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Don’t Forget to Breathe

Welcome to article number five on longevity. I wrote a series on the topic ten years ago and I felt it was time to revisit it because the world needs… Read More

Fasting for Longevity

We’re living in a time when the bulk of news headlines are threatening in some way. Whether it’s the pandemic, wildfires, climate change, storms, or political corruption, there’s always bad… Read More

4 Steps to Breaking Your Anxiety Habit

Numerous members of the Dragontree community have told us they’re dealing with a lot of anxiety these days, and it happens to be something I’m very familiar with. I think… Read More

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For me, one such saying was, “People don’t change.” As a young adult I heard it said by a guy I looked up to, and I remember thinking he must be wise. He stated it with triumph and bitterness – as a keen insight that would allow him to never be hurt again. In writing this article, I googled “people don’t change” and “people can’t change” and got about 4 million hits for each phrase. Clearly this is a prevalent idea. But is it true? When psychologists Dan Gilbert, Jordi Quoidbach, and Timothy Wilson set out to investigate perceptions of personal change, they discovered something surprising: most people believe that they have gotten all of their changing over with. Interviews with 19,000 participants revealed that young people, middle aged people, and old people all saw themselves as having changed a lot in the past, but believed they had more or less “arrived” at who they would be from now on. The scientists called this the “end of history illusion.” They used the word “illusion” because . . . we’re almost always wrong. Perhaps this widespread view of ourselves as unlikely to change spills over onto what we expect of others – i.e., that they won’t change either. But we might ask, when someone believes that people don’t change, did it originate as a rational assessment of the likelihood of change? Or did it begin as a way of saving face, as in, “It may look like I got blindsided, but I actually saw this coming – because people don’t change.” Or as ammo for self-punishment, as in, “I’m a fool. I should have seen this coming – because people don’t change.” Or as the basis for blaming others for our pain, as in, “I was relying on you to become different so that I could be happy, but I’m not happy – because people don’t change.” I happen to be in the business of tracking change. A few folks come to me for health maintenance, but I like to empower people to do most of their maintenance themselves, so the majority of my patient visits are from humans wanting the same thing: change. They want their body to change or their mind to change or their life circumstances to change. Because my task is to help facilitate this change, a significant part of my job is to be a change tracker. As a change tracker, I can assure you, people change all the time, often dramatically. If they didn’t, I’d feel like a charlatan. But of course, we all have recurring patterns. In Vedic philosophy, these are considered to be expressions of our samskaras – the imprints of past experiences. Samskara literally means “impression” – like a footprint in the sand or a groove cut in the earth – and we tend to fall into them over and over, just as water naturally follows ruts in the land. Likewise, as experiences “flow” through our consciousness, they are manipulated by these contours of our psyche. Our capacity for discernment, called the buddhi, is said to be impaired by the presence of samskaras because they cause us to see things differently than they really are. Scientists in the field of psychoneuroimmunology discovered that there’s a biological basis for this behavior. The repetition of the same thoughts, feelings, or behaviors strengthens a particular neurological pathway. These neurons “wire together” making a more efficient channel for nerve impulses to flow through, much like a groove in the sand. This increases the likelihood of our continuing to repeat the thought / feeling / behavior and thus to further strengthen the pathway and increase the potential to revisit it. What can we do about this? There are many useful strategies, most of which amount to the cultivation of clear vision and perspective. Traditionally, this is one of the central purposes of yoga – meditation, specifically – which is said to be like polishing the dirty mirror of the buddhi so that it provides accurate reflections. Meditation is like walking to the top of a mountain, where we can see the big picture (something impossible to do when we’re stuck in a rut in the ground). Here we can determine our most efficient course of action. Here we see the grooves of samskaras and “fill them in” through forgiveness, love, and acceptance. Here we can see the ways we have changed, and, indeed, see that big change is inevitable for ourselves and everyone else. Take a few minutes today for a mental fast. Close your eyes and allow yourself to rise above the chattering and judgements, the push and pull of emotions, and perceive what kind of change would bring you into closer alignment with your inner being. Then set an intention to allow this change to happen. Perhaps even ask your highest self to reconfigure you to experience peace more readily. A change is gonna come. Be well, Dr. Peter Borten [post_title] => Can You Change? [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => change-is-coming [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2017-09-26 20:12:22 [post_modified_gmt] => 2017-09-26 20:12:22 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.thedragontree.com/?p=6766 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 24 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [1] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 6754 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2017-09-05 21:37:22 [post_date_gmt] => 2017-09-05 21:37:22 [post_content] => One evening several years ago, I was taking a walk and saw something big flapping in the wind. As I got closer, I realized it was a giant plastic bag that was stuck to a tree. I thought to myself, “Someone should clean that up,” and I walked on. It was one of those thoughts where you actually hear the specific words in your head – Someone should clean that up. And one word in particular stuck in my mind: Someone. Then it felt like my body was compelled to slow down, and a higher part of my consciousness seemed to be telling me, “Look more closely at this pattern.” Someone should deal with what I dislike. Make it better for me. I turned around. I disentangled the bag from the tree. I balled it up, found a nearby dumpster, and threw it away. And though it was just one bag, it was symbolic of a shift. The shift wasn’t that I now pick up all the litter I see wherever I go. It was a recognition of how I want the world to be different without participating in the process, and it was a reminder of my ability to choose my perspective and to act on my own behalf. Then there was one more insight from that soul place: This is (part of) what being an adult means. As children we expect our caregivers to make the world right for us; as adults, we act on our own behalf. It struck me that growing up has little to do with how many years you’ve been alive. You could be 80 years old and still expecting the world to make things right for you. Over the following months, I paid closer attention to people who were active in consciously shaping their world. It was so inspiring. I noticed that sometimes this approach to life issued from an attitude of optimism and empowerment, like, “I have gifts to share!” or “I want to be an active participant in changing my environment.” And other times it came from an attitude of mistrust and pessimism, like, “You can’t count on anyone; that’s why you have to do everything yourself” or “People are going to mess it up if I don’t step in.” Gradually, another characteristic of growing up was revealed: letting go of fixed positions. In those who strove to improve their world, there was always flexibility and a willingness to see more than one side of an issue, because the truth is rarely black-and-white. Children like things in absolute terms: this superhero is good and the other guy is bad; broccoli is healthy and candy is unhealthy; sharing is the right thing to do and not sharing is wrong. But adults recognize that such formulaic ways of thinking often fall short. Only by engaging with life openly and organically, with a strong appetite for the truth, do we stand to grow and evolve. This brings lots of grey and apparent paradox, but the adult mind can handle it. How do you define growing up? What challenges you about being an adult? Share in the comments section below. Be well, Dr. Peter Borten [post_title] => Growing Up [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => growing-up [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2017-09-06 00:05:55 [post_modified_gmt] => 2017-09-06 00:05:55 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.thedragontree.com/?p=6754 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 16 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [2] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 6627 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2017-03-21 15:48:01 [post_date_gmt] => 2017-03-21 15:48:01 [post_content] => The other day, an adventurous friend of mine sent me a picture of himself immersed in slurry of icy water. The photo was taken on a rooftop, on a cloudy winter day, with empty ice bags scattered around the metal tub. His eyes were closed and he looked serene, as if in deep meditation. If you took a photo of me in such a scenario, my facial expression would be a little different – more of a blend of shock and torment. Having a strong aversion to cold water, I’d need a tremendous incentive to voluntarily get into an ice bath. But as I stared at his picture for a while, I felt unease, fascination, and admiration. It reminded me of my own work in pain management. When a cold stimulus passes a certain threshold, it becomes “noxious cold,” which is interpreted by the brain as pain. Figuring out how to stay comfortable in a tub of ice water is fairly similar to the task of managing severe pain without drugs, which is exactly what I endeavor to teach people. The arrival of my friend’s picture was a bit of a coincidence as I was recently challenging myself in cold water also. Admittedly, the comparison is laughable, since my version of “challenge” was swimming in a cenote fed by an underground river in the Belizean jungle. The water temperature was probably around 60 degrees, but cold is subjective, and to me, it was pretty uncomfortable. My daughter was already splashing around and demanding that I join her, so I decided to put my “equalization” technique to the test. I set a foot in the water and felt the skin over my whole body tighten up. I was immediately aware of the inequality – the conflict – between my body and the water. And my reaction to this conflict was physical and psychological resistance, which only intensified the situation. If you’ve ever had a panic attack, you’ve experienced firsthand how unhelpful resistance is. So, my first step was to stop resisting. And to prove to myself that I wasn’t resisting, I dove completely underwater. Instantly, the experience of conflict between my body and the water was magnified tremendously. I put my attention on my skin – the “frontier” of the conflict – and began to equalize the internal with the external. As I told myself, “Equalize. Equalize. Equalize,” I imagined that the temperature difference between the interior and exterior of my body was getting smaller and smaller. The interior and exterior were coming together to meet each other, to harmonize. I actively let go of my resistance over and over, softening and relaxing that frontier. Dissolving the conflict. Normally, I would have been shivering, teeth chattering, skin covered in goosebumps for at least a minute and perhaps for as long as I stayed in the water. But this time I was at ease within about fifteen seconds and I swam contentedly for about an hour. I had a few moments when I felt uncomfortably cold again, but this resolved when I brought my attention back to equalizing the temperature differential once more. I’ll write more about this process next week, but in the meantime, I encourage you to try it in the simple way that I’ve presented it here. When you experience physical discomfort or outright pain, first, stop resisting. Second, visualize the painful place in your body in the context of the experience surrounding it, and intend to equalize the experience inside the pain with that outside the pain. You can also utilize this technique with a psychological or emotional issue by bringing the issue to mind and then allowing yourself to experience it in your body – there’s always a physical expression to every psychological conflict. Imagine a fish tank with a removable panel dividing it into two sides. On one side the water is dyed blue; on the other it’s clear. If you shift the panel it becomes porous, and the two waters mix, resulting in an even color. See if you can apply this image to your inner experience, allowing for an equalization between a restricted part of yourself and your greater self, or between yourself and the world around you. See what happens. Be well, Dr. Peter Borten P.S. If you’d like to learn more about equalization and many, many, many more techniques for resolving physical and emotional pain, check out my new online course, Live Pain Free. [post_title] => The Equalization Technique for Resolving Discomfort [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => equalization-technique-resolving-discomfort [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2017-03-21 18:36:31 [post_modified_gmt] => 2017-03-21 18:36:31 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.thedragontree.com/?p=6627 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 13 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) ) [post_count] => 3 [current_post] => -1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 6766 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2017-09-26 18:26:41 [post_date_gmt] => 2017-09-26 18:26:41 [post_content] => If we hear a saying enough – especially at an impressionable time and/or spoken by someone we respect – we may accept it without applying critical thinking to determine if it’s actually true. For me, one such saying was, “People don’t change.” As a young adult I heard it said by a guy I looked up to, and I remember thinking he must be wise. He stated it with triumph and bitterness – as a keen insight that would allow him to never be hurt again. In writing this article, I googled “people don’t change” and “people can’t change” and got about 4 million hits for each phrase. Clearly this is a prevalent idea. But is it true? When psychologists Dan Gilbert, Jordi Quoidbach, and Timothy Wilson set out to investigate perceptions of personal change, they discovered something surprising: most people believe that they have gotten all of their changing over with. Interviews with 19,000 participants revealed that young people, middle aged people, and old people all saw themselves as having changed a lot in the past, but believed they had more or less “arrived” at who they would be from now on. The scientists called this the “end of history illusion.” They used the word “illusion” because . . . we’re almost always wrong. Perhaps this widespread view of ourselves as unlikely to change spills over onto what we expect of others – i.e., that they won’t change either. But we might ask, when someone believes that people don’t change, did it originate as a rational assessment of the likelihood of change? Or did it begin as a way of saving face, as in, “It may look like I got blindsided, but I actually saw this coming – because people don’t change.” Or as ammo for self-punishment, as in, “I’m a fool. I should have seen this coming – because people don’t change.” Or as the basis for blaming others for our pain, as in, “I was relying on you to become different so that I could be happy, but I’m not happy – because people don’t change.” I happen to be in the business of tracking change. A few folks come to me for health maintenance, but I like to empower people to do most of their maintenance themselves, so the majority of my patient visits are from humans wanting the same thing: change. They want their body to change or their mind to change or their life circumstances to change. Because my task is to help facilitate this change, a significant part of my job is to be a change tracker. As a change tracker, I can assure you, people change all the time, often dramatically. If they didn’t, I’d feel like a charlatan. But of course, we all have recurring patterns. In Vedic philosophy, these are considered to be expressions of our samskaras – the imprints of past experiences. Samskara literally means “impression” – like a footprint in the sand or a groove cut in the earth – and we tend to fall into them over and over, just as water naturally follows ruts in the land. Likewise, as experiences “flow” through our consciousness, they are manipulated by these contours of our psyche. Our capacity for discernment, called the buddhi, is said to be impaired by the presence of samskaras because they cause us to see things differently than they really are. Scientists in the field of psychoneuroimmunology discovered that there’s a biological basis for this behavior. The repetition of the same thoughts, feelings, or behaviors strengthens a particular neurological pathway. These neurons “wire together” making a more efficient channel for nerve impulses to flow through, much like a groove in the sand. This increases the likelihood of our continuing to repeat the thought / feeling / behavior and thus to further strengthen the pathway and increase the potential to revisit it. What can we do about this? There are many useful strategies, most of which amount to the cultivation of clear vision and perspective. Traditionally, this is one of the central purposes of yoga – meditation, specifically – which is said to be like polishing the dirty mirror of the buddhi so that it provides accurate reflections. Meditation is like walking to the top of a mountain, where we can see the big picture (something impossible to do when we’re stuck in a rut in the ground). Here we can determine our most efficient course of action. Here we see the grooves of samskaras and “fill them in” through forgiveness, love, and acceptance. Here we can see the ways we have changed, and, indeed, see that big change is inevitable for ourselves and everyone else. Take a few minutes today for a mental fast. Close your eyes and allow yourself to rise above the chattering and judgements, the push and pull of emotions, and perceive what kind of change would bring you into closer alignment with your inner being. Then set an intention to allow this change to happen. Perhaps even ask your highest self to reconfigure you to experience peace more readily. A change is gonna come. Be well, Dr. Peter Borten [post_title] => Can You Change? 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Can You Change?

Growing Up

The Equalization Technique for Resolving Discomfort

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