Sacred Practice

​When I first discovered Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) as an evidence-based medical intervention for patients with a variety of stress-related indications, I was absolutely thrilled.  Here was an elegant, beautifully thought out curriculum for teaching contemplative practices and mindful movement within the medical professional sphere.  It was the perfect way for me to bridge my traditional self-care practices with patient care in a secular format. 

Done. I had found a home at last within my career.  And when friends and family would ask about my clinical practice I’d happily let them know I was teaching yoga and meditation in a secular way through mindfulness-based interventions.  “Oooo, aaaa, so nice,” they would say, “After all, contemplative and self-inquiry practices are not religious. They are examining the human condition.”  Secular Mindfulness…

My proud use of the word secular was rightly challenged though a few years ago, while attending my first professional teacher training retreat through the Oasis Institute (University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness).  Well-respected mindfulness leader, Saki Santorelli, EdD, who co-created MBSR with Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, was one of the teachers.

In one of his key lectures, Dr. Santorelli expressed that secular literally means devoid of sacredness.  “Is this work we do with mindfulness really devoid of the sacred? From the beginning, it has never been anything but sacred.  Sacred in the same way the doctor-patient relationship is and always has been sacred, held deeply in the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm.” He went on to emphasize just how much heartfulness was embedded into cultivating a relationship with the self, those around us, the unfolding of life, and humanity.  Rather than secularization of mindfulness, he and Dr. Kabat-Zinn preferred the phrase “mainstreaming of mindfulness.” 

My heart was deeply touched.  Being a doctor and always having to justify the benefits of cultivating mindfulness through scientific and clinical evidence, it can be easy to be carried away into the science and vast array of conceptualizations. So as a way to always honor the SACRED aspects of mindfulness, I created a mnemonic.  (I was after all a medical student at one point in my life, and one thing us med students were all experts at was creating tools for memory.)

I initially created the mnemonic for myself as a way to pause and remember my intentions as I work with patients, but recently I shared it publicly while teaching at an advanced yoga teacher training with Yoga Medicine.  It is still changing and evolving, but here it is as an offering to remind yourself of all the SACRED work you may already be doing everyday by just paying attention, on purpose, with kindness, playful curiosity, and care.

S.  Stilling – This is simply pausing, an invitation to tune in, just as a first violinist may pause to tune her instrument in sync with the orchestra before a performance begins.

A.  Attending – Bringing Attention to all the dimensions of being with Attitudes of care, curiosity, openness, patience, and kindness. 

• This includes exploring what is happening using all the senses – exteroception (the 5 senses), interoception (visceral, internal bodily sensations), proprioception (balance and positional sense), cognitive intelligence (the mind, its thoughts), emotional intelligence (mood, feeling), and perhaps other energetic sensations if they are available
• Attending with Attitude – inviting a sense of openness, without the need for interpretations, being open to the unfolding of what is happening with curiosity and care.

C. Connecting – Resting into a connection with innate awareness

• Innate mindful awareness is often described in many ways.  Some include: effortless presence, natural awareness, wise consciousness, …the list goes on.  Psychologists often use the term meta-cognition or meta-awareness, meaning the awareness of being aware.  
• Is this a connection to divinity? Maybe? Maybe not?  I’m not the one to answer that for you.  That is purely for your self-inquiry, but I do know there is something sacred and nurturing about being able to access this awareness, relate to it, and relate through it.

R.  Responding – Choosing skillful Responses

• Connecting with mindful awareness opens up a spaciousness where it is possible to explore choices available in each moment.   We can all quickly react habitually to situations, particularly stressful ones, without even thinking.  Sometimes those habitual patterns may not serve us or those around us in the best ways.
• Skillful Responses may include:
  • Continuing to Rest in mindful awareness; taking a “time out” for self-care, Rejuvenation and Restoration
  • Remembering innate character strengths that could help guide next actions/behaviors
  • Regulation- natural self-regulation of thought processes and emotional reactivity as well as physiologic regulation of the body’s stress response through inviting Relaxation

E.  Engaging – Engaging with yourself and the entire world around you in more meaningful ways

• Ethical Values – engagement with the shared human capacities for compassion, loving-kindness, gratitude, forgiveness
• Emergence – opening up to a sense of interconnectivity and collective common humanity; transcending beyond the self; nurturing the spirit through connection and making meaning

D. Deepening – Deepening into the experience of humanity