The Mind In Our Life….. Oh My My….

So…have you figured out what to let go yet? Are you resolute in your decision? Are you willing to free yourself?

And….did you confirm with yourself what the ten most important things in your life are?

Reflection is such an inherent part of my life.  I hope it is the same for you. Without an on-going reflection, I can’t assess what to adjust in my life. If I don’t reflect/contemplate, days go by, I may be content in my daily routine, but I don’t grow.

My mind sometimes goes into endless circles. Doesn’t this happen to you too?  I tell myself, this mind’s behavior has to go. Sometimes, sadness surfaces. Without any apparent reason. That has to go. Sometimes, feeling of unworthiness or regrets surface. That has to go too.

Our mind is such a master at directing our life by controlling our emotional state. Sometimes, working with it feels like climbing a mountain.

What do I do?

First, I like to recognize and then embrace my feelings: sadness, or unworthiness or regrets, etc, when needed. Ex: Yes, I am sad because I lost my good friend Sandy, just a couple of months ago. This sadness is much too real. I honor it and I honor Sandy.

Second, I accept and embrace the feeling. I thank my mind for making me acutely aware of it. It does a good job at it!! Usually, once I have embraced the emotion, the emotion will dissipate on its own. When it is a negative emotion such as frustration or doubt, it is crucial to embrace because… you want it to disappear. And, it will,  just like that.

Third, I make a decision. This is my life, not my mind’s life. So the decision is all mine. My mind can try to get me all worked up about something BUT….it is totally my decision to go with it or not.

So when an emotion just surfaces out of the blue or I wake up with it, this is how it goes: “Thank you so much for the awareness but, I am not going to fall into sadness, doubt, etc…. now. I have too many exciting things to do today!”

Or, “This is definitely BS. Who has dumped her/his own feelings of unworthiness on me? I have zero time for this.”

Or, “I am not going to revisit those old regrets. Yes, my dear mind, I understand you are the one cherishing them and you are trying to make me feel bad. However, the plan is to not revisit them since I have done that already and doing it over again will not change the outcome. Done.” Time to move on.

There is much that we can do about the state of our mind. We can let go of old mental patterns that way. They do not serve us. Maybe they did at some point? We can let go of repeated negative thoughts, of conversations with ourselves that serve no purpose beside self-torture. Since we can’t change the past,  what’s the point?

Many practitioners, as well as yours truly,  release memories of traumas stored in different parts of the physical and energy bodies. But we must also deal with the mind and its patterns. In the same way we don’t allow a toddler to rule our lives, we don’t have to allow the mind to rule our lives.  When we discipline our mind, we finally can gain control of our lives.