There is a true phenomenon that takes place when we live in the conversations in our mind. First, we take on the energy of these conversations. Next, we take on the emotion of these conversations, and finally, we become these conversations. This can go in either one of two ways. Either we think ourselves sick or we encourage ourselves to become strong.
The thought machine is an interesting place to be.
See, all the positive affirmations in the world and all the intellectual thinking does not exclude us from emotional truth, which is thought uses energy. Our thinking can be like a loose thread that unravels and becomes haywire. Thoughts can cause us to have that emotional avalanche; in which case I mean, one thought can lead to another idea, which trickles into another and snowballs into something uncontrollable.
This is life while caught in the thought machine.
Meanwhile, all we want is peace. All we want is freedom from the off-kilter thought machine, and yet, fear and ego takes the center stage. Rejection and rejection-based thinking leads us to defend ourselves. Our worry becomes inconsolable. And yet, we never take a second to realize our interaction is something that can be considered as contributory negligence. Put simply, we never see our place in the thought machine and how we think ourselves sick.
There was a saying, which I heard this morning before pouring my first cup of coffee.
The saying is “Do not allow the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.”
I thought about this long and hard. I thought about where this saying comes from and the channels of peace it would take for someone to live this way. I thought about my journey and my moments of anxiety and discontent. I thought about this and wondered if the person that created this quote above is someone that ever understood the meaning of social anxiety. Was this person ever bullied or publicly humiliated? Does this person know what abuse is? Or what about suicidal ideation? Is the author of this quote familiar with any of this?
Maybe?
Was the man the created this quote ever so spiritually disconnected that at best, he felt lost, wasted or totally unreachable. I thought about the quote and made a slight change
Do not allow the negativity of others destroy your inner peace.
Intellectually, this makes sense. No wait. Intellectually, this makes all the sense in the world. Intellectually, everyone understands this. However emotionally, —well now that’s a different story.
Do not give way to the bullies or more to the point, do not give way to the internal bully that demeans or degrades our best possible ability.
I suppose the best place to address this thought is with a sense of honesty. For example, in this exercise, we will trim this down to a basic inventory. What is the truth? And when I say what is the truth; I mean what is the truth and not the deception of our perception. We tend to find ourselves caught in the magnetism of draining ideas that come from fears about “Self.”
Freedom of self is a great thing to have because this releases us from our own contracts that keep us bound to ideas from our past and our past ways of thinking.
Okay, so how do we do this?
Let’s start with the ideas of rejection. What does this mean?
Does this mean if we do not get what we want that we are somehow faulty? Does this mean if what we give goes unreturned that we are somehow unworthy? No. This means none of this. All else is imaginary. Our interpretation can often be faulty or misleading. Certainly, we will not die. We can live and we can breathe. The end-all of life does not surround us by each decision or outcome. But yet, we allow the center of our attention to be blinded by pass or fail understandings.
This is ego. This is the mind. This is the “I” and the “Me.”
This is the constantly streaming thoughts that gain momentum and can lead us into tragic thinking. Or adversely, this is also a way we can think ourselves into victory. Or otherwise, this is the movie we play out in our minds and the conversation rehearsals, which we plan but yet, the rehearsals only leads us to self-destruct.
The emotional strains of our ideas weigh us down. Next, we create assumptions. Next, we find ourselves in arguments that literally never existed. Except, until now because of course, now that our internal conversations exist; the emotional mind does not know the difference between reality or imagination.
The mind does not decipher between assumption or fact, past tense or present. Instead, the mind senses the chemical reaction of our thoughts. Therefore, it is true. Yes, we can think ourselves sick. We can think ourselves into insanity. We make ourselves mad or we can redirect our thinking and think ourselves back into sanity.
I agree.
Do not allow the negativity of others to destroy your inner peace. Easier said than done, right?
I get it.
I’m not sure if the person that came up with this line is someone that lived with the painful anxiousness of social anxiety, depression and other emotional challenges that lead to hospitalization.
I know that I have my share of challenges. I know that I have challenges that trick my thinking into tragic ideas and next, it’s world war III. Know what I mean?
I am in trouble when I think this way. I am in a fight with everyone, including the universe. I want to run. I want to get out of my skin. I want to jump out of my life and hit “Stop!”
But nothing stops. Instead, one thought triggers the next and before I know it; especially if I am not careful, I am pummeled by an avalanche of thoughts that refuse to let me breathe. Next comes the anxiety attacks and the fears of impending doom. Some people call the assumptions paranoia. But I don’t. I call this depression.
I suppose the Dalai Lama has a point though. Do not allow the negativity of others to destroy my inner peace. I like this. I consider this a skill, in which case, skills can be learned. Skill takes discipline.
I agree.
Replace thought with action.
Make today better.
Do not be swayed by distractions.
Avoid actions seeking external acceptance.
Create the plan, the goals and the strategy to improve.
Find balance
And ultimately . . . .
Find inner peace.
The Written Addiction 