Workplace Wellbeing

5 minutes with... mindfulness expert Choden

Cami Hogg

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

A former lawyer-turned-mindfulness expert, Choden has been practising as a Buddhist monk for over seven years. We sit down with him ahead of his new Series, launching in January, for a quickfire Q&A on his philosophy on cultivating mental wellbeing.

If we can accept the fact that our inner world is messy – not neat and tidy – and it is not our fault that we are the way we are, then real change is possible.
Choden

 

What key things drew you to working with Unmind?

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I like the idea of having online series that make different mental health solutions available to people in a way that is accessible and private. I also like the idea of having a combination of short presentations and practice instructions. It is always good to give people short practices to do as a way of internalising ideas so that these can become a living reality.

What does the statement "We all have mental health, all of the time" mean to you?

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To me this means that we all inhabit a changing inner landscape of thoughts, emotions and mental scenarios that is often conflicted and difficult. The Buddha said that the unenlightened mind is like this – and so too did modern psychologists like Paul Gilbert, the founder of Compassion Focused Therapy. 

If we can accept the fact that our inner world is messy – not neat and tidy – and it is not our fault that we are the way we are, then real change is possible. From an evolutionary perspective, we did not design our drives and emotions. They were forged in the long evolutionary process of life going back millennia. And, from the perspective of natural selection, the key issue is survival and procreation, not being happy. 

But we can work on being happy and creating mental wellbeing. The key point is that we need to maintain an ongoing relationship with our mind. Mindfulness is very important here. This allows us to stand back and become familiar with our own minds, and to learn what to cultivate and what not. If we feed anger and anxiety, then these get stronger; but if we feed kindness and appreciation then these get stronger. Our mind is like a garden. If we do not pay attention to it then weeds will grow – negative mind states and habits – but if we water our garden, give it enough sunlight and be careful about what seeds we plant, then we can gradually cultivate enduring happiness and wellbeing.

What is your experience with your own mental health?

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For many years I struggled psychologically, and I was beset by painful, unresolved childhood issues. But I have practiced mindfulness meditation over many years and things have changed significantly. Looking back, a big part of the problem was how I was perceiving my experience. I came to see that the inner world is very changeable – nothing is that fixed and solid inwardly. The problem is that our ideas and beliefs about ourselves can make things seem fixed and solid, and this is what traps us. It certainly trapped me for a long time. 

If we can get the direct experience that none of our concepts or beliefs or ideas about ourselves are actually true, then things can loosen up in a big way. And if we then add self-kindness and compassion to the mix something wonderful can grow in the garden of our mind. Nowadays I feel consistently well. There is a baseline of inner well-being. Issues still come up, as well as strong emotions, but I do not take them too seriously. Instead, I align myself to the experience of inner well-being that I consistently nurture.

What is one way that you take care of your own mental health every day? Why is this habit so important for you?

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I practice mindfulness meditation every day, once in the morning and once in the evening. During the day, I do my best to maintain presence of mind as well as self-kindness, and I try not to take the ups and downs of daily life too seriously. I tend to the garden of my mind moment by moment, making sure that weeds are not growing and watering the flowers and healing herbs. This makes all the difference in the world.

What book would you say has had the biggest positive impact on your life? Why?

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A Path with Heart by Jack Kornfield. This is a classic book on meditation that is designed for the modern Western practitioner. It had a big impact on me because it described the struggles of modern people and the obstacles and pitfalls of meditation and how to find our way through them. What really struck me is the fact that we need to tend to the garden of our mind in a wholehearted way. There needs to be passion and commitment and enthusiasm, and then all kinds of wonderful things can grow.

If you could encapsulate the key piece of wisdom you've acquired over your life in regard to your own mental wellbeing, what would that be?

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To realise that we all struggle. Everyone has mental health issues, not just people who see themselves as having them. As the Buddha famously said, “life is suffering”, but if we face this suffering honestly and directly, then we can find happiness in the midst of an imperfect life and a turbulent world. The most important thing is our own perception of ourselves and the world we live in. 

If we view difficulty as a problem it becomes a problem; if we frame our experiences as being mental health issues, then they become issues. But, if we see the problems, issues and difficulties in our lives as the fertiliser for the growth of a wise heart and a proactive mind, this changes everything. If we choose happiness and seek to create the conditions for it, then happiness will follow even if the conditions of our lives are hard. How we view things is everything. 

As Shakespeare, famously said in Hamlet: “There is no such thing as good or bad but thinking makes it so.” This is it in a nutshell. Once we have reframed our way of seeing ourselves, the next thing is to patiently tend to the garden on the mind. This is an ongoing activity, just like a gardener is always tending to their garden. If we can learn to love our garden and delight in the job of being the gardener, this will help hugely, and our garden will flourish. Even if there is lots of difficulty and confusion and pain in our lives, if we see it as compost for the growth of the plants and flowers, then we cannot go wrong.

In January, Choden will be part of an exciting new partnership between the University of West Scotland (UWS) and the Mindfulness Association. This will entail a three-year part-time MSc focused on training people to become Mindfulness and Compassion teachers eligible to be listed on the British Association for Mindfulness Based Approaches (BAMBA). For more details please visit the website

You can also take advantage of The Mindfulness Association’s free daily sits each day at 10.30am and 7pm for one hour during the Covid-19 pandemic. Click here to find out more.

If you liked this post, check out our previous Q&A with collaborator Dr Guy Winch here.