Originally published on April 2, 2010 at Ezine Articles

‘…the most profound personal changes resulting from mindfulness come when a person disidentifies with the contents of his mind and stands back from the melodrama.’ ~Mikulas

Many years ago, I faced a man who clutched a sawed-off shotgun. Visually it reminded me of the M79 grenade launcher, “Thumper,” that resembled a large bore, break-action, sawed-off shotgun during my 14-month Army tour of duty in Vietnam.

As the executive director of a regional mountain mental health agency, I commuted to the isolated cabin in the mountains in the Sheriff’s SUV. The deputy sheriff entered the cabin with me where we found an agitated man named Jeff standing in his bedroom with a shotgun leveled at us as he nervously played with the trigger. I softly spoke with Jeff as I entered the small bedroom. The deputy sheriff backed away partially closing the door behind him.

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