Life is an ongoing exercise in overcoming our deepest fears. We all have fears, but they are basically imaginary fears. We create fears all the time, and by doing so we create our identities around them.
The mind is constantly trying to label every experience and place it into a category. The thoughts we have about an experience does not accurately represent that experience. It only points towards the interpretations we make based on fear. It takes a daily practice for us to actively be aware of all our thoughts and observe them without attaching meaning to them.
We need to take a leap of faith every single day and start anew. Every day is a new opportunity to be reborn, fresh and unencumbered by the experiences we had before in similar situations. It takes observation and a total state of presence in order to transcend the myriad of thoughts that run wild in our minds, stories we keep telling ourselves over and over again.
I always think about the old bumper cars when I think about how the mind operates. The most common bumper car designs uses a conductive floor and ceiling. Contacts under the vehicle touch the floor while a pole-mounted contact touches the ceiling, completing the circuit. Our contact with reality send information to the brain that uses significant neural pathways according to the thoughts triggered by the experience. In our case, it is as if we were wired to connect to certain electrical, neural pathways and then we react accordingly.
The practice of mindfulness will enable us to become aware of the thoughts in our minds and be able to discern that they do not represent the experience and stay away from the story that’s being generated. In every situation, it all boils down to how we respond. Typically, two types of energy establish the quality of our lives: love and fear. We are in constant relationship with the world and we either respond with love or react with fear.
When we react, we are at the mercy of our thoughts and emotions without the inner awareness necessary to make effective and functional choices. When we respond, however, we are operating from a neutral standpoint where we are no longer following the dictates of the unbridled flow of thoughts. We recognize and are aware of their presence, but we no longer attach meaning to them. As soon as we become mindful of this dynamics we set ourselves free and are able to make choices that are poised and centered.
We are free to choose in every situation how we want to respond. We need to practice mindfulness in order to exercise this power and make our lives richer and more fulfilling. It is a constant practice of ongoing observation. Whenever a thought comes we need to question the validity of that thought, and transcend it.
There’s a constant chatter inside our minds and it is up to us if we want to pay attention to it, or let it dwindle away every time we disconnect our attention from that thought. After all they have no real substance; they are all thoughts, stories, jabbering. The image they create might seem initially real, but when we look closely, they dissipate. In the end, those seemingly sharp knives are rather dull, and they vanish as soon as we dare to touch them.
ANSHAM FOR ME 
My determination drags my anxieties through life kicking and screaming. Some people make life look so easy, but I have to remember that Olympic performers make their feats look effortless, too. Who knows but the individual how much effort goes into finding their path in life. 🙂
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I hope my words haven’t given the impression that I am saying that life is easy. Quite the contrary, I know that life isn’t easy. It’s not easy for me and certainly not for others. I just have to look around and listen to learn that for a fact. We are all wounded and we all struggle to survive. However, I do believe that we (at least I do) have a tendency to build our identities around our sufferings. I think it’s a bit tricky and that’s when we fall prey to our thoughts and stories and interpretations of life. We seem to have a hard time letting go of our own wounds and detaching from them. All of a sudden, our own suffering becomes who we are; we can’t see one without the other, and the identification is, therefore, built. We depend on it for our survival, and without our stories we don’t know who we are anymore. It is a hard and scary feeling to come face to face with ourselves and break the cycle. We are used to the stories we tell ourselves and others about ourselves. But I am tired of it, and I refuse to be defined by my personal stories, by my pathos. Life is hard, no doubt. But I want to be free to embrace every moment with the freshness and open-mindedness of a child that’s experiencing a situation for the first time. I want to be free to choose. It is possible. Your parallel about the Olympic performers is quite on point. All living beings are like Olympic athletes indeed: always trying to do our best while overcoming our injuries during endless hours of hard training. It’s no easy task, but it can be done. Thank you for reading my post. I hope I got my point across without oversimplifying the difficult, unfair and many times horrifying challenges that life throws at us. It was never my intention. Many blessings! 🙂
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I enjoyed reading your post. I apologize for not expressing that adequately. My intention was to express that life seems easier for some people than for others, but we can never know just how hard it is for anyone else.
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No need to apologize. I wanted to make myself clear, just in case. I do understand what you meant and that’s why I wanted to clarify my point. I sincerely appreciate your opinion and comments every time. Thank you for keeping this dialogue open! 🙂
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