare us for life. Some of the spiritual exercises occur as we engage with our support community and seek the patience needed to reach our goals.
On a really good day, we stop clinging to our pain
When we can stay distracted from trying to make our bodies heal faster, an amazing thing can happen. On a really good day, we stop clinging to our pain. As we learn new things, experience physical activities and engage ourselves spiritually, we don’t even notice that we’re complaining less.
Distraction is cheap
The great thing is that distraction comes cheap, and there is no greater distraction than new experiences. That’s why bucket lists have become so popular. Many wise people are discovering that the secret to a happy and successful life lies in breaking habitual patterns and doing things they have never done before.
Zen moments happen when we least expect them
The satori or Zen moments happen when we least expect them, when we’re distracted and thinking about something else. That’s why the blow of the Zen Master’s staff is so valuable and effective. It’s a surprise or shock that shakes us out of our current mental state.
When the envelope is pushed in such a way, we experience a paradigm shift. The most ordinary things contain the miraculous. Our normal judgments melt away, and we form new and creative ways of perceiving our world.
Body, mind and spirit form a new gestalt
Healing often happens the same way. Body, mind and spirit suddenly form a new gestalt; but sometimes the harder we try to produce healing, the harder it is to make it happen.
That’s how distraction can help promote healing. With distraction, we release properly directed energy with intention, such as with prayer and healthy supplements, and then let it go. It’s an old fashioned act of faith that shifts focus so that the body’s wisdom can do its work.
