Blessed love. 

Greetings in the name of the most high. Let us give thanks for this life, for this mystery and for this breath we breathe. 

This here is my first blog entry on this site and I hope it will be a good one.The coming together of this website, this line of enlightened apparel and goods, and this blog you now are reading has been the result of lot of work and a lot of dreaming. 

I am very proud and happy to see it come this far and look forward to seeing where it is going to go. 

SUFFERING SUCKS, the idea for the logo, was conceived when I was living on the island of Kauai in 2005. On one mystical evening riddled with inspiration and despair, the idea came to me as i was laying on a porch pondering and wondering with great concern and passion. 

After that evening, I started making drawings and designs for it and had friends that are more computer graphic savvy than I help me with the execution of the digital image. Thus far, of all the artistic creations that I have come up with, this is my very favorite. 

Throughout the past seven years I have made small batches of shirts and stickers for friends, drew up some sketches, etc...

The year is 2012 and I feel the world is ready. 

So, World, Here you GO!

Grab your shirts while they're hot!

Ok... ok...

My intentions for this blog are to share "Enlightened Wisdom". I will be sharing practical tools, behaviors and practices which demonstrate the ability to bring forth personal transformation and happiness... As well as some random interesting rants. 

So, to fulfill these intentions I will share some wisdom.

Are you ready??

Are you excited?

Ok! The topic of enlightened wisdom i wish to briefly touch upon is the subject of "mindfulness".

What is mindfulness? 

As I understand it, and experience it, it is the practice of putting one's attention on the sensation or sensations that are occurring in the present moment. 

Classical examples could be one's breath, feeling the movement of the breath, or paying attention to oneself eating. Feeling one's feet touch the ground as one walks, or listening to music and really noticing the sounds, or feeling one's emotions and bodily sensations. It can also be a combination of sensations. The important thing is that one's attention is focused on an activity that is grounded in the reality of sensation.

When one practices Mindfulness one relates to these sensations the way a curious observer would, not with aversion not with craving. Just feeling.

Now, when one practices mindfulness, there is the tendency to get distracted... And that is not a problem. But the practice is that when one notices the distraction, one returns to the mindfulness of sensation. 

Experiment with it. Try it at least for a few minutes. 

Choose an object of attention. Notice your breath.

Even though for many of us, this is basic "old news", I find it to be effective none the less. 

The effect of the practice is a feeling of centeredness, a feeling of spaciousness and openness, and insight into the nature of reality. Historically, I am aware of the emphasis on the importance of the practice in Buddhist traditions and I hear that it is mentioned in the Upanishads. 

I do not view mindfulness as having anything to do with adopting a dogmatic faith or religion. It is simply an activity of ones attention. 

I was introduced to the practice of mindfulness when I was about 16 years old. I remember noticing how much I felt it was changing me. I remember telling my girlfriend that I felt as though I was feeling for the first time. It gave me a sense of peace and it brought me a sense of wonder in doing the most simple things. Today I am 35 years old and in these last 20 years, mindfulness has been like an old loyal friend whom I have visited again and again.

Originally, when i started practicing it, I was not aware of any scientific research that addressed the topic. Today I am aware of quite a bit. In fact one of the things that inspired me to talk about mindfulness in this blog post is an audiobook called, "The Neuroscience of Change", authored by Stanford Psychologist, Kelly McGonigal PhD. 

In the book she discusses allot of interesting scientific findings in studying people who practiced mindfulness and meditation (meditation usually involves the practice of mindfulness while sitting) versus those who do not practice.

So, the interesting facts that I remember from the book are the following:

In scanning the brain of people that were not practitioners of meditation or mindfulness, the researchers found that when they were asked to relax and do nothing they found that the untrained subjects brains were very active. 

The areas of the brain that were active in these subjects were the areas that correlate to activities of the mind - such as thinking about the past and future, social comparison, constant mental commentary of one's experience. The areas that were active are involved in what psychologists call "the self referential system" where one is busy with the creation of one's identity. 

 The studies showed that the "default" state that the non-practitioners of mindfulness found themselves in, when not engaged in an activity and asked to relax, had a quality of distraction, dissatisfaction and suffering.

Thus, the neuroscientists termed the state of this sort of brain activity, "the default state".

However, in contrast to this when the neuroscientists studied the brain of people who were practitioners of mindfulness and meditation, they found that when being told to relax and just do nothing, a different part of the brain lit up. It was the area of the brain that is related to attention as well as what psychologists call, "the experiencing self". The experiencing self refers to that state where there is a sense of being present and experiencing reality with little or no commentary of one's experience. It was shown that these people also experienced emotion more intensely and were better at processing those emotions. Yet, with less commentary than the group of non-practitioners of mindfulness. .  When the practitioners were asked to describe the experience, words like, "openness" or "expansiveness" were used. Also, there is a measurable physical difference in size and development of the area of the brain which is active during mindfulness as there are more neurons in that area. 

Another thing I found interesting is that they found that people who suffer from depression or social anxiety found it more difficult to get out of the "default state" which further supports the association of that state with suffering. It was demonstrated that the practitioners of mindfulness and meditation had a different default state. Even if they did fall into the "typical" default state, they would notice it and pull themselves out. 

Could this be a scientific explanation of what the Buddhist tradition has been telling us for a long, long time?

As a fan of both science and contemplative traditions, I find this to be very cool.

If you read this far and survived it. Good on you!

So don't forget, this week, make the conscious effort to practice mindfulness. 

And may you abide as joy.