Between a rock and a hard place
Humans are creatures that are ruled by the Mind. Whether we like that or not, it’s a fact we just cannot escape. It doesn’t even matter if you consider yourself a “feeling person” or a “rational person” – your Mind rules supreme, always, and sometimes in insidious and not-so-obvious ways. So naturally, we tend to try and solve our Life’s issues and inconveniences by utilizing the resource we all so depend upon – our Mind. We think about something, assess it, evaluate it, ponder options, make assumptions, check alternatives and try to come up with a solution to “the problem”. All in our head.
But what if the tool we are using to find solutions and workarounds is the very thing that caused “the issue” in the first place? Wouldn’t that be a little like trying to extinguish a fire by pouring gasoline over it? Not only will it not give you your desired “solution”, it will aggravate the situation. And what’s our typical reaction to that? Yes – pour even more gasoline onto the fire and wondering why things are going from bad to worse. That’s exactly what being too much in your head will do for you.
So how do we solve this apparent dilemma? Where do we turn to, which place do we go to actually get results?
An incredible tool, a terrible master
Trapped in yourself, break out instead, beat the machine that works in your Head
Guano Apes, “Open your Eyes”
Now, whether you like to think of the Mind as a machine or not is pretty much up to you. It has been described in a variety of ways over time, and most of them, in my humble opinion, hold a bit of truth. At its core, it is a tremendous gift, the force that breeds creation (or destruction), benevolence (or nastiness), thriving (or scarcity), joy (or misery), and so on. The Mind itself is malleable, and this quality makes it powerful and dangerous in equal measure. This impartiality of the Mind allows us to create literally any experience we want in our Life. In any given waking moment, it provides us with what it thinks we need – based on the items on our personal Life menu we are feeding it with.
And here is where the core issue lies: Most people’s Life menus are quite short, and not very delectable. When your Mind is presented with such a menu it has to choose from, it tries to make the best of what’s there. But that’s a little like going to your local Burger King and expecting the guy in the kitchen to come up with a four-course set menu including matching wines, damask tablecloth and fine silverware. Not very likely to happen, right?
Yet we are puzzled and bewildered every time our experiences of Life leave something to be desired. We are unaware that it’s the options we feed our Mind (or the machine, or the database, or the computer if you prefer more technical terms) that create those experiences, irrespective of what is actually happening in our Life. We expect great results from crappy ingredients. And so the Mind has become our master: The master of our self-fulfilling prophecies of lack, unhappiness, failure, misery and absence of love.
To return the Mind to its natural, intended state – the state of an incredibly powerful, useful tool -, we need to get out of our Burger King-like dining experience and let the Mind work its magic the way it was originally designed to: as our servant for self-realization of our full potential.
If it’s not in my Head, where is it??
There is something in every one of us that lies beyond thought, and beyond the Mind. It is something that has nothing to do with options on a menu, or a wishlist of any sort. It lies way deeper than any preconceived notions we may have about Life, things and people, deeper than any acquired beliefs or attitudes we may have picked up along the way of our journey. It is our Self, our true personality, stripped of any negative imprinting we may have suffered over the years.
Imagine being in a cinema, but not in the audience room from which you would normally watch a movie. This is where most people are most of the time, watching the movie of their Life, scripted – unknowingly – by themselves and themselves only. What you see on the screen is as real as it gets for you – this is your experience of Life, in all its glory, drama, heartbreak, good/evil concepts and so on. You are close up and personal and fully immersed.
Instead, imagine leaving the audience room and going up to the projector booth – stepping back, if you will, from your experience as a spectator of your Life, and being in a place where you actually get to pick and choose the film reel that’s going to be played. In that projector booth you will find your Mind, patiently waiting for whatever reel you will tell it to play. Without a film reel, the Mind has no power.
How do you get into that projector booth? That’s easy. Just remember, what you see is just a movie. The scenes of the movie do not change the quality of the screen onto which they are projected. The screen remains always unaffected by whatever scenes are being played on it, no matter if it’s a thriller, a drama, a tragedy or a romantic movie. From the projector booth you will be able to see the screen much more clearly. Always keep that screen in sight, in your awareness, as it represents your true, unchanging Self. This is what leaving your head means – becoming consciously aware of that which lies beyond Mind and thought. You can still enjoy your Life movies – actually, you should, we are human beings -, but with awareness of the unchanging nature of the screen, it will be much easier to pick nicer ones.
If you would like to learn more about leaving the audience room, drop me a line and we will talk.
