Awareness – Page 6 – Henriette Nolte

Don’t let your trauma voice override your inner voice

Posted on October 12, 2023February 15, 2024 by Henriette 1 Comment

Meditation teaches us to observe the various narratives running through our minds on a moment to moment basis. For me, when I observe these narratives, I realise that most of them do not serve me. They’re rarely peaceful and calm. My own streams of thought mostly centre around defensiveness, a sense of impatience, or worry. These are nagging and tend to stifle focus and creativity but they are not hugely destructive. On the other hand, every once in a while an exceptionally destructive narrative comes along. These narratives are different. Not only are they more dangerous to my well-being, they are often also routed in trauma.

Destructive Patterns

Posted on September 12, 2023June 13, 2024 by Henriette 2 Comments

Our thinking when it comes to destructive patterns is often: I’ll deal with this later.

This is a bad approach because destructive patterns are rarely things that can be contained in neat little boxes. These patterns, whether its something dark and consuming, or something small and less concerning, has the irritating tendency to bleed into other areas of our lives.

Maybe we don’t need more discipline. Maybe we need emotional growth

Posted on July 20, 2023January 29, 2024 by Henriette

There is this idea these days that we just have to power through all our discomforts to get to a space where we feel okay with ourselves. We need to do more, be more, become more. We need to smash all of our weaknesses and achieve as much as possible. We have to follow a strict diet and an even stricter exercise regime.

But maybe we don’t need that.

The Mental Tendency to Solve

Posted on July 18, 2023February 15, 2024 by Henriette

I’ve written a few posts on rushing because I know that when I bring repeated awareness to the tendency of rushing, it diminishes the frantic energy around the feeling.

But feeling rushed isn’t the only thing that I’m repeatedly confronted with. During my meditation sessions, I often also become aware that I have a strong tendency to want to solve certain things in my head. This mental looping of problems and solutions, just like rushing, takes me out of the present moment.

Where are you trying to get to?

Posted on June 30, 2023January 27, 2025 by Henriette 1 Comment

It seems like all of us, collectively and individually, are trying to get somewhere. But I don’t know if we know where or what the destination is.

The other day I saw a person overtake four or five cars because the car at the front of the line was driving very slowly. This was on a Sunday and I remember thinking, Where are you trying to get to? Truthfully, that wasn’t the only thing that went through my mind. I was the one in the oncoming lane, and so, I was also momentarily taken in by my own anger. Who knows how much time that person eventually saved by rushing, but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. Does it make up for the carelessness though?

Recognise Rushing

Posted on June 16, 2023February 15, 2024 by Henriette

Rushing can be such a default state for me that I sometimes don’t realise that I’m in it. I still have days that I have to bring repeated awareness to my rushing. Recognising rushing does diminish the intensity of the feeling to some degree.

Living skillfully

Posted on June 12, 2023January 29, 2024 by Henriette

I like the Buddhist idea of living skillfully. The word skillful isn’t weighed down by dogma. It doesn’t have religious baggage associated with it. Also, most people will have a general idea of what it means. A skillful cook prepares tasty food. In the mindfulness context, we are skillful when we can recognise unhelpful emotional states and disengage from it. We’re skillful when we can recognise our own endless wanting and withdraw from that. We’re skillful when we’re kind and gentle. We’re skillful when we’re free from the psychological suffering associated with excessive thinking and worrying. This idea implies that living well is a skill that we can cultivate through practice. It’s something that everyone can learn to do.

Fear is a Motivator—But the Wrong Foundation

Posted on June 7, 2023February 15, 2024 by Henriette

In the past, I’ve often been motivated by fear or worry. Worry about health. Suddenly eat better for a few days. Worry about a deadline. Work to exhaustion. Worry about passing a test. Cram for hours the day before. Fear tends to get us going on some level, but it makes a terrible foundation.

Mindfulness | A strategy for life.

Posted on June 2, 2023February 15, 2024 by Henriette

Life is pain.

Life is suffering

This is true on Earth—but truer on Olrania

These are the introductory sentences of Chasing the Sun, a sci-fi novel that took me multiple years to write. I wanted to touch on a universal truth in those sentences. That everyone—no matter who they are—suffers. Also, things can always get worse. This is certainly the case for the crew of the Algora when they crash land on a desert planet. The story also touches on the idea that, as humans, we are often our own worst enemy.

But this post is not about Chasing the Sun. Rather it is about the suffering that we all have to endure while we are here on Earth. It’s about how we can counter that suffering with a strategy of mindfulness, a strategy to stay present even when things get difficult. My view is that mindfulness lessens our suffering in the moment, but it also moves us closer to peace as we cultivate it.

Why it’s Easier to do Hard Things in Computer Games Than Real Life

Posted on May 31, 2023January 29, 2024 by Henriette

I can write two books in Sims 4 in a single day—a Sim day, not a human day. I can probably finish a library of books in a human day as a Sim. And I can just keep on writing and writing. Sure you have to empty your Sim’s bladder now and then, eat, shower and sleep. But mostly, as a Sim, I can just keep on writing. No thought given to physical aches and pains, doubts, or creative capacity. Never mind the time it actually takes to finish a book. Hint: Not one day. Socialising as a Sim? Only once or twice a week if you take the loner trait. Writers are loners after all. Sure, you get some writer’s block now and then. This lasts a few Sim hours, but you can just fast forward past it. Like Adam Sandler in Click.

Category: Awareness