Team You, Team Me, Team Everyone

One of the most interesting things to me about my art practice is that for years I can work on a project and not really know what it is about until much later. The idea of conflicting agendas occurring in my own head was reflected in a body of work that I made without me really understanding the content. An intuitive and sub-conscious objective kept me going.

My work was revealing something that happens to me daily: that there are clearly competing agendas going on in my head at all times. We now know this is true from brain science and it becomes so obvious in a dedicated meditation practice. One part of my brain really wants to meditate but the other parts have their ideas about what is important and distract me with something more alluring (which does not mean that it is good :). These are distractions from the primary meditation object. For example, I want to meditate but my subconscious throws that memory up into my conscious awareness, again. I have thought about this memory a lot before so it is very attractive to my attention; I can’t resist and then I find that I forgot I was meditating.  In daily life it might be similar: that you intend to work on your project but become distracted and then do something else instead. My favorite quote from Culadasa on the subject of competing intentions is this:

“The human mind consists of many ongoing, separate mental processes, all occurring simultaneously, each with its own agenda and purpose within the overall functioning of the mental life of the individual. Indeed it is the norm for several of these processes to be in competition to provide specific content for conscious awareness to be attended to at any time.”

So at any given moment competing subconscious intentions are being weighed against each other and against your conscious intentions. Yikes! I thought I was in control. Knowing this, I find myself fantasizing about unity of mind.

A very effective technique to unify the mind both on and off the cushion is to constantly refresh conscious intentions. Conscious intentions are the juice of transformation. Having strong conscious intentions can persuade all of your minds to rally around an activity whether it is meditating or sticking to a healthier diet. Refreshing your conscious intentions with joy will help you stick to the agenda that you have set forth because a positive feedback loop will be created. Before you know it the mind is more unified, you are less distracted and your experience will be less conflicted.

Now that I understand my mind more fully I do refresh my intentions often and with joy, and I am more unified naturally because the reward of joy is just too good to resist. This practice could also be framed from the perspective that we create our own reality by what we choose to focus on. If I always focus on distractions then that is my reality: unintended distractions. Yuck. If I choose to focus my attention on what I had intended then I will accomplish more and I will have more space for other intended activities. YES.

A really sweet consequence of my meditation practice is that I understand my artwork more fully and I have an effective technique to help steer me towards intentions rather than distractions. It has been such an interesting journey along the way. To see more of my work that is about the brain and its shenanigans go here.