"Investigating Healthy Minds"

After a brief respite we're back to dark, cloudy skies and rain. I wish that I could say I'm unaffected by the weather but that's not true. Today I feel tired and a wee bit down. Self-care is priority number one.

With that goal in mind I spent time on the chi and hot house machines this morning and then slid into a hot relaxing bath. And, of course, good healthy food, a walk down the driveway, and--you guessed it!--my daily T'ai Chi Chih practice.

I chose to practice TCC while seated since my back hurt, my knee hurt, the bottoms of both feet hurt, and I needed to give my body a break. The rain fell, almost invisibly, outside the window in front of me as I followed the lead of t'an tien. I wish I could say that my mood improved dramatically but ... it didn't.

I continue to think about yesterday's radio show (On Being with researcher Richard Davidson). Late in the interview host Krista Tippett said: Matthieu Ricard (one of Davidson's Buddhist monk study subjects) ... talks about happiness in fact as a mental state that can precisely take in all emotions and experiences including negative experiences.

Davidson responded, I think that that's a very different conception of happiness, one that is more enduring and I think more genuine in the sense that it's a kind of happiness that is not dependent on external circumstances.

And I'm thinking to myself: External circumstances as in, for instance, dark skies and rain? Hmmm. I guess I'll have to invest a few more decades in my TCC practice (and seated meditation).