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In BrainStyles™, there is a unique concept called “Time Zero.” Simply put, Time Zero is when you confront a new or unfamiliar situation and must use your natural brain hardware to think through an answer and take action, rather than remember what to do. This requires our natural brain processing, or brainstyle. Often this is disconcerting when we expect ourselves to be smart, quick, and know what we’re doing. We give up authenticity in favor of looking good.
I am reminded of the work of a Buddhist Nun called Pema Chodron. Her work is focused on the expansion of awareness– coming awake– by fully focusing on living in the moment without judgment. This does not exclude faith or reliance on God. She speaks to living in the moment no matter what, but especially when faced with discomfort, pain, stress, or decision.
All the great teachers talk of surrender in some form. The notion of Time Zero is rich in opening one’s awareness in the moment of stress or decision to slightly shift the focus to gifts, to strengths, to what works instead of what does not. This Buddhist philosophy says to enter these moments without judgment, to “neither indulge or repress” emotions or thoughts, but to let them be–thus opening the space for love and acceptance to emerge from who we truly are.
To those of us who seek to expand our lives, when faced with the thought that we have reached our limit, that we cannot endure the embarrassment or assault or shame, she asks that we open to the fullness of the moment’s emotions or thoughts and be with them in order to open our hearts more fully and truly to the love that is always available. “We will be softened by the sheer force of whatever energy arises…that very energy [of fear, anger, or resentment] to “go beyond hope and fear” into the unknown of the moment and trust the wisdom that is available within us at every moment. “How do we work with our minds when we meet our match? Rather than indulge or reject our experience, we can somehow let the energy of the emotion, the quality of what we’re feeling, pierce us to the heart. This is easier said than done, but it’s a noble way to live. It’s definitely the path of compassion–the path of cultivating human bravery and kindheartedness”.
Just how willing are we to lighten up and loosen our grip? she asks. As we embrace our strengths, it begins the process of loving kindness with ourselves and naturally expands to relationships. The most natural, authentic way to do so is in the moment, unrehearsed, out of a series of decisions and meditative practice we use to open our view from critique to seeing what is, without judgment. The outcome she speaks of, and that I hope to teach to many through the BrainStyles work, is to treat yourself with loving kindness which is NOT “self-improvement” or building yourself up, it’s a process by which self-deception becomes so skillfully and compassionately exposed that there’s no mask that can hide us anymore.” We embrace the fullness of who we are and who we are not, and we do so by embracing the moment, allowing more Time Zeroes. We allow an open approach to situations with the freshness and trust of valuing ourselves and others.
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