Last week, I promised to write about learning to quiet the thinking mind so that what I'll call the "body-mind" can do its thing. Some people seem to find this very easy and intuitive. I am not one of those people. As a dyed-in-the-wool control...enthusiast ("freak" seems a little harsh...) this is something I have wrestled with for a long time...and continue to wrestle with, if I'm being honest.
In my very first post, How I Got Hooked on Mindfulness, I talked a little bit about a weird paradox that I encountered when I started practicing yoga and meditation. In both of these practices we are taught to focus on the quality of attention and presence we bring to each moment and not so much on the results of our efforts. This is called non-attachment and at first I thought it was for suckers. Focusing on process rather than product seemed to me to be, at best, inefficient and, at worst, a surefire way to encourage mediocrity.
Recently, I have been doing a lot of research related to topics I'd like to explore in the coming weeks and months. Here's a glimpse of some of what I have been looking at:
Since there isn't (yet) much research specifically pertaining to mindfulness for musicians, I have been reading a lot of studies about the unique physical and psychological challenges faced by musicians and a lot of studies about the possible impact of mindfulness on these physical and psychological symptoms. I have also been trying to get a better handle on the current state of mindfulness research, particularly research related to the possible neural mechanisms of mindfulness. To that end, one of my projects has been slogging my way through this bad boy:
