Some suggestions for coping during this extraordinarily challenging time.

Welcome back to my blog.

I thought it was time I shared some thoughts on what we can all try to do in the face of the global pandemic, with the hope that they will be of some help to at least one person. As I posted earlier this week on my instagram page (@brianbeechphd), in the face of the worry, fear, hardship and loss that this epidemic has brought upon us, I believe there meaningful things we can all do to cope, despite the restrictions most of us face in our communities.

As I have discussed with many people lately, it affords us opportunities that we may have been too busy, or too distracted previously to notice or enjoy. We all have more time at home, except for those working in essential services, to whom we all owe immense gratitude. At home, we can attend to the people and activities that we have neglected or given insufficient attention. One person remarked to me recently that her home as never been so clean! Our children (of all ages) and our pets are loving our time and attention. We can slow down, enjoy home-cooked meals, spend less time and money commuting, and more time with our families.

Of all the various things we can do, however, being present is likely the most useful and meaningful. We can use all of our senses to draw us into the present: our breath, our bodies, the five senses that connect us to the physical world. Whether we are inside or outside, being present to whatever is in our immediate surrounding pulls us - even if only for a moment - out of the past, out of the future, and into the present. In the present we can slow down, take care, notice what is around us, and hopefully appreciate what we sense. Even if worrisome thoughts rush into your awareness, they too will pass when we re-engage with the present.

In the present there is less fear, as we are less focused on the ‘what-if’s, and ‘if-only’s’ that attempt to steer our minds away from the sound of the birds outside, or the smell of coffee, or the laughter of your child, or the sweeping of your floor, or making supper for yourself or your family.

In the present, there is no past, no future. There is only now. And while our full appreciation of this fact is fleeting, it is there for all of us to ‘find’; all we have to do is pay attention.

As the late, great Ram Dass used to say, ‘be here now, and it will all happen’.

Take care.

something (hopefully) to help you start the new year, and new decade.

Here we are at the start of another year and another decade. I must admit that I've been thinking a lot about what to write for my first blog of the new decade, racking my brains to come up with something helpful, innovative or inspiring that hasn’t been said better, before and by someone else. Do I write something about meditation? What about getting outside? And of course there's the ever greater threat of climate change. I also read a sobering article recently posted by Peter Attia (peterattiamd.com ) concerning the first (in a very long time) decrease in lifespan, as noted in a study published in JAMA, in which mental health and substance abuse are actually causing a decrease in population-level lifespan in the US. Although I don't have Canadian figures to compare this study to, I would very much doubt that it's any different here.

Putting all these possibilities aside, I remembered reading many years ago a thought-provoking set of observations which, at the time, I could not help but feel are of timeless importance, and perhaps could serve as a jumping off point for my first blog post of this new decade. But before launching into this reference, maybe I should back up a little. Several decades ago when I was an undergrad student, I had the privilege of time and opportunity to immerse myself in philosophy, mythology and comparative religion, I remember reading a fascinating book by Mircea Eliade, entitled The Myth of the Eternal Return. If memory serves me, Eliade outlined one of the most perennial motifs in the ancient world, or as the American philosopher Ken Wilber referred to it, the pre-rational stage of psycho-social development. So what was that motif? It was that it was the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of life year over year over year, the notion of birth, death and rebirth, is found in many, many different cosmological and mythological traditions. It is the belief that out of the depths of winter somehow, someway, Life begins anew. The spiritual significance of this renewal for the ancients was brought about through the rituals and traditions passed down through the generations. Essentially, this is what the start of the new calendar year and the new decade offers for us all. It is both a symbolic and literal reboot, even if we lack the cosmological and social frameworks our distant relatives had to bring this to the fore-front.

So back to the thought-provoking observations: they're captured in it text known as the five perfections. Although these statements come directly out of Buddhist philosophy, I feel they have a certain universal validity, regardless of where one lives or what tradition one has grown up in. So what are the five perfections? Let me try to explain, in my own less-than-perfect way!

The perfect place. It is the idea that wherever we are, we can choose to learn from the situation and more importantly find whatever we need to wake up and start living more fully.

The perfect teaching. Whatever it is that is going on in this moment, if we pay attention, can teach us something about ourselves and the world in which we live.

The perfect moment. Whatever is happening right here, right now, in this very moment is enough to teach us more about ourselves and how to live more fully.

The perfect teacher. It is the idea that whoever or whatever we are facing, be it a person, a place, or a situation, can teach us something that is of value, if we are awake and open to the teaching.

The perfect student. Building on the last point, if we are open and awake and present we have everything we need to learn and grow. This is not about intelligence in the usual sense. It's about attention and openness to whatever or whoever the teacher is in this moment and place.

Taken together, the five perfections suggest that everything we need in order to be content, grounded, maybe even happy, can be found right here, right now, right in front of us and within us. I know what some of you maybe thinking - and quite legitimately so - that the situation many people find themselves in, be it a relationship, or a job or lack thereof, or a living situation, maybe downright toxic or unhealthy, and the antithesis of any of these so-called perfections. I hope you believe me when I say that after 30 years of listening to people in pain, mostly emotional but often physical, I know there’s a great deal of unhappiness and tragedy that many, many people wake up to you each day. So this notion of the five perfections may seem insulting and insensitive to those whose lives are truly difficult, to those people who feel hopeless and helpless, and to those - however much they wish on this first day of January 2020 - to see a light at the end of the long tunnel. But I genuinely believe and have seen first-hand, that change is possible.

So here is where the Buddha and Eliade come together: no matter where one is in their life, where they happen to be living, whatever job they happen to be working or working toward, and whatever relationships they find themselves in, there is something to be learned and gained; simply put: insight. This is possible, however, only if that person can allow themselves to pay attention to where they are, what they are doing, and who they are doing it with or without. This is the birthplace of change. We are not, as Eliade points out, trapped or stuck in our own history. We can change, and renew ourselves. This is not to suggest in any way, shape or form, that change is easy. But change, or in Eliade’s frame of reference, renewal, can only happen when a person honestly takes stock of where they are in their life.

Of course there is a whole other set of challenges, largely of our own making, that involve the many distractions and demands on our time, attention and energy. It's an understatement to say the least that we are beset with endless streams of information, entertainment, advertising, and various other technologically-based distractions, on top of the demands of school, work, raising families, paying bills etc etc, and that all these demands make it very hard to slow down enough to pay attention, and notice and question and learn from this moment, this place, this teacher.

Perhaps this is the inner and outer work for this year? To genuinely try to put down the smartphone a little more often, turn off the TV, to get outside more and return to nature, and pay attention to how you feel when you take those steps. You may be surprised at what you see, in good and bad ways. Even if it means that you realize you are genuinely unhappy with what you see with fresh eyes, and are scared or even feel overwhelmed, you have already taken the first step. Change is never easy or convenient, but it is possible. It begins in this moment, in this place, with this teacher, and with you as the (perfect) student.

Best wishes in this moment, and each one thereafter.

We need to listen to our youth.

Thus far with my blog entries I have deliberately stayed away from political issues. The reason for this is quite simple: my aim is to offer ideas and practical suggestions for everyone, regardless of age or political orientation. I'm a clinician, not a political pundit. However, events over the last month or so have brought me to the point where I feel compelled, at the very least, to put forward what I hope is not a radical idea at all, but one that I think can simply no longer be ignored. The issue is quite obvious; the solutions are obviously more complex. So what am I talking about? Our biosphere, specifically the risks we are running when it comes to the sustainability of life as we know it on the only inhabitable place in the known universe. It seems abundantly clear, at least for anyone who pays attention to science-based news, that we are on a near-irreversible trajectory when it comes to man-made changes to climate and the environment as a whole. I couldn’t possibly sum up the accumulating research on these matters in this blog, but suffice it to say there is an almost 100% agreement on these issues among scientists around the world who collect, analyze and share data related to climate change, ecology, sustainability, food supply, clean water supply and so on. 

You might wonder where I'm going with this blog at this point, so allow me to get right to the point: if nothing else, we need to listen to young people. The mobilization of (mostly) young people around this issue has been nothing less than inspirational, and their voices oblige us all to listen and take action. As I approach my mid-50s, it becomes clearer and clearer to me that the future is not mine nor for that matter my generation’s to squander. The future belongs to the younger generations, and it is those groups that have come out in the hundreds of thousands around the world in marches, protests and other forms of public expression, to voice one shared concern: the ecological sustainability of the planet. I must confess that I was embarrassed to not realize the events planned across the country and around the world two weeks ago, culminating in a ‘climate strike’ day on September 27. I'm not quite sure how or why I missed it, but in any case it's become very evident to me that we all need to listen and pay attention to what is going on, to take this issue seriously, and take action, not for ourselves but, as the expressions goes, for our children and our children's children. The fact that there are federal elections going on this fall in Canada and US gives anyone 18 and older the opportunity - if not the civic responsibility - to exercise our right to vote and  in so doing to express our genuine concern for these issues. 

What's troubling, however, has been the relative paucity of federal-level discourse on environmental issues in the lead up to voting day. The cynic in me can't help but think that these issues sadly remain too politically unsavoury for the three main parties in this country to meaningfully identify them as the most important issues facing our country and our planet. The fact that some provincial and federal leaders minimize or go so far as to deny the reality of what is playing out all around us is staggeringly unintelligible and morally abject. 

So please get out and vote for whomsoever you feel is taking these issues seriously, even if your candidate of choice does not appear to be in contention to win his or her riding. Every vote of support is a vote of confidence and encouragement for that candidate and their team to keep advocating for meaningful change. I truly hope that younger voters are not so thoroughly discouraged by what they have heard in the news or during the recent candidates’ debate as to not see any point in voting. Until we come up with a better system, in which a newer generation of inspired, visionary candidates with true integrity can come forth and be willing to bring about long-term, progressive change, our civic responsibility requires us to get out and vote this month. And if you are a parent or grandparent, think about your children or grandchildren when you head to the poll, and vote in such a manner that you can, in good conscience, tell them that you voted with their futures, and the future of the planet, in mind. 

Happy Thanksgiving. Oh, and get out and experience the natural world. It will help. Trust me.


what is inspiration?

What is inspiration? (And why this post topic?)

I was sitting with someone recently who was talking about feeling inspired by reading about successful, creative people. This led to a discussion about what he found inspirational, but also how important it is for all of us to have role models, or at least people and achievements we can look ‘up’ to. 

Before proceeding further, however, I thought it might be useful to define this term: inspiration. Etymologically-speaking, the word is derived from the latin verb inspirare, meaning ‘to breathe or blow into’, with the implication that the source is somehow outside or above us. Regardless of one’s spiritual or atheistic views, it suggests that when we are feeling inspired, there is something that comes (in)to us, exciting and energizing us with a fresh or different perspective, idea or approach.  

The relevance of this root meaning is that we all need and benefit from a little inspiration from time to time. Our own inherently limited ways of thinking, feeling and perceiving can become stale, repetitive and, well, un-inspiring. It’s like talking to ourselves in an echo-chamber – we only hear our own words and thoughts. We need other sources of ideas to help us move forward in a creative and healthy manner. Does that suggest that we cannot help ourselves, or that only other people have ‘good/better’ ideas? Certainly not, but to limit ourselves to what we think, or to those who think just like us essentially keeps us in the echo chamber. 

Of the many and serious challenges facing humanity at this moment in history, certainly one of the most problematic - if not the most- is the increasing difficulty we seem to be having with listening to and talking with one another. Having a reasonable, rational, thoughtful and in-depth dialogue has somehow become the new mission-impossible. While many social commentators have pointed this out, as a clinician I can certainly confirm just how prevalent a problem this has become. And yet I hear regularly - this past week alone at least five times – that we need to connect, talk, listen and be listened-to, and yet this fundamental need remains elusive. 

So what does this have to do with inspiration? Well, just as we can’t know it all, our own perspectives, knowledge and understanding are inevitably and obviously limited. As such, we need outside input and therefore we actually need to get better at being open to what others can offer. Our well-being as individuals, as a species - if not the biosphere as a whole- depend on it. So, how about we start with listening to the world around us? Maybe we can learn something, and in return, so too will others.

a youtube video worth watching on the misconceptions of meditation

In the spirit of setting or renewing new year’s goals/aspirations, I am posting this link to a video by Rich Roll in which he dispels some of the myths and misconceptions of what it is to meditate. I came across Rich Roll fairly recently and his podcast is one of the best I’ve seen on health, wellness and fostering positivity in the world. I hope you find this helpful.

https://youtu.be/dG1QBEg21VA

Raise your hand if you're feeling stressed...

I want to begin this entry by acknowledging that I hadn’t realized how long it had been since my last post, so my apologies to those of you who have looked at this page and haven’t seen anything new in a long time.

A brief explanation for the title of this post: it certainly seems to me that most people I talk to, both in and outside of my office, are feeling stress - a lot of stress - most of the time. While each of us may have more or less stress from greater or fewer sources, based on our own particular constellation of factors that make us, us, it does appear that the barometric level for a general malaise, or angst, seems to have increased across the general population. In as much as there are many obvious reasons for this rising level - too much work (or not enough), too little downtime, too much uncertainty, too much monotony, financial pressures, school demands, commuting, climate change and so on, the question I always face is ‘what can be done about this?’ Is this just the ‘new normal’, to use an over-used phrase? As somewhat of a counter-cultural exposition on this trend, I am reminded of a relatively recent book that bears some relevance on this point: Enlightenment Now, by Steven Pinker. In his lengthy survey, he addresses a wide range of social, economic and political issues and, with the aid of an enormous volume of data, he makes the compelling argument that while there are most certainly some worrisome and potentially disastrous challenges facing the planet - namely climate change - by most indices, the world is better now than at any other time in recorded history. Pick the issue, and there is empirical data to back this up. I should add that Pinker is a psychologist, and wrote this at least in part to push back at the generally negative picture we are presented in the media each time we go on our devices (and that is a lot of the time by the way), which I will come back to shortly. Small wonder most teens and an increasing number of children are manifesting anxiety symptoms. It looks very, very scary and bleak out there - which reminds me of a little story I sometimes tell my clients.

Imagine 200,000 years ago, our early Homo Sapien ancestor, sitting in his or her cave, thinking of making a trek out from the relative safety of his shelter to the local watering hole. He’s made that trip enough times to know that there are many other animals far bigger and stronger who see him as lunch. He has likely witnessed this many times in his short life - siblings, parents, maybe even children of his own, being attacked and killed by predators more dangerous than him. So he worries about this every time he needs water. Talk about an existential crisis! Does he risk leaving the cave to drink, or risk staying and dying of thirst? When is a better or worse time to go? And so on. He has, unlike his pre-sapien relatives, the added benefit of a well-developed pre-frontal cortex (PFC), but he also shares the limbic and reptilian brains of most of what could kill him. What that means is that fear -debilitating fear - could win the debate of staying or going. The more he thinks of what might be outside the cave, the more his fear grows. But, his PFC could help him think it through, and decide - based on past experience (when do most predators hunt?) and current data (what does he actually hear, see, smell etc?) - when and how to leave his refuge and venture out.

Back to the future: every day, we are presented with an overwhelming deluge of information that we were never built to sort through in such a tsunami-like way. Not only do we have what is immediately in front of us to deal with (like the cave-dweller) but we are bombarded with information from around the world and in the cosmos (the threat of an asteroid crashing to earth, an extremely low-risk event by the way), delivered to our smartphones, with little or no context. Small wonder we struggle to get out of bed in the morning, or lie there for hours at night unable to settle.

So what can we do?

Well, for starters, unplug. Yes I know, everyone says this, and yes, easier said than done. But when was the last time you tried not looking at your phone, tablet, TV, radio etc? I’m not a neuroscientist, but I can tell you that our brains and bodies - as amazing as they are - do not do well with constant, multilateral streaming. As some people have aptly called it, our bandwidth, maxes out. And what happens then? it eventually leads to the fight/flight/freeze response. But more often, at a sub-crisis threshold, it manifests in a myriad of stress-related symptoms - anxiety, sleep disturbances, agitation, procrastination, physical symptoms such as headaches, gastro-intestinal issues, fatigue, inattention, lack of focus, diminished enjoyment in activities and so on. Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

Ask yourself this question: when was the last time I ‘just’ listened to music? Or ‘just’ walked, or ate my lunch, or had a conversation with someone in person, or read a book, or spent time in nature without your phone? Maybe with the holidays upon us, this is the opportunity we need to slow down and not multi-task, even if for a little while. Sound boring? Good. We’re far too habituated to being over-stimulated and hyped-up on a double-shot espresso blend of cortisol ( a stress hormone) and adrenaline. And while it is certainly possible that your anxiety may increase, it is likely because you’re taking the lid off a well-shaken bottle. This too will pass, as you settle into one pleasurable or engaging activity. So slow down, be still or go for a walk. The actual choice is less important than making a conscious effort to do less at once.

Season’s greetings.

A must-see for all Canadians

If you haven't heard of the tragic story of Chanie Wenjack, a First-Nations child who died while trying get home from a residential school in Northern Ontario, please follow this link.

Gord Downie, of the Tragiclally Hip, and collaborators have put together a beautiful, haunting and poignant movie about his story. As much as it is a testament to the fate of one child, it is a call-to-attention and action to the lives of hundreds of thousands of First-Nations families across the country, who have suffered - and continue to suffer - from the multiple waves of trauma inflicted by the racist policies and practices of the dominant, colonialist culture.

As Jesse Wente of the CBC suggested, watch it, reflect on it, and urge at least two other people you know to do the same.

www.cbc.ca/secretpath