Hi everyone, welcome back. Last week I examined ‘problems’ and how humans go about defining these problems and if these problems are actually ‘real’ the way our mind makes us believe they are. This week, I would like to continue on the topic of problems and would like to examine if ‘worrying’ about these problems actually helps us to stay safe from these problems.
Belief: If I don’t worry about these problems, I won’t be able to fix them and I won’t be safe anymore!
When a human mind identifies problems, worrying about these problems happens to be a natural response by our mind. And worrying really is the mind’s attempt to try to solve all these problems that it has identified in the first place. And the way our mind does that is by creating many fearful thoughts about the worst case scenarios that could be the outcomes of these problems. And because most human beings live unconscious lives, what they don’t realize is that all this fearful thinking is just that – fearful thinking and it has nothing to do with reality. It has nothing to do with reality because most times, maybe 99% of the times, when we are faced with a problem, it generally resolves itself over time because we may either change our perspective on it and don’t see it as a problem anymore or, we find creative ways to deal with it. But because we don’t know the fact about our minds which is that its real job is to create thoughts most of which are deep rooted in fear, we take these fearful thoughts very seriously and even though the problem that was identified by our mind was minuscule, it ends up becoming a mountain until our mind shifts attention to the next problem. And this cycle continues until you the owner of the mind really takes the time to learn and understand the true nature of mind and the way it functions in your own life. If you have gotten lost in this explanation, let me use a very simple yet very profound example to better explain.
Let’s imagine that your spouse comes home from work around a certain time every weekday. However, one day, he is late by an hour and even though you are trying your best to reach his cellphone, he is not picking up or maybe the call is being directly routed to his voicemail. So in this scenario, have you ever noticed that the first thoughts that your mind will almost instantly begin to create are completely rooted in fear. At this point, your very first thought may be that your husband is in a car accident and something bad has happened to him which is why he is not even answering his phone. And the reason why your mind creates this fearful thought is because of the underlying belief that when responsible people suddenly become unreachable, they must be in deep trouble. And your mind creates this belief because maybe you know a person who knows another person who was in a car accident and this is what unfolded for him and his wife. On the other hand, you may have received messages via advertising/marketing from the various media sources that when responsible people don’t respond timely, you should assume that they are in deep trouble. But when your husband finally arrives home safely, you realize that nothing bad ever happened to him. It was just that he was stuck in very bad traffic and the cellphone battery died on him or he put his phone on mute and saw your 100 missed calls as he was just entering the front door of your home! So, what was really just a technological glitch, became an amazing source of anxiety for you in just a matter of few minutes!! And your mind just took you on a very fearful ride which in reality may never ever become true for you in this life, yet, you already started to plan the rest of your life without your dear husband 🙂
And folks this is just one tiny example of how we live our lives most of the times. Lost in fearful thinking! All our mind thinks most of the times is what could go wrong, what is that bad thing that could happen next, which is that person who can say something bad to you and ruin your day etc. etc. But if you have ever paid close attention to your thinking, you will also realize another thing that the thoughts that your mind creates are almost always repetitive. What that means is that in a certain situation such as the one we looked at above, your mind will most definitely create the exact same thoughts each time you are faced with the exact same situation…until you begin to really understand this is how your mind works. And once you do, this provides you with an opportunity to shift your attention from your mind’s fearful thinking to the present moment. But keep in mind that even when you are aware of all the tricks your mind plays, its you who will have to make a choice to let go of the negative and fearful thinking and shift your attention. And yes its not easy and you need lots of practice and patience to be able to implement this in our own life, however, the very first step forward is realizing and understanding how your mind works. Also, be very kind to yourself and try not to judge yourself when you begin to realize the kind of crap that your mind generates because this is how most human minds operate although the degree by which a human mind creates this fearful thinking may vary from human to human. More on this next time 🙂
And as always, feel free to leave a comment, if you feel like leaving one. And until next Friday, live life 🙂
