I can’t think of a better or worse time to start a blog about living a Zen life.
There are several forces at work in the world right now, pulling it in different directions, stressing the very fabric of civilization. And that is the least dramatic summary I can think of!
These forces are both public and secret – some new and some very old – threading their effects through the planet with very different goals. Almost all of them extract a great price from the average human living here. Almost universally, the price includes that of our peace of mind.
That won’t do, will it? We have to have a strategy in place to preserve it. What complicates this is the fact that many of us haven’t had true peace of mind since our childhood! And, sadly, some may not have had it then.
The starting place then must exclude those external forces exerting their control over our world. We must start where it makes most sense: where we do have control.
A Mind Palace
There is an ancient Greek method called the Method of Loci, or the method of location. It involves using vivid imagination to create a space where one records details they want to remember. For example, to remember a shopping list of eggs, milk, and bread, one might put chickens in your living room, a cow in your kitchen, and two large slices of bread in your bedroom in place of a bed. Then, visiting your space later, you run into these things occupying that space, triggering recall of the list.
It’s an example of how creative and powerful our minds are. For our purposes, the method is useful not for remembering lists of things, but rather for remembering that we have options for how we live.
Building a mind palace that we can use reminds us that we can control how we perceive, react to, and feel about the world around us. It gives us a vivid, substantial foundation to respond from in the best way possible.
Think of it… you’re in a meeting that is going off the rails. People are making suggestions that you know will not serve a project’s goals. People are engaged in silent power struggles and trying to use you and others as pawns. One person in particular is really making you angry and you’re tempted to take sides, which wouldn’t help at all.
On the verge of saying something you might regret, you take a breath and find yourself in a comfortable office with a viewport facing the conference room where the drama is playing out. You step up to the viewport and exhale, calming yourself, knowing they can’t see you in there – knowing that in the real room, you are actually beginning to relax… and a relaxed vibe exudes a silent, controlled vibe.
You are not going to make a mistake at this point. By taking up position here, you have reminded yourself that you have options. That your best self is right here, engaged, and ready to do what’s best – a mode made possible by your mind palace, a Method of Loci that you’ve implemented and practiced well.
Can you imagine the benefits? Or other situations you could use it?
Ready to build? To start, do the following:
- Select a space of your own design. It could be your current home, an imaginary space station, an underground bunker, your childhood treehouse – anywhere you feel comfortable in.
- Define it’s boundaries. Know the space. One room? Two? Maybe include a bathroom where you can retreat to the throne while you take a mental safe break in a moment of crisis. Be creative. You know yourself best.
- Decorate and populate it. Maybe place art on the walls that remind you of specific strengths you have or people that inspire you or people that you love and live for. Maybe an old couch you love or a favorite chair or desk. Or a pet you love (current or past). Define what’s there and make it yours, with purpose.
- Keep it simple at first, but make it easily reachable. It should be instantly accessible and always comfortable. Become familiar with it.
- Spend time when you first wake up and before you go to bed with it. It should become as accessible as any thought you are prone to have.
Most importantly, know that within this mind palace, you are safe, sane, and completely connected to your best self… the non-distracted, non-stressed, focused and able self. We all need a vehicle to this version of ourselves, and if you don’t have one already, this space can become that.
As you go forward from this “build day”, respect it for what it is – a vivid, powerful mental construct that has meaning, utility, and purpose in your life. No one can take it away from you.
I recommend not telling anyone about it at first. You need time with it to help it form, to help it grow and to begin serving its purpose. You don’t need anyone else’s opinion about this space to distract you. Later, once you have confident access to it and it has evolved to be reliably useful, then maybe talk about it with someone you trust or someone you think could use one of their own.
A Place of Your Own
The real purpose of building a mind palace is to remind you that you have options for how you think and feel about the world around you. In any given moment, you can pause, find clarity, discard distracting emotions, and recall that you are able to sift through ALL the options available to you. Beaming to the mind palace (or summoning it) gives you those few heart beats needed to quickly de-stress, balance your feelings, come into your power, and allow strategies to form more easily. Consider it a form of training, a creative way to become familiar with your potential for relaxed self-control.
Sometimes it may just inspire you to silence. To listen more deeply to what you are feeling in response to the situation you’re facing. Sometimes listening from a place of control is the very best thing you can do.
Your Mind, Your Matters
Whether or not you build a mild palace, the starting point for a life of Zen is to formally and firmly understand that you have the power to choose how you perceive the world around you, how you select your reactions, and ultimately how you respond to the world (and those in it).
Why? Because by focusing on what we can control, we become the most effective person we can be. And being effective in life has transformational effects. The kind that domino. And positive domino effects change lives for the better (not only yours, by the way, but those around you, too – but that’s for another post).
I hope you try out the mind palace or any version of mental prowess that empowers you to relax, chill, accept, and choose well. Zen is about being good to yourself, about knowing yourself, and ultimately about becoming the best version of yourself. That sounds like a good topic for a second post.
Be well and prosper. ☯️