Can ten seconds actually change your life?
A number of years ago, before I became an internationally known pet health author simply covered in dog hair, I plunged deeply into the study of creativity. I read and reread Catholic girl gone Hollywood hack Julia Cameron (damn you, morning pages!), I alternately cursed and blessed whiny, brilliant Anne Lamott, I wondered if it was possible to have a wild mind like Natalie Goldberg's if you lived in guilty type A New York, not sleepy Buddhist New Mexico where they don't generally let you linger over your coffee while you ride the back of your muse.
One of the most interesting people I have read, and continue to read, is the therapist and creativity expert Eric Maisel, whose own writing seems to embrace both the difficulty of getting ready to make art, and the dizzy sexy pleasure of actually making it. I even took an on-line creativity coach class from him, and learned, among other things, that I am REALLY bad at doing on line coaching of people I have never met face to face. That is a good lesson to learn.
Now Eric has written a new book called TEN ZEN SECONDS, and it is a splendid one. TEN ZEN SECONDS refers to a series of "incantations," as Eric calls them, short phrases that you repeat to yourself as you breathe deeply in and then out. Unlike a lot of meditation techniques, you don't need a cushion, a mat, a room, a candle. You can, in fact, be running for the damned subway while you are doing them: in fact, Eric encourages you to do just that.
The 12 phrases include:
- "I expect nothing,"
- "I return with strength," and
- "I am doing my work."
You can repeat one, or string them together like beads. Despite their brevity, they are the very opposite of quick fixes. While generally people--including me--find relief in the very first 10 second incantation, the point is to keep doing them, and notice how you shift when you interrupt your big old patten of stress with a generous thought, and a deep in and out breath. Very portable, and you don't have to carry around a sticky, possibly bacteria-laden mat to do it!
Eric was kind enough to include me in on his "virtual blog tour," where he answers questions from a variety of gifted bloggers. The whole schedule is here.
Leading up to May 3rd, when I'll have an interview with Eric on this site, I'll be talking about individual "incantations." Then, on May 3rd, Eric and I will chat about what Ten Zen Seconds can do for pet owners...
And whether dogs really meditate.
Stay tuned.
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