So, last night I stroll into my favorite casino and am greeted, as I always am, by the girl on the screen of the ten foot tall, six-seater, Let it Ride poker machine. The girl—who on any given day can be a brunette or a blonde, in a red bathing suit or black lingerie, in front of a pool or in a ball room, but always always with gargantuan breasts—is the bane of my existence.
As soon as she comes into sight, I tense up. I can feel my blood boil. I give Rey the “even think about it and your eating anti-freeze laced Jello for dessert” look, then proceed to stare down each man at the machine and silently tear them a new one as they drool over the plastic breasts dealing their cards.
According to this article, that is where I went wrong.
Apparently I exhibit a low level of “mindfulness” when I judge the whore and the slime bags who are salivating over her. Instead of labeling them “bad,” as the article puts it, (which is much nicer than the set of words I had in mind), I should accept it for what it is. If I'm interested in avoiding anxiety, that is.
According to the article, passing judgment inevitably leads to anxiety because it’s not mindful, and mindfulness is described as the following:
Hmm...so under this theory the whore isn’t a whore and the slime bags aren’t slime bags? I’m the one with the problem? I’ll have to marinate on this for a while...
As soon as she comes into sight, I tense up. I can feel my blood boil. I give Rey the “even think about it and your eating anti-freeze laced Jello for dessert” look, then proceed to stare down each man at the machine and silently tear them a new one as they drool over the plastic breasts dealing their cards.
According to this article, that is where I went wrong.
Apparently I exhibit a low level of “mindfulness” when I judge the whore and the slime bags who are salivating over her. Instead of labeling them “bad,” as the article puts it, (which is much nicer than the set of words I had in mind), I should accept it for what it is. If I'm interested in avoiding anxiety, that is.
According to the article, passing judgment inevitably leads to anxiety because it’s not mindful, and mindfulness is described as the following:
...awareness, acceptance, description, and act. Awareness is the ability to observe without judgment what is going on around and inside of the individual. When someone has awareness, they can sit back and recognize both internal and external events. Acceptance is the ability to deal with what is really going on, saying, “This is what is,” without placing judgments of “good” or “bad” on the situation. Description is the ability to put words to those events. It’s the ability to use language to describe one’s feelings and thoughts and the events that triggered those feelings and thoughts. Act is simply that; the ability to take action after conscious, mindful deliberation.
Hmm...so under this theory the whore isn’t a whore and the slime bags aren’t slime bags? I’m the one with the problem? I’ll have to marinate on this for a while...
4 comments:
LOL, Leila! I've been dabbling in mindfulness (and just signed up for an 8 week course, in fact) but no where have I read that you shouldn't think thoughts about whores who are dealing cards to slimy men. All the things I've read say that it's about not judging your own thoughts and just letting them be, so in fact, this article is the antithesis of mindfulness because if you're thinking judging thoughts about a casino skank, then you're supposed to not judge THOSE thoughts. Have I mentioned that this is a concept that makes very little sense to me? Well, if not it should be obvious from my above ramblings. My advice? Glare at the whore. She needs a little negative feedback to balance out all the drooling.
-Addie
Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that everyone at the place is in a freaking casino!!!!
Need I whipser the word "heathen"? How about "hedonism"?
Leila, find you a place of worship, like a bar for heaven's sake.
Leila,
First, let me say that I fell asleep somewhere in the second paragraph of that article--reminds me of many textbooks I've had the misfortune to use. But here's my take on the idea of acceptance: The whore is still a whore, and the slimebags are still slimebags, but it's not supposed to bother you. And I suppose that's something to strive for, sort of. As long as we don't get too accepting of the slime we can do something about. But we would probably give our bodies a break if we weren't clenching all the time over stuff we can't control. The Serenity prayer comes to mind here...can one still use it while downing 8 Coors Lights?
I think you can definitely claim a sense of humor; lucky for the rest of us.
Addie:
Now your talking my language. Don't judge my own thoughts...hmm. That's also a huge problem for me. I need to research this more, it definitely sounds like something I could benefit from.
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Sean:
Don't EVER bad mouth casinos, especially mine!
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Trish:
Nicely put. That is a reasonable goal to strive for. I'm sure all the needless time I spend worrying about external forces is probably taking years off my life! Great, another thing to worry about.
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