It's My Dog's World: I Just Live In It

Ten Zen Seconds: An Interview with Eric Maisel

Eric Maisel is a therapist and creativity coach of some note.  His most recent book, Ten Zen Seconds, is a lovely tool for relaxing...quickly.   

The technique is elegantly simple:  Maisel suggests we repeat a brief phrase ("I expect nothing"  or "I am completely stopping" with a long deep breath, in and out) to get us to focus on what's going on right now...and relax.  It works; it got me through my taxes this year (and then I promptly left it at my tax guys....hope it is helping a lot of people).   You can practice some of the techniques here.

Maisel also admits that he could have used his own technique to notice that...he had fat pets.  He was honest and kind enough to talk to me, via e-mail,  about what Ten Zen Seconds has to say to pet owners...and he finally reveals whether pets meditate!

Martha Garvey: How do you think pet owners can use Ten Zen Seconds in relation to their pets?

Eric Maisel : There was a time not so long ago when we had four cats. As any pet owner knows, sometimes we were more mindful of their needs and sometimes we were less mindful of their needs. Two of the cats became quite plump—okay, fat—because we didn’t really slow down enough to pay attention to what was happening to them.

Of course we saw that they had gotten big—okay, enormous—but seeing and “really” seeing are two different things. I think that the mindfulness program that Ten Zen Seconds teaches helps us notice what’s going on around us in an immediate and effortless way, so that we know “without having to
think about it” what we need, what our mate needs, what our children need—and what our pets need. Everyday mindfulness makes us effortlessly more responsible.

MG: You include a lovely anecdote in your book about a vet who used "Ten Zen Seconds" to enrich his work.  Would you talk a little about that?

EM: The vet you mention had a love of animals and a thriving practice, but he found himself so busy and so harried by his own success—with an animal in front of him and two more waiting in the adjoining exam rooms at all times—that he was getting no pleasure out of what he loved.

Using the Ten Zen Seconds method and especially the first incantation, “I am completely stopping,” he trained himself to be more in the moment, less frantic and less pressured, and more open to the joy that helping, healing, and just being around animals had always provided.

MG: Do you think dogs or cats meditate?  If not, what the heck do you think they're doing when they stare into space?

EM: I think they are trying to decide if what we are feeding them measures up to their high standards. I think they are also dreaming about forests, fields, and meadows—and how they would like to be carried there on a fluffy pillow by their well-trained masters. And of course they are
meditating—haven’t they all been trained by the Dolly Llama?

The Secret (Ha!) to a Calmer Life: Ten Zen Seconds

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.