When the animals in your head say, 'No!' (Day 97)

We finish off our week of observing ourselves fighting reality (reacting! 😫) by looking closely at how each level of our mind says their version of, "No!"

🐢 Your BODY and breath will be tense (or sometimes it can go the other way, where you have no energy at all). For example, at some point you think to check-in and you find that your shoulders are locked-up somewhere up around your ears. How long have they been that way? And why are they even doing that?! Once you notice, it's easy and obvious to soften them up. Your body is actually good at accepting, but when your emotions take over then things go (and stay) wrong.

🐰 Your EMOTIONS will feel kinda off, all day, for no specific reason – everything is just depressing, irritating, anxiety-provoking or hopeless, for example. But it's not about any particular person, event or issue.

🐵 Your THOUGHTS will be laser-focused on a problem. Thoughts about the wrongness of the situation will be forefront in your mind and will keep coming-up. You might even find that they keep you awake at night!

👸🏽 You (AWARENESS), once you wake-up (be mindful) and see what's going on, will be able to help the other three accept reality and say, "Yes!" This level of your mind doesn't even have the capacity to say "No."

Mindfulness involves using your human mind to target your body as the root cause of whatever reaction/stress/suffering you're in. This is where you can influence the others, get your whole brain in order, and start feeling better. 🙂

PRACTICE

When you're reacting, see if you can notice how the different levels of your mind are expressing themselves. Focus on overriding the body and, over time, watch how that might shift the other.