By Art of Living Volunteer
Want to make your life better? Find out why a Silent Retreat makes the rest of your life better! The ultimate spring cleaning for your mind!
This week we sat down with Jim Larsen to discuss the science of memory, and how to clear up those gunky impressions that clog our clarity...and our life!
Chatting with Jim...
We normally think of memory as the storehouse for our life’s data. Much like an enormous library of information that you can access at any time. If you’d like to remember what you did yesterday, what you learned, what you ate - all of the facts are right there.
But memory can actually do much more than that.
Your mind is recording what you experience emotionally
It also stores all of your most heartfelt experiences. The more emotionally intense an experience is, the deeper it’ll get embedded into the delicate pathways of your mind. Something that frightened you. Something that angered you. Or perhaps an experience of grief or sadness.
As these experiences get recorded, they create subtle grooves in the mind known as impressions (aka saṃskāras in Sanskrit). Every time these impressions get replayed, the grooves grow much deeper and much stronger. Over time they will contribute to the formation of new behavioral patterns, and in turn, new personalities.
Sometimes that’s a good thing. But sometimes it’s not.
What happens when impressions build up?
Although intense emotional experiences don’t happen every day (thankfully!), they can and will build up over time. As a result, you may start to feel a sort of separation from your true sense of Self. Because you’re no longer operating from that same inner calm place you once knew.
The pathways in your brain have been rewired.
Perhaps you’re beginning to say things that you don’t really mean. Or you’re sacrificing doing the things that you’d really like to do, for things that you don’t. All to unconsciously avoid dealing with or letting go of whatever it is that happened.
The fine art of distraction
As a society, we’ve collectively filled our days with 5 lifetime’s worth of distractions through the internet and our cell phones. Just a few years ago it was through television and magazines. But science is showing that people are becoming much less happy, much more anxious, and much more depressed than ever before.
You don’t need to numb out whatever it is that’s making you feel less you. Underneath those impressions and out-of-tune behavioral patterns is a vibrant being yearning to be seen. And there’s a timeless way to soften the grooves that have been sitting in your mind for years.
It’s called Silence.
You go to a Silent Retreat to make the rest of your life better
Silence and deep meditation allow your entire mind-body system to dissolve those impressions. A distraction-free and profound state of meditation can thoroughly eliminate the root cause. It’s in the depths of silence where you can truly reconnect with your highest sense of Self, devoid of all external distractions.
Like spring cleaning for your home, a Silent Retreat is something to do periodically. You’ll sacrifice just a few days out of your life so that everything else gets better. What happens on the retreat doesn’t matter as much as what happens after the retreat.
Because that clarity of mind and clarity of self is everything.
You may want to read What is a Silent Retreat? Use This Simple Guide Before You Go.
Art of Living is thrilled to offer Silent Retreats throughout the year. Click here to see a full schedule of our upcoming programs. Or click here to join a free intro session.
