S.E.E.I.T.

Everything happens so fast. In the blink of an eye, sensations, emotions and thoughts come and go. We usually remain unaware of these reactions to internal and external experiences, and remain as slaves to our conditioning from culture, family, and ourselves. To break these unconscious chains, we can learn to pause, look closely at what is happening and make choices. Psychologist (and holocaust survivor) Victor Frankl summed up our situation, and opportunity, when he said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lie our growth and our freedom.”

Mindfulness meditation can be one of the ways to take that pause, that moment or breath, to stop and look at what is happening. But, what if what we witness, or observe, is overwhelming and/or jumping from one thing to another? What do we do when the sensations, emotions and/or thoughts are arising and passing, seemingly all at once, or in rapid secession?

One of the means that can be used to decipher, and simplify our experience is by naming or labeling what we see moment to moment. There are a number of aphorisms and techniques that are available for such practice. Here is one called S.E.E.I.T., which can define and refine our observation and understanding of what we are aware of.

S.E.E.I.T. encompasses everything and anything that may come into our consciousness or awareness. S stands for Senses. E is for Emotion. The second E denotes Emptiness. I is the letter for Intention. And T is our Thoughts.

Senses include all that can be felt, heard, tasted, smelled, spoken or seen.
Emotions are a spectrum including sadness, joy, grief, pain, laughter, anger.
Emptiness is when there are no emotions, thoughts, senses or intentions.
Intention arises as desire and/or wishes and motivations.
Thoughts can be seen as P.U.F.F. (Past, Unfolding, Fantasy or Future).

Each of these aspects of our mind, and our experience of living, can be separated further into more distinct categories, and labels for objects of our awareness, but S.E.E.I.T. more than suffices for beginning and experienced practice. It is a way to remember, a means to slow down, pause and see what is happening in our body moment by moment. It can assist our understanding that what is going on internally and externally is not who we are, but what we are experiencing in the present. It is a step towards not only creating “space” between stimulus and response, but also identifying what happens in that space and giving us insight and freedom to choose.

A Vegan Love Song

Wanna Be Cowgirl AKA Vegan Love Song
by Gabriel Constans
Video on YouTube

If you want to be a cowgirl, whose out on the run.
Sing to the cattle and sit on your bum.
Know people who eat cows, get sick and die young.
Their hearts just can’t take it, they wonder what’s wrong.

If you want to be a cowboy, and ride those hills.
You know it’s a lonely life, that can make you ill.
There’s stuff to step in, cold nights and hot days.
Knowing your destroying the earth, in tragic ways.

If you still want to be a cowgirl, you gotta do it right.
Keep the doggies moving, in herds day and night.
Use recycled water, to fill up their troughs.
No pesticides and lots of room to trot.

If you still want to be a cowboy, and get sunburned pores.
With blisters from pointy boots, and saddle sores.
Keep on believing, the romance of the west.
Walk bull-legged and be tougher than the rest.

It’s nothing personal, I can relate.
A lot of good people think cowgirls first rate.
But if we raise cattle, to slaughter and chew.
We must know what that does, to me, them and you.