Everyone knows the inner voice of harsh self-doubt and self-criticism. We know that voice. You probably can keep it at bay, but then, all of a sudden, it’s on top of you.
Help! Where did THAT come from?
Right? Those thoughts just become so believable, pretending to be useful, pretending to be the voice of reason, and then they’re eating you alive.
I had my own experience of that the other day.
I thought, which is a wonderful thought to dispel – and after 15 years plus of becoming more aware of my thoughts and being able to ignore them for an experience of stillness and presence – that I had pretty much mastered the mind.
Nothing like a blast of believing some particular thoughts and creating some self-induced suffering, like I wrote about recently, to “learn” you, to make you humble.
Here's the truth of the matter:
It doesn’t matter how great you think you are, it doesn’t matter how bad you think you are:
No choice in the past – “good” or “bad” – can make the choice for you here in this moment.
It can’t.
Which is really great news, actually.
You are free from your past. You are free in this moment when you apply your attention to the still, silent space beyond the mind.
You honestly get to go again. You are free to reset, any time.
Keep doing just this, and you get really good at it, you get really good at not listening. (Then there's those times where you forget, just to keep you honest.)
This is what I saw in my latest adventure, clearer than ever.
And:
There is absolutely no need to, and no value in, engaging in disappointment, in self-recrimination, in self-abuse.
I’ve tried this approach, and honestly, it just doesn’t work. What you focus on, grows.
Learn and move forward. Learn and move forward.
If you don’t know what you need to see, ask. Then move forward. Don’t let your mind try and guess reality, because it just assumes – and assumes the worst.
Reset, move on up, into this moment.
Here, you are free from your mind. It has no power over you beyond what you give it.
Recrimination and self-abuse only feeds it.
It can feel like you’re doing something useful, as in some kind of learning, but actually you’re not. Learning is more or less instant. No need to go over it, time and time again.
Your mind only becomes real when you believe it, it becomes like a gust of wind (perhaps a bit noisy but oh so temporary) when you sit fully in your centre, present and aware.
Your mind only has power when you give it power.
It’s why the Ascension Attitudes are so wonderful. Without you having to do much at all, they help you create that experience easily and simply. Used over and over again it becomes harder and harder to fall into giving your mind the power it doesn’t deserve.
It’s still possible to fall into it, like I found out, but again, it’s easier to bounce back from.
You don’t need to kill your mind. Harshness cannot solve harshness.
Treat your mind like a little scared child that is lashing out, frustrated and angry.
Patience and gentleness and persistence work. Being disappointed in yourself for “failing again” does not. Trying to slap away, struggle with, fight and/or kill does not.
Fighting and struggling is simply playing the mind’s game.
Reset, and with gentle awareness, go again. Keep moving towards what you want. Keep picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and going again.
This is what you get to do! This is where your freedom is.
Gentleness and forgiveness isn’t something you learn, it’s something you choose for yourself.
I think, and this is based on my own experience, you constantly get shown where you can live life easier (and bigger – though that is another email!). There are constant invitations to choose an easier, more fun path.
You choose how you define your life. Your mind doesn’t, no matter what habits of thinking it may have. You don’t need to change your mind. Being aware of it, and ignoring it, is good enough.
What if this could be easy?
In many ways this whole path is to learn this simple truth. Now is what counts. Where are you heading, now?
Hope this helps in some way. Have a spectacular day.
Go well,
Arjuna
PS.
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