Adapting to Unpredictability

Bahnu Joy Harrison provided a meditation podcast  on Unpredictability and Adapting in September this year.  Her session was one of the weekly meditations and talks offered by UCLA Health.  Bahnu is an accredited meditation teacher and clinical social worker specialising in the resolution of trauma.  She integrates neuroscience with mindfulness practices to enable people to achieve greater joy, balance and resilience.  Bahnu provides classes, workshops and resources to assist people to manage the daily challengers of unpredictability.  Her website provides a series of guided meditations and she offers access to an app that serves as a journalling guide

Impact of unpredictability

Drawing on neuroscience, Bahnu maintains that our brain and nervous system is forever seeking stability and predictability as this provides us with an abiding sense of control and safety.  In our daily life, however, we have to deal with the unpredictability of our own health, our workplaces and interactions, our shopping and entertainment environments and our social and family encounters.  The unpredictability and challenge to our stability of these daily events can lead to stress, overwhelm and inability to cope.

In her talk, Bahnu pointed out how much we rely on past experience to predict what will happen in the future as a result of current events.  We look for reliability and steadiness in our life.  She contends that our past experience provides us with some form of scaffolding or framework that influences our perceptions and our predictions.  

Mindfulness as a toolbox for managing unpredictability

Bahnu contends that mindfulness practices progressively build our personal resources and provide us with a toolbox to draw on to manage unpredictable situations.  In contrast, mindless absorption of news and replaying of adverse events serves only to destabilise us and reactivate our stress response.

Bahnu argues that we often look to the past to seek out ways to achieve steadiness, comfort or groundedness.  Unfortunately, our past solutions typically involve short-term solutions which prove to be maladaptive in the medium to long term – solutions such as overeating, drinking excessive alcohol to numb the pain or discomfort, “seeking illicit pleasure”, increasing caffeine consumption or scrolling endlessly through social media to distract us from the challenge of the present moment.  

Drawing on her extensive experience with clients and the increasing body of research on mindfulness, Bahnu asserts that mindfulness practices undertaken with clear intention and self-kindness effectively create “a different input’ for our nervous system than that created by our maladaptive solutions.  In her words, mindfulness is capable of enabling us to “generate a different kind of sensory, emotional and mental response” to unpredictability and the related stimuli such as fear, anxiety and sense of loss of control.

Bahnu argues for creating an “ever-growing toolbox of ever-adaptive and helpful skills” through mindfulness practices. She encourages us to develop a “big variety of options” so that we can resource ourself effectively when we encounter the  diverse challenges associated with unpredictability. Her suggestions for mindfulness practices include:

Bahnu argues that by developing a mindfulness toolbox, we are resourcing ourself for times when we are overwhelmed by the unpredictable such as a chronic illness diagnosis or the death of a loved one.  She provides the example of one of her clients who experienced a “tsunami of grief” to illustrate this point.  As Bahnu explains, when we experience grief our rational, analytical brain is hijacked by the amygdala and our lower brain. This shuts down our capacity to engage in logical thinking and solution generation.  We then need “an escape hatch out of lower brain structures” (limbic system and brainstem). 

Bahnu’s client developed an “escape hatch” in the form of a Mason jar where she stored pieces of paper recording “things that I can do in the moment” – simple things such as drink water, pat an animal, call a friend or relative or breathe deeply and slowly.  On the jar she placed a picture of a life-jacket to remind herself “to put her life-jacket on” by accessing her jar and the suggestions within that could help her “settle herself, come back to the present moment and ground herself”.

The jar proved to be a ready resource that was both physical and accessible and provided a choice of pathways back to mindfulness and groundedness.  It meant that she did not have to think in the moment about what resources she had available to her to access the stability and control provided by mindfulness.

Awareness of our “Circle of Influence”

Bhanu suggests that we think about our Circle of Influence – identifying the things that we can control and those that are outside our control. This then involves letting go of what we can’t control.

By way of example, Bhanu suggested that the things you can’t control include:

  • the weather
  • events beyond our country
  • the emotions or opinions of other people
  • traffic flow
  • natural disasters.

Unfortunately, we can spend a lot of time going over events beyond our control through obsession with the news, over-concern with other people’s views of us, and anxiety about potential natural disasters.

Bhanu indicated that one thing we do have control over is our choices.  For example, we can choose to be continually disrupted by “external noise” or we can spend time with relaxing music, enjoying nature or just being quiet.  We can choose to avoid foods that create a “flare-up” for us or indulge at our own expense. We can also choose how we respond to stimuli – recognising that there is a gap between stimulus and response.

We can choose to listen to our internal critic telling us that “we are not good enough” or “consciously shift to something else” that is positive and helpful.  Our choices extend to controlling our words and tone of voice – we can reaffirm that “I can control what comes out of my mouth”.  Our boundaries are also under our control if we choose –  for example, deciding when to say “yes” or “no”.  We can develop a mindset consistent with an “internal locus of control”– where we are not totally controlled by external events but believe that we have some influence on our environment, are willing to take responsibility for our actions and respond proactively to unpredictable events in our life such as chronic illness.

Reflection

In seeking to manage the unpredictable in our life we can learn from people like Jean-Dominique Bauby.  Despite suffering a massive stroke that left him unable to talk or move, he was able to create his memoir by blinking one eye to let his specialist nurse know word by word what he wanted to say.  His other strategies for gaining stability and control included humour and virtual travel.

As we grow in mindfulness through a range of mindfulness practices, we can enhance our personal resources and develop a readymade toolbox to achieve stability and control in times of unpredictability such as chronic illness or the death of a loved one.

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Image by Martine Auvray from Pixabay

By Ron Passfield- Copyright (Creative Commons license, Attribution-Non-Commercial -No Derivatives.

Disclosure: If you purchase a product through this site, I may earn a commission which will help to pay for the site, the associated Meetup group and the resources to support the blog.

Finding Inspiration When Living with Chronic Illness

I have previously written about the inspiration provided by Joni Mitchell and her remarkable life as a singer/songwriter despite experiencing multiple chronic illnesses.  Joni’s song Both Sides Now epitomizes her approach to chronic illness  – accepting both the dark and the light in her life.  Like many inspiring people she made the most of the light (the good things) in her life.  Joni was rewarded with multiple Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

During the recent online Creative Meetup (for writers-with-chronic-illness), our facilitator, Jennifer Crystal introduced a book by Jean-Dominique Bauby, titled The Diving-Bell & the Butterfly. This book is incredibly inspiring as it shows Jean-Dominique’s ability to make the most of what was a totally debilitating situation.  His book composed under extremely difficult conditions is replete with humour and a commitment to make the most of his devastating chronic illness.

At the time of experiencing his illness he was Editor-in-Chief of the famous Elle FranceElle being the “the  world’s largest fashion and lifestyle magazine”.   While in his early forties, when he was married with two children, he suffered a massive stroke, resulting in a condition known as “locked-in syndrome (LiS)” –  “total paralysis but still have consciousness and their normal cognitive functions”.  All he could do physically was turn his head and wink with his left eye.  Though he frequently experienced pain, he could not breathe, eat or swallow without assistance.

Jean-Dominque described his bodily condition as being “imprisoned in an invisible diving-bell”, while his mind was free to roam “like a butterfly”.  He used his very limited capabilities to revisit his memories and undertake virtual exploration of the world at large.  Though he often described his body as a “cocoon”,  he was not mentally constrained by its disabling limitations.

He used his imagination., for example, to picture his colleagues from 28 countries, striding behind their CEO on route to a major fashion conference where they would be discussing the metaphysical question “What is the ideal Elle woman?”.  Even though he had never been to Hong Kong, the site of the conference, he was able to picture the demeanour of his international colleagues and imagine the location and proceedings.

The Diving-Bell serves as a memoir of Jean-Dominique’s time in a Navy hospital after suffering his stroke.  It captures his shock and disorientation on waking from a 20-day coma to find that he was totally paralysed and unable to talk.  He shares intimate details of his hospital experience and his mental roaming with his uniquely dry humour.   

Communicating with locked-in syndrome

In his memoir, Jean-Dominique explains how he was able to communicate by virtue of his “Guardian Angel”, a speech therapist, who devised an alphabet with the letters of the alphabet arranged in order of the frequency of their use in the French language.  People, medical staff and visitors, could point to the letters in turn and he would wink to indicate that they had chosen the letter he was trying to convey.  This tiresome and slow process enabled him to express his discomfort, needs and wishes.  

The constructed alphabet was the method of communication that he used to dictate his book to Claude Mendibil who was transcribing his communications for publishing. Jean-Dominque stated that he frequently revised letter and words in his head and would memorise paragraphs to communicate them to Claude via this special alphabet.

In true humorous style, Jean-Dominique described his visitors in terms of their ability to utilize the newly devised alphabet to understand his communications.  There were the taciturn people, nervous and reluctant to get a letter or word wrong;  the impulsive who rushed in and anticipated what he was going to communicate (usually getting it wrong) and who saved him the effort of communicating by asking questions and answering them themselves; and the meticulous people who feared they would make a mistake and took things so incredibly slowly that it made an already tedious process more painful and demanding. 

Experience of medical professionals in the hospital

Jean-Dominique’s sense of being “locked in” was further aggravated by the callous treatment he received at the hands of some medical staff.  For example, an ophthalmologist arrived at his bedside unannounced and proceeded to sow together the eyelids of his right eye because the eyelids did not close in that eye – thus exposing his eye to infection  (as he subsequently learned from someone else).

Jean-Dominique described the ophthalmologist as brusque and arrogant with “a couldn’t care less attitude”.  He wondered (in his mind) whether such an uncaring medical professional was retained by the hospital to serve as a target for patients’ dislike of, or  dissatisfaction with, their overall hospital treatment. He himself frequently felt anger but kept it at a manageable level , ”like a pressure cooker”, to prevent uncontrolled release of this emotion.

There were also two orderlies who “unceremoniously dumped” him in a wheelchair (like a piece of dead meat).  Jean-Dominque’s way of managing his own maltreatment at the hands of some medical staff was to silently assign them descriptive names such as “the exterminator”.  He did, however, appreciate the care and concern offered by other medical staff.

Dealing with false rumours

Jean-Dominique not only had to deal with his locked-in syndrome but also with harmful rumours that circulated in Paris about his health condition.  As false rumours began to circulate, he decided to provide Bulletins to his circle of friends and associates (initially 60 people) to report on his life, his progress and his hopes.  He indicated that the first bulletin “repaired some of the damage caused by rumour”.  He heard that the City had “put him down for the count” or, at the very least, that he was in a “vegetable state”.  He was particularly critical of patrons of Café de Flore, “one of those base camps of Parisian snobbery that sent up rumours like flights of carrier pigeons”.  His friends overheard a conversation in the Café where he was being described as a “complete vegetable”.

His correspondence provided “gratifying results” in the form of return letters and the realisation of people that they could ”join him in his cocoon” through writing to him.  This resulted in a daily ritual whereby letters were opened for him and “spread out before his eyes”.  This proved to be a revelatory process about the character and personality of his contacts. 

Reflection

Jean-Dominique demonstrated that although you may be bedridden or severely handicapped, you can travel, at least virtually, by using your memory or intentional imagination. This mental roaming has been facilitated recently by the free release of drone images of multiple countries and scenic sites. I also have a gift from one of my daughters – a digital photo album that can serve to stimulate my memory of places I have visited including Paris, London, Bath, Rome, Lake Como, Turin, Venice and Cartagena.

In out Creative Meetup, after we were introduced to The Diving-Bell & the Butterfly, we were given two prompts for our reflection and writing:

  1. Even if bed-ridden (or compromised in any way),where do you travel in your mind?
  2. How has illness impacted your ability to travel?  You can write about a specific travel experience from the past or one you hope to have in the future.

As I reflected on these questions I became acutely aware that my present chronic health conditions severely restrict my capacity to fly long distances.   In particular, my multilevel spinal degeneration makes lying or sitting in one place for any length of time very difficult, sometimes resulting in sciatica, a condition I experienced previously following a trip from Milan to Hong Kong.  This realisation saddened me, but I resolved to take on board Jean-Dominque’s inspiring journey and undertake virtual travel journeys, aided by visual technology.

Mindfulness practices can help us to regulate our emotions, appreciate what we do have and can do and be more aware of nature and its capacity to inspire wonder and awe.  As we grow in mindfulness, we can find creative solutions to our limitations and constraints.

I composed the following poem when reflecting on our discussion and writing:

Finding Inspiration

There is inspiration everywhere,
if we seek to become aware.

Portability through podcasts,
audibility through audiobooks.

People creatively managing multiple challenges,
resolving restrictions and incredible constraints.

Driven by passion and purpose,
to rethink, reframe and redefine.

Sharing without stint,
shaping their environment.

Their agency hard-earned,
Look, listen and learn.

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Image by Pierre Blaché from Pixabay

By Ron Passfield- Copyright (Creative Commons license, Attribution-Non-Commercial -No Derivatives.

Disclosure: If you purchase a product through this site, I may earn a commission which will help to pay for the site, the associated Meetup group and the resources to support the blog.