Lisa Z. Lindahl

March 8, 2015

Practice Being Wary of “The Truth”

“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest; but the myth — persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.

~John F. Kennedy, at Yale University, 1962

This is one of my favorite Beauty practices. In part because it has a certain shock factor for some people first hearing of it and I can be mischievous. But mostly because it is a constant practice for me. It is a constant challenge to my daily operating assumptions. (My “doa”s?? Hmmm).

I don’t really believe in “truth” as I understand adherents of Science and the Age of Reason to use/define it. I find truth to be relative, subjective. This shocks my fundamentalist friends — whether they be vegan, Christian, Scientologist, or Democrat… .

A man of science who I heard speak once revealed that he and other scientists and researchers held a particularly skeptical attitude towards scientific theory: “SAFN,” an acronym for Somewhat Adequate For Now. To wit: inquiry into a realm of the largely unknown (say, quantum physics or deep space) would go on until an apparent pattern or story began to form from clues and evidence that was gathered over a period of time. Said story was then extrapolated into a probable scenario and, with a certain amount of agreement among the parties involved, deemed a bona fide “theory.” The definition for theory is “speculation, assumption, conjecture.” Left unchallenged by new or different speculation, assumption, etc., said theory starts to be assumed “truth” by the general public, and SAFN by the scientific communty. Often it is the very longevity of a theory that seems to be their proof. Think Big Bang Theory or the Theory of Relativity. Once it was the theory that the sun revolved around the earth…or that the earth (clearly!) is flat. You get the idea.

So what is true?

The concept of truth is, actually, very useful. It helps create our shared reality, core ethics and intent. However, the universe is expanding as it must, including all the dogmas, doctrines, “truths” that have gone before, are currently in vogue today, and those truths that are awaiting our discovery of them.

Currently we live in the Age of Reason, Logic and Science. I hold that in some ways it is the Dark Age of Reason and Science in that it disallows so many other ways of knowing. Specifically “gnowing.” Gnowing? Many indigenous cultures take for granted inner knowingness — gnowing is that way of discerning a current truth or sensing True Beauty through these many other conduits of garnering information. We often associate these “other conduits” to body parts: heart, gut, third eye. Some just toss it off as intuition.

To Practice “truth wariness:”

1) Be flexible in your perspective on truth. Challenge your own assumptions about the nature of a person, place, or thing.

2) Become aware of historical shifts in “The Truth”. Educate yourself about different belief systems. Reject anything touting itself as an “absolute truth” (including this statement).

3) Listen deeply to yourself; express your own truth with compassion for that of others. Communicate it with the intent to create an evolutionary response, not only from those without — but within yourself as well. Strive to not cultivate “fixed” ideas.

4) Deeply listen to others. What is true for them? Can you see it? Is it as they say? Can you live their truth for a bit without having to adopt it?

5) Examine your need to be “right.” Is it serving you or not? Do you want to be right, or do you want to be effective?

6) Make choices that move you in your correct direction. Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti says this about the nature of truth: “Truth is not a fixed point; it is not static; it cannot be measured by words; it is not a concept, a idea to be achieved.” (Keeerect in my book!)

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” ~Buddha

The concepts of Truth and Beauty are often paired. It is assumed that one informs, or proves, the other. I contend that “truth” is a moving target — as is the popular notion of beauty (i.e. “glamour” — think fashion, aesthetic trends, etc.). But True Beauty is eternal, unwavering. It is as harmony: manifesting in many different instruments, relationships, and vibrations, but always … always harmonic.

photo by Lisa Z Lindahl — so many apples of knowledge to bite into

March 1, 2015

Seeking Serenity in the Suburbs

I don’t know when it began. Maybe when I was a child and we lived out in the country of New Jersey. (Yes, New Jersey had lots of country back then — we couldn’t see another house from our second story windows). I would wander in the woods around the house and talk to the trees. I believed in elves and fairies and would sit motionless on a mossy log for hours (it seemed to me) waiting for them to show themselves. I would skate on Silver Lake and notice the pine trees rimming its edge, glistening in white winter sun, their lower branches encased in mysterious dark ice beneath my skates.

Somewhere along the line I came to know and cherish serenity. And its beauty.

As a business woman, busybusybusy, I would savor the Sunday mornings I didn’t have to travel. With classical music, coffee and the NY Times and no other human in sight all day, I wouldn’t get dressed. The gardens, sunlight and the birds outside were company. My cats. Was I odd, I wondered?

When that chapter of my life ended I sought serenity in a house on a lake. Until others built nearby I had my serenity; only the internal demons to deal with. But time passes and circumstances change. I am back in suburbia again, seeking the serenity beyond the EMS sirens, the neighbors’ barking dogs, and miscellaneous workman coming and going from the never-ending fixer-upper next door. A friend reminds me that these are externals, that true serenity lies within. I know he is mostly correct. I genuinely feel gratitude for this place, my friends here, my blessed level of havingness. I read Thomas Merton for strength and reminding. I do my best to practice True Beauty. I am not perfect. As Martin Prechtel espouses: “Shamans are not holy people…”. Thank heavens, literally.

There are elves and fairies in this Southern garden, I know. I suspect a gnome as well.

March 1, 2015

Women’s History Month & Me

Two things have occurred recently that bring me to the page today: March being Women’s History Month and the Smithsonian Museum of American History contacting me about my role in that history.

Really?! Well, yes — but it is so very nice to have the Smithsonian recognize it!

“…the sports bra revolutionized women’s sports more than any other development besides Title IX.”

And one of my claims to fame, as they say, is that way back in 1977 I invented the very first sports bra (it was called a Jogbra at the time), and founded the Company that marketed and sold it. Of course, I was only 10 years old (kidding, kidding). Many years later we sold our entrepreneurial success to a big corporation.

Since there are so many urban — and suburban — legends about how this woman’s Horatio Alger story unfolded, I think the occasion of Women’s History Month and the Smithsonian’s active recognition of the sports bra’s influence in said history is an opportune time to tell the early history of the birth of an idea and its transformation into a thriving business that facilitated the entry and performance of women in sports.

The 1970s were the beginning of the fitness “revolution” in this country. At the time I was in the vanguard of those who were “jogging.” Logging about 30 miles a week I found myself with an annoying and private problem: uncomfortable and sometimes painful breast movement while running. One day my sister telephoned me, complaining of a similar concern and distraction, asking me if I had any solutions. I told her of wearing a bra one size too small, of wearing nothing, of cutting runs short. We bemoaned our predicament. Then she quipped: “Why isn’t there a jockstrap for women?” We laughed uproariously. “It would just be on a different part of the body,” I said between laughter hiccups. Today she claims I went on to say “I think I’ll do that, make one of those.” I don’t remember. What I do remember is after the call, sitting down and thinking that it wasn’t such a silly idea; why not a “jock bra?” What functions would such a garment have to fulfill to make me and my sister happy, comfortable? I sat down with pencil and paper and made a list.

Polly is my childhood friend who grew up to become a successful costume designer (6 Emmys to date). In our 8th grade sewing class she got an A and I flunked. She and I would try to cut gym classes together. Neither of us liked the silly gym uniforms they made us wear back then; we were artsy, not athletic. Field hockey!? Yuck! So imagine her surprise when in my 20’s I became a jogging fanatic. Which she discovered when she took a costume design job in my town and rented a room in my house for the duration of the job’s run.

So it was up the stairs I went to Polly on that early summer day. “Pol, can you make me a bra for jogging? Here’s what it would need to do.” She rolled her eyes at me. She explained that bras were engineered, not just designed and draped, as they had to support as well as cover. I didn’t take no for an answer, and so embarked our summer of making prototypes.

We weren’t having luck. One day, my then-husband decided to crash our design meeting and cheer Polly and me up. He came in the room wearing his jock strap over his head and around his chest upside down, declaring loudly “Here’s your Jock Bra, ladies!” We laughed and laughed. I took it from him and imitated what he’d done, pulling the jockstrap over my head, its cup embracing one of my breasts. Stunned, I looked at Polly. “Polly. Look — the straps could cross in back. Two cups. Wide rib band… might work!”

And the first working prototype was born the next day when Polly sent her assistant, Hinda, to buy 2 jockstraps. Polly cut them up, sewed them back together, cup next to cup, and I went running in it later that day, with Hinda jogging backwards in front of me to see how much I bounced. So, yes. For all those people who ask me if it is true that the first sports bra was two jockstraps sewn together, the answer is: yes.

My report on that prototype: best yet. But the fabrics were awful. One of my most important design criteria was that the bra not chafe. Polly booked a flight to New York to shop better fabrics for our new baby, asking Hinda to watch over the costume shop (and her job) while she was gone. We were excited. Returning about a week later, Polly had a then revolutionary new fabric in hand: poly/cotton/lycra. She’d also found acceptable elastics and thread, no easy task I learned. Who knew there was more than one kind of thread? Polly sewed up a final prototype and I went for a run. What I did know: it was a winner.

The summer was drawing to a close. Polly finished her job and decamped back to home in Manhattan. Hinda went off to teach in South Carolina. I had my prototype, the precious prototype. What next? I called my brother-in-law, my sister’s then husband, for business advice. He contacted one of those “we’ll market your invention” companies and signed a contract with them. I got all huffy. He wasn’t me! He had no authority to sign the contract! He’d given them money. He got all huffy. Oh dear. I paid him back the money and tore up the contract. Thanksgiving that year was a bit sticky. I could have left all this bit out of my story, but I think that it is important to note mis-steps as well as good steps. Life and progress ain’t all roses.

An attorney friend suggested I incorporate, using the share issuance as a way to acknowledge Polly for her help. But I knew Polly would not want to leave her path and go into the Jog bra biz. She’d said so. And Hinda had been very enthusiastic. She hadn’t been cutting gym classes growing up. And she was a skier. And she knew how to sew! So I incorporated and issued myself, Polly and Hinda shares in the fledgling business.

At this point one might say “and the rest is history”… stock ownership kerfuffles, seizures, pregnancies, Brandi Chastain, Playtex Apparel, Sara Lee, Champion Sportswear and all. That is, alas, missing out on some of the most important and dramatic parts, not the least of which is the significant role that Hinda came to play. Or the personal growth that occurs in learning to run a business; all the great employees who grew with us — such stories! Learning to operate within a partnership; to run a women-owned business selling women’s products in a male-dominated industry: sporting goods. To learn what it takes and what it means to sell a business that was “your baby.”

Or what happens to and for three women over the course of three decades as the result of one idea — the right product at the right time. But this is a blog, not a book…so

Happy Women’s History Month!

And here’s a challenge for my readers: Does True Beauty show up in this tale?

February 15, 2015

Not New, Just All Important Now…

I wish I could say that this notion of Beauty as an applied philosophy and daily practice was my brainchild. I can’t. True Beauty as the central tenet of a society is not new, just ancient and mostly forgotten now. I am ringing the bell. What The Way of Beauty as I put it forth is doing is remembering and urging action. Saying — no screaming — that True Beauty must be reclaimed now. And you and I can do it ourselves, so easily really.

It will save us, and our earth. True Beauty is what keeps the universe in sync. In harmony. In balance. Expanding.

True Beauty is the raison d’être of the Universe.

I am not exaggerating. It is our prejudices and preconceived notions of what “beauty” can be, can mean, might be capable of that make us scoff at the notion of True Beauty as a power. As the reason our Universe exists and continues to expand. When I first was struck with this notion it was one part intuition and 3 parts instinctual certainty. But I thought I might be a little mad. Courting hubris. So one day I told Brian Swimme (author and cosmologist) that I believed that True Beauty was the raison d’être of the Universe. His response? “Well, of course!” as if I were stating something obvious to all.

I was heartened.

As I said above, other civilizations have embraced True Beauty as their society’s guiding principle. The Navajo (or Dine as they refer to themselves) come to mind. I love that the Dine might measure a man’s worth to their community by the number and quality of songs that he contributed to it. Their culture of Hozho valued beauty, harmony, balance and health.

And there were the Greeks, of course. Our sense of aesthetics come from their incredible research and works. But we’ve gotten stuck there. As a civilization the West has been merely replicating and doing versions of that which has come before. We have adopted the Greco-Roman standards of beauty and not dared move on. True Beauty is not static. It is always changing, surprising, refreshing. Think of dawns, sunsets, laughter, the sound of rain on a roof, sunlight ‘prism-ing’ through a raindrop on a leaf; crystals growing in the earth; that feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment after completing a challenging task; sunlight interacting with plants, almost anywhere. The lively twinkle in someone’s eye. A sweet voice raised loudly in song. No two of any of the above ever the same; all of True Beauty.

If I were a scientist as well as an artist I could give you all the “proofs” and “evidences” that support the claims regarding the importance and integral nature of True Beauty. But I am not. One of my fav fantasies is to pull together a panel of folks from different disciplines to articulate, from their area of expertise, their understanding of True Beauty’s nature and importance. I’d have a physicist, a mathematician a couple of visual artists, a couple of writers, a philosopher or two, and of course, a theologian of sorts. What fun!

In the end what we would do is create a proper “white paper,” serviceable for the general public, publications and today’s “influencers” to state with an impressive degree of well-rounded authority what the Navajo already knew: What we call Beauty (true Beauty and not cheap “glamour”) is the raison d’être of our Universe. My fantasy white paper would stir the social marketing gurus to do for the Glamour vs. True Beauty confusion and our western civ’s value system what was done to tobacco and the smoking habit: change the general population’s understanding and values around the issue. Raise awareness about True, Deep Beauty — and banish mere glamour back to the magician’s realm.

Tuning into True Beauty and nurturing it in our everyday lives through these Beauty Practices will raise the vibration of not only (you/me) the practitioner, but of the earth itself and all the creatures upon it. At this bleak point in our species’ history what could possibly be more important? More joyful? Easier? It needn’t be stressful and difficult to help tip the balance back to the light.

Turn off the TV news and experience your geranium growing.

February 8, 2015

Practicing True Beauty in Everyday Life – Compassion

Beauty Practice:

Practice Feeling Compassion

Compassion is specifically about the ability to feel another’s experience of suffering. This Beauty practice is purposely not expressed as “practice being compassionate” as I don’t know if one can be compassionate until one has really felt compassion on a somewhat regular basis. Can one routinely choose a behavior, have an emotion one has not experienced? Studies of the brain show that compassion doesn’t always come naturally, but that it can be learned. So we must exercise the “compassion muscle,” learn compassion, in order to use it with ease and regularity.

Compassion is the root expression of awareness of the universality of the ability to experience pain — no matter its origin or reason; no matter species, race, intelligence or preferences. Compassion is the Great Leveler, the Great Unifying Knowing. The Dalai Lama has been widely quoted as saying:

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

What does this have to do with Beauty? If we can objectify an Other, disassociate ourselves from “Them,” it is easy to find fault, ugliness, un-beauty. Once, however, we can truly feel compassion, we can practice being compassionate…from a place of sincerity, without artifice. We glimpse into the “oneness.” Compassion allows us to be able to see/feel there, into the experience of an other. We enter the possibility of experiencing harmony between the other and ourselves — and it is harmony that begets True Beauty.

Compassion is the basis of all morality, and I posit, the basis and beginning of one’s awareness of True Beauty.

February 1, 2015

Cultivating Awe

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger,who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. ~Albert Einstein

Practice Being in Awe:

Life and living is full of surprises. There is a great deal of folk wisdom about this: “Expect the unexpected,” “Life is what happens while you are making other plans,” “Different strokes for different folks,” are just a few that come to mind.

And still we plan. And have expectations — of ourselves, of others.

The unexpected comes in different flavors: the generic “surprise,” “amazement” is laced with a bit of disbelief and may herald the new. “Wonder” is fraught with mystery and is a term often found in religious hymns and texts. We do not seem to expect wonder to become known, yet it often has a positive vibe. Is it an enduring state?

Then “awe.” Awe, like wonder, is a more sustainable and positive state, not just a mere response to the unexpected. Awe connotates a respect and reverence for its object or being. Delight and fear both may accompany awe in a strange yet desired concoction, but I feel awe is mostly delight and respect; like the feeling one might have if playing with a goddess — a sacred playmate.

“Awesome, man!”

To be at some point on this spectrum of Wonder – Awe is to be like a child again, and that can be a good and truly beautiful thing.

Years ago, Dr. David Simon, author and co-founder of the Chopra Center for Well-Being said something to me that stuck and has served in many situations. It was a conversation in which the difficulties and nasty stuff of living was being discussed in the context of trying to maintain one’s spiritual path. He said: “Look, disagreeable stuff happens; it always does. Right? And when it does, you can choose to be offended by it, or you can choose to be amazed about it.” I thought about that for awhile. I realized that when something occurred that I didn’t want or expect (“disagreeable stuff”) — something that surprised me on some level — it was easy to automatically respond with feeling offended. I jumped to negative judgment! Here was the alternative to stay in neutral surprise. To cultivate my child-like wonder rather than my gotta-be-right critic.

Anyway, this is a sharply edited version of why/how the cultivation of AWE is a powerful Beauty Practice. Suffice to say, wonder and awe facilitate the recognition of the True Beauty in a thing or situation. Being offended or repulsed does not. So if this synopsis is resonating with you, you might start cultivating being “awe-ful” by:

1) Identify some small thing that habitually “puts you off.” Approach this thing and try seeing/sensing it anew, as if for the first time. Can you move back to being amazed by it? (Think snake, bad driver, or licorice) How long can you stay there?

This practice is not about coming to like snakes or licorice, but merely changing your response to them. Rather than “ick!” and a possible rise in blood pressure, one may experience wonder and perhaps some mild curiosity. (“Does licorice come from a plant?”)

2) Where is the wonder in your life? Spend some time with and in wonder. For me this might be time watching the ocean or the sky. Or both!

3) Find an old tree. Really perceive it. Think of all the years it has been rooted in that spot. Can you feel awe?

4) Watch, or help, a child doing his/her homework. Remember that wonder of learning?

An enchanted life has many moments when the heart is overwhelmed by beauty and the imagination is electrified… ~Thomas Moore, “The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life“

January 25, 2015

Practice Seeing

This first and basic Practice of True Beauty might best be titled “Practice Perceiving“, but I got into a, er, discussion with one of my professors about the differences between “sensing” and “perceiving”, and in the end I just left this Beauty Practice titled “Seeing”. Seeing is really a metaphor for all sensings, both of the physical and intuitive sort. Opening up to our visual capabilities is a great place to start, but our eyesight is only one way into the universe of perception. Indeed, perception is not dependent only upon our physical senses, but our intuitive senses as well.

Too often we are on “auto pilot,” not truly aware of our surroundings. We are not truly seeing/sensing and being in relationship with our environment and the stimuli that is coming in (let alone what we are putting out, another chapter). Auto-pilot, the short-cut method has its advantages of course. It is efficient, necessary at times when speed and efficiency are the qualities and outcomes that are desired. But if not? Or shouldn’t be?

Too often we are just on that insidious auto-pilot: “Green. I know this.” And we inspect/explore/perceive no further than what we have on mental-file from previous perceptions.

So, look out your window. How many colors of green are there really, how many are truly available for you to really see?

To practice Seeing:

1) Challenge your own assumptions. What aren’t you noticing? Make a conscious attempt to get off your automatic pilot.

2) Play the “What color is…” game with yourself and/or family. What color is the grass in a field? What color are the windows in a building? Trust me, there is pink grass!

3) Notice what you don’t notice. Can you recall the building on your corner that you pass every afternoon? How many stories is it? What is the color of the inside of the shoes you have on?

Fun, huh?

There are further layers in and implications for the Beauty Practice of Seeing, but this is enough to get one started. Try it!

It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive. ~ Charles W. Leadbeater

January 18, 2015

To Practice Beauty in Everyday Life – the start

So how does one embody (a current buzzword) True Beauty? As I became more and more convinced of the all-pervasive importance of deep, True Beauty I began thinking about this. One day I sat down at my computer and the answer(s) just flowed out of me. It was if they were channeled. There are 18 points — or practices — that anyone/everyone can integrate into their life — no matter their age or socio-economic status. In fact, quite a few of these “practices” we might be doing already, and all that is required is an expansion of awareness about that activity’s importance to the nourishment of true beauty in one’s life — and then elevating the importance of that activity. A slight attitude shift/lift that can ripple through your life in a hugely positive way.

And again, why? Why “practice True Beauty?” That ripple, or repercussion of the Practices: Joy. Contentment. Harmony and a feeling of being in sync. But most importantly, greatly helping to heal our world. Yes: healing the world, I kid you not.

From this point forward I am going to focus primarily on the Beauty Practices. This being a blog and not the book, I may stray from this intention with some something that has inspired my variation/deviation. Let me know how this works for you! Stay tuned!

Let the beauty we love be what we do. ~Rumi

photo by Lisa Lindahl — Seeing the world

December 30, 2014

The Way of Beauty Blog in Review

I started this blog just last September (2014). I hope I’ve made a few salient points, and entertained a bit along the way. I started off by making the distinction that The Way of Beauty — book, blog and actual practice — is about COSMOLOGY NOT COSMETOLOGY!

You all suffered through my Manifesto for True Beauty, where mere “glamour” was slammed and our modern obsession with it (think Kardashians) instead of true beauty was challenged. As the weeks rolled by we looked at shifting the paradigm in our culture, examined creating a “Way,” the importance of the natural world and its beauty, not to mention delved into mankind’s interactive magic with said natural world: Shamanism.

I also took a shot at clearing up the relationship between Art and True Beauty… though there is far more that might be said about that, I’m sure. I am wishing I might find someone to help elucidate the way in which Science and True Beauty are supportive. I tried as best I could in two blog bits, but know there are far more connections than I feel capable of making between the two at the moment.

Throughout it all, it is my hope that I’ve been able to begin to instill in others the nature and ready availability of True Beauty and its importance to us not just as individuals, but as a species. Going forward I am going to focus on the Beauty Practices through which we can infuse our everyday lives and activities with Beauty and grace.

Promote True, Deep Beauty in your self, your surroundings, and your understanding of our universe. Practice makes perfect, right?

December 21, 2014

Winter Solstice

YAY! This day has always been special to me. Where I live on the planet, the Winter Solstice in December is the shortest day and the longest night. After the Solstice, the days start to become longer, nights shorter. Light is in ascendance. For this I celebrate.

A bit of factoid trivia: “solstice” has its roots in latin, and means to stand still. To early humans, the sun seemed to stay in one place for several days twice a year — in December and again in June — before continuing its travel across the skies. Hence our twice-yearly solstices.

I revel in sunlight. It instantly lifts my spirit. As one teacher put it, “the Sun is the Master Shaman.” The master healer, medicine being, bringer of Beauty.

Enjoy the day. Celebrate our natural cycles and the return of the light, once again.