I was walking along in the park and I noticed a sharp drop in my mood. Then I realised that some ‘automatic’ thoughts were running in the background of my mind.
These were ‘life is so hard, I’m finding things difficult, I’m not enjoying life’.
And the things is, at that moment life was far from hard and difficult. I was walking the dog through sunlit trees. But the mind is always wanting to run it’s commentary, and find problems.
So I stopped and took a breath. Felt the weight of my body on the ground, smelled the air, looked at the trees, listened to the birds. This brought me back to the present moment I was in, and back to what is real and actually happening. Life in that moment wasn’t hard at all. It was fine, enjoyable. I relaxed.
I notice this happens quite a lot. Another time I noticed my feeling got disturbed I realised my mind was saying’ I don’t have enough money, I’m in trouble’. I felt fear. As if my very survival was threatened. That is what my mind was telling me.
It’s true that things are tight right now financially, but my survival is far from threatened. I’m earning money, paying what I owe, and have food to eat and money to pay the mortgage.
This is what happens when I believe thoughts that are not true. My physiology acts as if the thoughts are true and responds with stress.
So I realise how important it is to be aware of these thoughts that run off unconsciously in the background and effect my feelings.
There are different ways of dealing with these real but untrue thoughts.
Sometimes it’s best to say ‘I see you, thanks for the input, bye’ and let them go.
That’s if you catch them early enough before a reaction has set in and set off a stress response.
If we catch them a bit later and a stress response has occurred then we can question the thought. Take the thought to court!
What is the evidence for this thought?
What is the evidence against this thought?
And what is actually true will become apparent, and very often the thought is not at all true.
Learning to Rest with it All 