|
It was explained to me this way: Let's say you're walking in the woods and you hear a twig snap behind you. Your body has a fight or flight response. Biochemical changes galore, preparing you for battle or quick movement. What is the mind doing? As you are turning your head to see what made the sound, your mind is making a list of all the possibilities--lion, tiger, bear, murderer--in order that you will be most fully prepared to face the actual threat. The list will not include benign ideas as to what made the sound, because things like bunnies and children and Golden Retrievers will not require one's survival skills to be brought to bear.
When we are walking around in our day to day life, carrying the amount of stress that the average American carries, many sensory perceptions may be experienced as possibly threatening--loud noises like traffic or machinery, people yelling, loud music, quick movement in the periphery of one's vision. In fact there are times when some of us feel threat as the undercurrent of our day. When this is the case, our mind continually will run a list of all the things that could go wrong in the next moment or hour or day, along with all its suggestions as to what we should have done yesterday or last week that would have put us in a better position today, neither of which categories are particularly useful in structuring a healthy experience of Now.
Today I will notice the difference between my senses and my thoughts, and when I find myself lost in thoughts and speculation, I will come to my senses.
Boot Hill, Virginia City, Montana
|
