mindfulness

A center for social sustainability has opened in Stockholm. http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=45637&l=en I guess this is a good thing. It not just nature resources that need sustainability, it's also the connections we have with each other. But I think they have forgotten one thing; mindfulness. That  is a wonderful tool to create compassion. Better to meditate then to talk about compassion, better to be active in your compassion, show it in the way you live. Ola Schenström, who I studied for to be a mindfulness trainer, is a professional doctor. But now he just learns out mindfulness. When he worked as a manager in a health center he found out that  many of the patients had stress symptoms. And then he started with mindfulness, and found out that it worked. And all of us knows that we have very little compassion when we are stressed and tired. So if you want to be more calm and have a good sleep at night, why not try mindfulness...? Here is Ola  about mindfu

The birds outside are getting ready for winter, the nights are getting colder and in the morning they are coming to the place where I  used to serve them food last winter. I put new seeds there and soon they will come and pick them. In winter they will be the only birds left here, so you better be kind to them. In Sweden there is a debate where people debate a big police- register of romani people. They seem to be in the register only because they are Roms, some of them just kids. A journalist writes about this; Democracy is also to see yourself in other people and to see other people in yourself. I suppose she means, to feel compassion, to not discriminate. The seer and the outer world interacts with each other. If you think that every Rom you meet are a thief or will cheat you, you will just see that. All what we see is in bedded in a context. In many ways we see what we want or what we are used to see. A video from TED shows that what we see depends on our experience and ou

A little film with the stand up comedian Louis C. K. is much shared at, for instance, Facebook. It is the Conan O'Brien show, and Louis is speaking about cellphones but mostly about an anguish that perhaps most people are familiar with. (But why all this need rude words and blips in american films?) At the telly David Attenborough speaks about music with Björk and says that helps us to cope with ourselves, without it we could not stand ourselves. It seems that he neither he is satisfied. So what will happen when he does not have music to listen too? I wonder if this kind of feelings are  more common in the west, than in Asia. When Dalai Lama first heard about "self-hatred" it was in the west, and he first could not understand the word - it took him ten minutes with the translator to understand. But Dalai Lama comes from an old and traditional culture, that until now has been well preserved. I think the rest of Asia would be more familiar with the word.

Compassion is necessary not only towards yourself or towards another human being. It can also be towards, for instance, a whale. In a letter to the Corinthians St Paul wrote;  If i speak in the name of men men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  Beautiful words, but instead of love you can use the word compassion. And remember, compassion makes you happier. Do you remember last time you where angry - did that make you happier? But first we must have compassion towards our self. For those of us, who where lucky to have loving parents or other kind adults nearby, it is easier to be content with ourselves. Other have to fight more and slowly learn how to come near the sad or even crying child in themselves... This is not easy and you need support from nature or other people, or both. But sometimes you can find help from other species. Look at this wonderful video about rescuing a whale... And look at the thankful whale,

If you look at a leaf you can imagine the things that are necessary for it; water and sun and minerals and so on. It is made of these  things and much more - so a leaf is not just a leaf - it is empty of a separate existence - but still it is a wonder - a little landscape with rivers floating towards the sea - or a city seen from above? And we also are without an essence, and therefore we can change, grow, live and dance. And we will also reach our autumn... But it is said that we are like a tree, that looses it's leaves, one after one, each time when we act and influence others we loose a leaf, but in the same moment we changes the world a little bit. When we takes our last breath it's just like when the last leaf falls from the tree. But the leaves on the ground will be mud, perhaps for another tree to grow from. So nothing will disappear just transform. So be aware, a moment without thoughts, of yourself and a leaf.  Both are really wonders.....