A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (28 page)

The person who most put labyrinths on the cultural map is Dr. Lauren Artress, an Episcopal priest at Grace Cathedral Church in San Francisco. A few years ago she traveled to Chartres Cathedral in France, site of a forty-two-foot-diameter labyrinth etched into the floor of the nave. When she visited, the labyrinth was covered with chairs and hadn’t been used for 250 years. Artress removed the chairs, walked the labyrinth, and then imported the concept to the United States. She installed two now popular labyrinths at Grace Cathedral. And she set up a ministry called Verditas that provides training and labyrinth kits to churches and other organizations.

“We live in such a left brain world . . . and here’s this whole other world that we must integrate in order to meet the challenges of the next century,” Artress has said. When people walk into a labyrinth, they “shift consciousness from the linear to the non-linear” and bring to the surface “the deep, intuitive, pattern part of ourselves.” That experience is different from the experience of being in a maze, she says. “[I]t takes you into an entirely different part of your being than that problem-solving, I-hope-I-make-it feeling.” Even the shape of the typical labyrinth is significant. “The circle is an archetype for wholeness or unity. So when people walk into the labyrinth, they begin to see their whole life.”
¹⁷

About forty hospitals and medical centers now have labyrinths—for many of the same reasons that empathy and narrative have begun infiltrating the medical world. There’s a growing recognition that the analytical approach to healing, while absolutely necessary, is not always sufficient—and that approaches once dismissed as woo-woo suggestions from New Age whack jobs can help patients get better. That whole-minded thinking led to the labyrinth at Johns Hopkins, one of the finest medical facilities in the world. Its organizers wanted a place where patients, their families, and the medical staff could go to “find physical and mental relaxation.” It may be working. At the labyrinth site are two weathered yellow notebooks in which people who have walked the labyrinth can write their thoughts. The notebooks testify to the solace and sense of meaning the labyrinth brings. Doctors and nurses write of coming here after challenging or harrowing experiences. Families of people undergoing surgery describe coming here to pray, to think, and to distract themselves. And in the notebook are moving stories written by patients themselves—entries like this one, which was written just a few days before I arrived:

I join in the spirit of all those who have walked the labyrinth and have written on these pages.

For me, my surgery, one week ago today, is the beginning of a new phase of life. My word as I walked the labyrinth was “BELIEVE.”

I believe in a new future.

“We are not human beings on a spiritual path, but spiritual beings on a human path.”

—DR. LAUREN ARTRESS,

Episcopal priest and

labyurinth pioneer

Labyrinths won’t save the world, of course. Neither will any of the six senses I’ve discussed in this book. Making the transition from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, moving from a landscape of L-Directed Thinking to one of R-Directed Thinking, adding the capacity for art and heart to our penchant for logic and analysis, won’t be easy. Few worthwhile things ever are. But maybe that’s the point. As Viktor Frankl could have told us, the ideal life is not a fear-fueled pursuit of cheese. It’s more like walking a labyrinth, where the purpose is the journey itself.

Say Thanks.

Gratitude works. Feelings of gratitude enhance well-being and deepen one’s sense of meaning. That’s why Martin Seligman, whose work I described earlier in this chapter, advocates “the gratitude visit.” It works like this: You think of a person in your life who has been kind or generous to you but whom you’ve never properly thanked. You write a detailed “gratitude letter” to that person, explaining in concrete terms why you’re grateful. Then you visit that person and read the letter aloud. According to Seligman, the ritual is quite powerful. “Everyone cries when you do a gratitude visit. It’s very moving for both people.”

Seligman’s research, as well as the work of the growing ranks of scholars who study positive psychology, suggests that gratitude is a key component of personal happiness. People who are grateful about specific things in their past, who dwell on the sweet triumphs instead of the bitter disappointments, tend to be more satisfied about the present. The gratitude visit, Seligman says, can be an effective way to “increase the intensity, duration and frequency of positive memory.”

One reason to give the gratitude visit a try is that it can generate a momentum of its own. Those who are thanked often then start to consider who in their lives they never thanked. So they make their own pilgrimage, as eventually do the recipients of their thanks, resulting in a daisy chain of gratitude and contentment.

Two variations on this theme are the birthday gratitude list and the gratitude one-a-day. The birthday gratitude list is simple. Once a year, on your birthday, make a list of the things for which you’re grateful—with the number of items equaling the number of years you’re turning that day. (When I did this on my fortieth birthday, my gratitude list included everything from red wine to the fact that my children are healthy to living in a free country.) Your list will grow by one each year—the theory being that the older you get, the more you have to be thankful for. Keep your lists and review them each birthday. It will bring a sense of satisfaction that can soothe the anxiety of time’s passage. The gratitude one-a-day is a way to weave thankfulness into your daily routine. Each day, at a certain moment, think of one thing for which you’re grateful. Some people do this when they’re about to go to sleep. Others do it to accompany some existing routine—when they drink a cup of coffee in the morning, when they make their bed, when they take their first step outside. These gratitude exercises might sound a little touchy-feely to some of you. Give them a try anyway. I guarantee you’ll thank me.

Take the 20-10 Test.

I heard this exercise from Jim Collins, author of the blockbuster book
Good to Great.
He encourages people to look at their lives—in particular, their work—and ask themselves whether they would still do what they’re doing now if they had $20 million in the bank or knew they had no more than ten years to live. For instance, if you inherited $20 million, no strings attached, would you spend your days the way you spend them now? If you knew you had at most ten years to live, would you stick with your current job? If the answer is no, that ought to tell you something. This test alone obviously can’t determine your life course. But the approach is smart—and the answers can be clarifying.

Measure Your Spirit.

In my research, I’ve encountered two self-assessments that help measure qualities and attitudes associated with Meaning. Neither of these instruments measures exactly what I mean by the elusive ability of Meaning. But both are interesting, useful, and worth exploring.

The first comes from Dr. Ralph Piedmont of Loyola College in Maryland, who’s developed what he calls the Spiritual Transcendence Scale. It’s much like the other assessments I’ve mentioned in earlier Portfolios. You answer a series of questions—and when you’re through, you tally up your score based on your responses. Piedmont says that “people high on ST believe that there is a larger plan and meaning to life, something beyond our mortal existence. . . . Those low on ST are more concerned with the material aspects of life and see no larger meaning to life other than what life offers in the here and now.”
(More info:
www.evergreen.loyola.edu/~rpiedmont/STSR.htm
)

The second self-test, called the Index of Core Spiritual Experience (INSPIRIT), is the work of Dr. Jared Kass of Lesley College in Massachusetts. It measures your spiritual experience as well as your overall sense of well-being—and then assesses how the two intersect. For instance, when I took the test, I was told, “You have a healthy sense of well-being, but spirituality may not be a strong contributor.” Again, this test isn’t the be-all of self-understanding. But it can let you know how much spirituality plays a role in your overall happiness.
(More info:
www.tinyurl.com/5sz7u
)

But Out.

Do you know what would make your life more meaningful, yet you find yourself stymied by the obstacles standing in your way? Break through those roadblocks with this simple exercise.

Compile a list of some of the important changes you’d like to make in your life and what’s keeping you from realizing them.

I’d like to spend more time with my family, but I travel a lot for my job.

I’d like to eat better, but I’m surrounded at work by sugary snacks.

I’d like to read more, but I rarely have time when I can sit down with a book.

Now go back to each item and replace the word
but
with the word
and.

I’d like to spend more time with my family, and I travel a lot for my job. So I need to find ways to bring my family along during some of my travels.

I’d like to eat better, and I’m surrounded at work by sugary snacks. So I need to pack my own supply of more healthful snacks to reduce my temptation to eat the bad stuff.

I’d like to read more, and I rarely have time when I can sit down with a book.
So I need to get books on tape that I can listen to in the car or at the gym.

Exchanging
and
for
but
can move you out of excuse-making mode and into problem-solving mode. It’s grammar’s way of saying, “deal with this.” And if this technique fails? You can always say, “I wanted to make changes in my life, but that exercise in Pink’s book didn’t help me enough.”

Take a Sabbath.

Select one day a week and remove yourself from the maw. Stop working. Don’t answer your email. Ignore your voice mail. Turn off your mobile phone. Most Western religions have established a Sabbath— the seventh day of the week—as a time of peace, reflection, and prayer. Whatever your faith, consider experimenting with this practice. (And this need not be religious at all. Secular Sabbaths can be equally re-energizing.) For guidance, check out Wayne Muller’s book,
Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives.
If committing to this weekly ritual isn’t right for you, consider Muller’s alternative: “Choose one common act during your day to serve as a Sabbath pause.” Whenever you, say, grasp a doorknob or reach for the telephone, “simply stop, take three mindful breaths, and then go through the door, or answer the phone.” Sabbaths, however momentary, can be important punctuation marks in busy lives.

Read These Books.

Recommending books about meaning is difficult. Much of the world’s great literature and religious texts tackle the topic of what meaning is and how to find it. So the following book recommendations don’t trump great novels or sacred texts. Read the Sermon on the Mount, sections of the Torah, and parts of the Koran, too, if you’d like. But for more secular, contemporary, and prescriptive guides to meaning, consider any of these fine books.

Man’s Search for Meaning
by Viktor Frankl—
Simply one of the most important books you’ll ever read.

Authentic Happiness
by Martin E. P. Seligman—
It astonishes me that more people haven’t read this book and absorbed its lessons. It’s an ideal introduction to positive psychology and contains all sorts of exercises to help you put the findings into action in your own life.
(More info:
www.authentichappiness.org
).