We are in the target zone this evening for tornadoes. The Weather Channel website says that the state with the most tornadoes last year was Minnesota, our neighbor. Maybe the spring fight between hot and cold air has moved north. Whatever, it would be nice if there were no big winds.
The Playing Field blog post today is about anxiety and the use of basic fear to direct our attention to dangers and to news sources seeking readers. It says that the amygdala is the area of the brain that processes alerts to dangers. Since we, and most animals, are wired to be alert to dangers first, before considering the beautiful sunset or our lovely existence, we are more likely to be willing to subscribe, click, view, etc. news items with scary headlines and subject matter.
I used to wonder about finding a good news channel or magazine. Then, I observed that even me, interested in sweet news, comforting items, peaceful stories, had a tendency to put off reading them until after I had read about tornadoes or whatever the most pressing danger of the moment is. This blog is about fear, a basic part of animal life, and fun, the next thing to pay attention to after noting and preparing to face or handle the fear and its source. It is also about "filoz", not the Phillipine pancake, but filozofy, philosophy, that is, thinking. To me, the Playing Field post is another way to see the value of meditating for 10 minutes a day. Doing so helps the mind know its fears, to get enough distance from them to put them into perspective.
Keeping thoughts on the shelf for 10 minutes a day increases one's awareness of what the attention is directed to. As a Zen story has it, even while fleeing the tiger, we could snatch up a ripe, red strawberry and savor its taste, if we put our minds to that. With practice, we can direct our attention successfully to what we want to be involved with instead of being manipulated by the world and marketing images.
