The Healing Circle Book Chapter Blog Chapter 15 - Why Meditate?

Read Chapter Fifteen:  Why Meditate

Watch the Video:  This webpage contains several guided meditations. Try “Creating Space for Healing” to which combines “Present Focus” attention and Healing Visualization.

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Blog by Dr. Rob Rutledge

Strengthening your Brain’s ‘Present Focus’ Pathway

“Start by thinking about your feet.

How your feet have carried you a fair distance today.  Where they’ve taken you, walking, driving, sitting.

Comparing one foot to the other, notice any judgements or evaluations…

See whether you like one foot or the other foot.

See if you have any worries about your feet – anything that is medically oriented or unknown sensations.

See whether there are any future-oriented things related to your feet. Maybe you have a pedicure that is scheduled, or you have to redo your toenail polish.

Continuing to think about your feet and let whatever comes up in your mind be there. Just think about your feet.

Now stop and redirect your attention back to your feet but this time…

Just become aware of whatever sensations are present in this part of the body. Maybe feeling the way the feet are pressing down against the floor through soles of the shoes.

Perhaps feeling the points of contact of the big toe, the little toe, the heel, the ball of the foot.

Noticing any sensations between the toes, any moisture, any  heat, any energy…

Bring your attention to the foot itself encased in the shoe, any sense of tightness, pressure, throbbing.

Just allow any sensations to come up as you’re experiencing your feet in this way.”

From Dr. Zindel Segal’s Ted Talk “The Mindful Way through Depression”. 

Dr. Segal, a world-renowned psychiatrist at the University Toronto, later explains how the two ways of contemplating your feet map to two different neural pathways in your brain. In the first half of the exercise, when we intellectualize the concept of our feet (worrying, comparing, thinking about the future or past) we are using some of the higher executive functions in the frontal lobe of the brain.  In the second half of the exercise, when we directly experience our feet, it lights up the “present focus pathway” of the brain.  He explains that practicing mindfulness allows us to process information from both of these pathways at the same time. We can be mindful of our thoughts about something, and we can simply experience the sights, sounds, sensations of life without adding extra thoughts. 

Eckhart Tolle, a spiritual teacher who wrote the international bestseller The Power of Now, also discusses these two aspects of our experience.  He recognized that most people get caught up in and identified with their thinking mind (the first pathway), and have lost touch with sacredness of the present moment.  His teachings focus on bringing people back to the now which he also calls stillness. Interestingly, I heard him acknowledge recently that we need both thinking pathways in our lives. He calls himself an outlier because he claims to spend more than 80% of his life living in the now with only a small portion of his time thinking conceptually (eg. planning for the future). He also said that Oprah exemplifies a healthy balance – being both incredibly effective in the outer world and able to stay connected with the timeless, formless spiritual realm of her life.

 Most of us spend too much of our time caught up in thinking about future and past and so need to build up the ‘present focus’ pathways in our brains so we can get closer to the balance that Oprah appears to possess. Practicing meditation and learning to bring our minds back to the now (without adding mental commentary) also has profound health benefits, such as higher energy, improved mood, and fewer stress hormones in our body which can cause inflammation and damage to our bodies. Strengthening our connection with the present moment also allows us to access the depth of our spiritual life – and reconnect with the essence of our being. 

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Dr. Rob Rutledge is a Radiation Oncologist in Halifax, Nova Scotia, specializing in breast, prostate and pediatric cancers. He is also an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University.

In 1999, Rob co-created the ‘Skills for Healing’ Cancer Weekend Retreats. These weekend support groups teach a powerful and integrated approach to the cancer diagnosis and ways to heal at levels of body, mind and spirit. To date, more than 1,600 people have attended the retreats in over 20 cities across Canada and abroad. 

Rob also leads the Healing and Cancer Foundation, a Registered Charity, that freely offers educational videos, documentaries, and webcasting seminars – and he is co-author of a book called The Healing Circle, which captures the teachings and inspirational stories from the weekend retreats.

In 2010, Rob received Cancer Care Nova Scotia’s Award for Excellence in Patient Care and, in 2006 Doctors Nova Scotia presented him with the Health Promotion Award in recognition of his contribution to physician health and health promotion in cancer patients.