Spontaneity

Topics from this November 12, 2022 Insight Timer Live event include:

• Overplanning
• Fun
• Expectation
• Balance
• Squirrels
• Making deliberate small differences for bigger changes to occur
• Comfort zone
• Awkwardness
• David Lynch art
• Spontaneous Combustion
• Zen Masters
• Self-control
• Self-awareness
• Restraint
• Spice of life
• Outsourcing life to entertainers
• Looking at the clock
• Travel
• Things in life happening beyond our wildest dreams and goals
• Causes and conditions
• Habits
• Stability
• Intention
• Neuroplasticity
• Stumble Upon
• Ambidexterity
• Drawing exercise without looking
• Having no structure or stability

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The raw unedited YouTube transcription of this podcast:

no well hey there

this is Josh The Bold

integratingpresence.com and sitting by

my door why not

spontaneity being spontaneous how is

everybody this evening

um of course this can’t really be truly

spontaneous because it’s uh I plan this

event right I just did it uh like 48

hours with the minimal notice though

yeah deliberately didn’t meditate and it

is something else to try not to plan for

something like this right because the

mind will just naturally try to come up

with something for something like this

so and what is spontaneous to you guys

what does that mean when have you been

spontaneous when have you not and a lot

of times spontaneity means to me is kind

of more playful and clownish some people

could be more spontaneous than others

some people could probably be less

spontaneous right there seem to be

spontaneous all the time some things

that come to mind when I see squirrels

out I see squirrels a lot it’s just like

they’re just like every every second

there’s like have no

sense of like what will happen next no

kind of predictability in what their

seeing or knowing if it they don’t know

what’s probable or not for me it’s just

like every little moment they don’t know

what’s going to happen

things are seemingly fun when they can

be spontaneous other times they can

catch it can catch people off guard

right like oh I didn’t really expect

that it can really bring our

expectations into balance what’s the

importance of that anyway what’s the

importance of spontaneity I think it I

don’t think there’s really much

overarching reason that I can come up

with it seems like in certain instances

it’s more called for than others

squirrels do know how to put away food

in the winter Marianne says yes they do

and they’re prepared I always wondered

about too do they remember where they

put the nuts all the time or maybe they

just forget and then that tree might

grow or maybe they’re deliberately

planting seeds or something for trees to

grow instead of just storing them for

the wintertime food I’m not sure if I

could only talk to squirrels well I talk

to squirrels sometimes but I don’t know

if I’m getting the right answers back

right who knows I mean the intelligence

of nature you know why do we do things

that we do as well yeah it’s wild huh

another thing I uh that thought about

before with spontaneity is just being

willing and able to just go up and be a

train wreck you know just sit in front

of or just do something on it that you

wouldn’t normally do out of the comfort

zone and not really be bothered by how

people perceive us or what their

response will be or not to be that

doesn’t mean that now the other end of

this is to be like not respectful to

ourselves or others or not caring you

know about anything and then also in

certain situations it’s it’s welcomed in

certain situations maybe it’s not

so does anyone have anything to share

about spawns be spontaneous and share in

the chat right

I’m just gonna sit here and be awkward

for a second until I can figure out

something else to say around spontaneity

which really isn’t that spontaneous

because I’m actually addressing the

topic right out of the ordinary perhaps

I’m going to look up the definition here

and we all kind of know what it is

interesting how spin sanity shows up for

Six Flags I guess it’s a ride in Six

Flags oh obviously misspelled that so

these happy accidents can happen as well

where things were not expecting either

David Lynch I don’t know if I’ve

mentioned this before he mentioned that

he used to take these extreme close-ups

of images and people really didn’t know

what it was because it looked really

abstract and once he told them what I

mean they thought they were beautiful

once he told them what it was so the

perception changed because he told them

well that’s a close-up of you know blood

or pus or something really what we would

normally think of as disgusting

spontaneous human combustion came up

that’s an interesting always makes for a

good movie scene

spontaneous means performed or occurring

as a result of sudden inner impulse or

inclination without premeditation or

external stimulus one thing that comes

to mind with this is Zen Masters right

here

this classic thing in Zim where people

do something out of the ordinary to

disrupt habitual patterns and kind of

give like an Awakening the other end of

this is well if too spontaneous all the

time then there’s like a lack of

self-control lack of training and

awareness because a lot of times to be

spontaneous although we can be

spontaneous and be aware too some people

that are seemingly not as aware or

self-tr trained in Restraint can

seemingly maybe be more spontaneous

so Laura says it adds spice to life

that’s right so if we I mean just the

standard drudgery of every day life

especially for those folks that are in

the kind of wake up eat go to work come

home eat sleep repeat this is another

reason I think we Outsource a lot of Our

Lives to other people and entertainment

and stuff because it’s like it’s

spontaneous in the fact in the sense

that we really don’t know what’s going

to happen and you know shows and

entertainment the good ones right from

what I remember when I used to watch

that stuff more it would get you leading

towards a certain thing where you think

something or you kind of felt something

was going to happen but then it just

didn’t happen that way or you’re you’re

lining up okay well this can happen this

can happen this can happen but then it

actually turns out to be something

entirely different or same way with

humor right so these kind of not

necessarily non-sequiturs but unexpected

how we would expect expect that to be

okay T lady net says lately when I’m off

work I try to be very spontaneous and

not looking at my clock or doing too

much planning doing stuff on the Fly

okay this is good I know that some

people are locked into planning they

like to plant everything me I’m not that

way so much I could actually benefit

from more planning usually when I travel

I get the transportation in line and

then the lodging and then I just kind of

have some ideas of things I might like

to do and just kind of figure it out for

the most part when I get there although

I might have a few things lined up ahead

of time that way I can easily go to plan

B but have a backup for something to do

so I’m not just sitting there wasting

time like okay what do I do now kind of

thing recently buddy and I went on a

trip to Kansas and Colorado and he this

was really cool that he planned like

everything like day by day okay here’s

where we’re staying this is what we’re

doing these are the options we got to

spend a lot I mean make the most out of

our time so people that are really good

at planning you know they can do this

really quick but there’s some people

like me if I were to do that I would end

up spending maybe like two or three days

or something I mean maybe not I’m

exaggerating there coming up with all

this uh these detailed plans and things

and I don’t know I could have spent that

time I don’t know other ways I think uh

just figuring things out when I go and

another time is that if we’re too locked

into a rigid schedule which could be

good by the way because if anybody’s

done formal Zen practice they don’t have

to worry about a lot of things you know

figuring things out and they’re

wondering what they should do next it’s

very rigid and strict and you know

pretty much where you just kind of know

what to expect and there’s not a lot of

distraction and uh the Mind wandering

off and worrying about other things what

to do when to be where whatever you can

just focus on the practice a lot of

times when I go to or when I’m traveling

or just in everyday life some of the

things that I wished and hoped and

planned for dreamed and set goals for

one thing that’s great when they happen

that’s that’s cool sometimes something

similar happens but a lot of times it’s

like life has in store so much more

magical things than I could ever imagine

or things turn out the way we could

never imagine in their wildest dreams

and it was it’s this even more magical

than it could have ever kind of planned

and it’s almost like life is being

spontaneous instead of us being

spontaneous and I wonder though too

about spontaneity if it’s just we’re

perceiving it that way but actually it’s

due to causes and conditions there is a

method in the madness so to speak how

about this what is the most kind of

spontaneous thing you’ve ever done oh

that’s another thing to kind of change

things in life or to have things change

we need to make changes even if it’s

just slightly different so think about

something as inane or remote as putting

your toothbrush in a different location

after you use it even these tiny things

uh surprisingly I found can create maybe

like a butterfly effect or a domino

effect where they can build up and

create other things that happen so just

think about our routines in the day

which are great for a lot of people

because they give structure that way

there’s a lot of time saving right if

there’s a routine kind of know where

things are know what to expect got a

schedule and so it can be efficient in

time but then this can also get really

dry so just think about the kind of

things we do we wake up in the morning

and go through our routine if anybody

has routines and sticks to them

regularly what can be just a slight

difference and this can be like a

mindfulness exercise too where okay with

just without habitual patterns all the

time I can put my toothbrush the same

way you know I go and I fluff my

meditation cushion the same way when I

get up from it right I spin it

counterclockwise maybe a quarter turn so

maybe I could just spend an entire turn

or spend you know a couple extra minutes

or a couple extra seconds fluffing it

more or I could consciously deliberately

intend to not do anything just leave it

the way it is when I get up but be

mindful that I’ve done this as a

conscious choice

now what is the intent for doing this

what is the intent for changing up our

routine and I might just ask the counter

question well what is the intent behind

the things we do the way we do when was

the last time we thought about Our

intention behind just everything in our

daily routine why do I put my toothbrush

on this like three times now it’s the

exact place that it was it is well in my

bathroom

this is so silly to talk about stuff

like this some in a way is I turn it

upside down I don’t have a toothbrush

holder and that way it drips it could

drip down if there’s anything excess on

it it the head sticks out in the in the

sink so the air can dry it quicker and

it doesn’t get bacteria on it or germs

or whatever

so there’s the intent behind that but

like I’m not really conscious of that

maybe even when the first time I moved

in my place I thought about that you

know and ever since I just it’s never

changed what does that do if we’re

repeating the same thing over and over

and over again what kind of effects does

that have well I think it could be like

I said earlier stability and

predictability but what if I were to

change that slightly what if I were to

change two or three things in my routine

what would that do would it have an

effect in the mind and you know have a

certain outcome says actions have

results right but then again whereas the

intention derived from for this and does

that matter I would say yes it does

matter but in this case the intention

would just be I want to do something

different it’s not much more conscious

than that in this case I would say now

you can maybe put the intention behind I

want to make changes in my life I want

something different different in my life

and I’m going to start with this really

simple choice of doing something

different in my everyday life

I’ll have to do this myself again

because from what I remember other

things in life did change just because I

did something as simple as this that I’m

talking about now but I it would be a

lot better story or thing to say if I

could remember kind of the exact timing

and I’m not saying one deliberately

caused but it was just an interesting I

guess I don’t know either synchronicity

or coincidence or occurrence however you

want to say it

[Music]

foreign

so is that I guess that’s kind of

spontaneous I don’t know Geraldine if

I’m saying that right changing small

things in the routine is good for

neurosplasticity and brain health

absolutely just think about how those if

I’m getting this right the neural

networks they have the groove right they

they fire together they wire together

and they fired they fire together they

wire together and it’s just the same uh

grooves or I mean maybe those turn into

like ruts if we’re doing the same thing

over and over again so this is why they

often say for older people to do like

Puzzles and um quizzes and things new

that exercise their brain they’re do

they’re doing something new in their day

that they’ve never done before in a way

or you can have like a container where

um like a Sudoku Sudoku puzzle am I

saying that right where things change

and it’s it’s in a way it’s kind of the

same so there’s a familiarity but in

another way there’s variation and things

like this learning is obviously a new

thing there was oh back in the day there

was this thing on the internet called

StumbleUpon I don’t know if it’s still

around or not but this was the coolest

thing we installed and you’d install

this toolbar called StumbleUpon and it

would just take you to a random or

seemingly random website right and then

I guess you could actually add whatever

website you would come across to the

stumble upon there’s this little button

and you can just click it you just go to

this random page on the internet click

it again another one and it’s

interesting kind of what showed up I

don’t know what happened to that but

yeah brushing your teeth with the other

hand that’s that’s really interesting

right doing uh things with their other

hands unless you’re ambidextrous then

you’re probably doing that already or

riding oh yeah that’s interesting there

was this um drawing technique in high

school way a long time ago in art class

where we had to do something blindfolded

we had to kind of are no not necessarily

blindfolded it’s like you you look at a

drawing and then you could not look at

where you’re drawing you could only look

at what the the copy was and then you

just had to keep going until you’re

completely done you know you had to kind

of force yourself to make mistakes and

not look and have feedback and then at

the very at the very end you could look

and see what it was like when you’re

finished and so that forces kind of a

change or spontaneity without our

habitual way of doing things

now some people I would think are as the

opposite where they they’re like have no

structure no really stability or

constants in their lives like everything

is if it’s not in the state of chaos

then they’re just completely distracted

or just don’t really know what’s going

next I don’t think this is Extreme for a

lot of people but it’s just like I don’t

know maybe this spontaneity wouldn’t be

as good a thing for them I don’t know

but then again maybe we can learn a lot

from those folks that for those of us

who like to plan and structure and

things like this

okay I guess I the question what is

spontane or when was the last time

you’ve been spontaneous or witnessed

this spontaneous act and I’m not I can’t

even think of anything off the top of my

head other than what I’ve done

may you all find

loveliness and all the best spontaneity

in your life

for all the best reasons