Short YouTube mini-chapter by Brian Johnson advising listeners to notice and interrupt negative emotional patterns—using Pema Chodron’s ‘concrete garden’ metaphor—to prevent rumination and preserve the ‘goodness garden’ of life. Encourages concrete, immediate actions (breathing, movement, singing) and references research and Sonya Lieborsky’s The How of Happiness as supporting sources.
Hi, this is Brian with another mini chapter from A Philosopher's Notes. This one's called Concrete Gardens. Pema Chodron, a rockin Buddhist nun, tells us we need to catch ourselves the moment we fall into old negative patterns. Failing to do so is like pouring concrete over that potentially beautiful garden that is our lives. And well, concrete gardens pretty much suck. So let's not do that. Make it a game. See if you can catch yourself right as you slip into Weenieville. Notice your pissiness. Fear, anger, anxiety, overwhelm right when it arises. And see if you can aikido that energy into something more constructive. Doesn't matter what you do, just do anything other than that old destructive pattern. Take a dozen deep breaths, go for a walk, sing a song, do a few push ups or jumping jacks, go for a run, whatever it takes to break the pattern and and let your goodness garden bloom before you dump a ton of concrete all over it. P.S. for the record, scientific research supports this whole concrete garden dealio. They say bad mood plus rumination equals toxic. In fact, specifically, Sonya Lieborsky points that out to us in her book the how of Happiness. Check out the philosopher's note on that for more goodness or the book itself, of course. And let's create goodness Gardens, not concrete gardens. Hope you dug it. Look forward to sharing more. In the meantime, have an awesome day. See you.
