In this section, we come back to acceptance of what is, and loving what is. Without neutralizing our thoughts, without questioning our own thinking, there is no possibility of being at peace with what is. You’ll find that in the process of holding onto a thought long enough to question it, that you open the possibility of loving that thought, appreciating that thought and maybe even stop judging that thought as “bad.” This process makes is probable that you will restore neutrality and balance.
Extra Patience and Understanding for Your Thoughts (as Your Grandchildren)
And when you get mad at your thoughts—finally recognizing that they seem to be the culprit in your health, relationships, lack of peace–think of each one as your beloved grandchild, which means they get tender loving care from you that is even more wise, loving, and mature than you gave your own children. If your body incarnates as the ‘first generation’ for you to parent, then all the thoughts that have gotten created as its offspring are the ‘next generation:’ your identity and the beliefs that run your life. When you think about it, they are the Grandest Children of all—they are so creative and strong and smart and wield so much power to live whatever they dream! At the same time, remember that they are very immature in what they can understand and accomplish without guidance. Treat them with tender loving care as you help them know and trust in a bigger better reality than their limited scope and competence (but don’t let them run wild and tear up the house and get away with cruel behavior.)
Before you are free of the fear, anger, and sadness (always a function of wanting things to be somehow different than they are—in this case, with our bodies) you first have to treat your thinking with tenderness and understanding and acceptance. You have to stop seeing it as threatening or bad, and be willing to just hold it on your lap and create a safe space for it to take a closer look at what it’s believing.
With this mindset, you become protective of it—unwilling to let it completely buy into those havoc-wreaking beliefs that occur to it—in part because of your commitment to doing all you can for your body. When we let our thinking wander into such dangerous territory, we react physically to them—as if they were real threats to our survival. Instead, these grandchildren get EXTRA care, patience, and close, loving supervision. With grandparents wise enough to see their innocence, they are no longer shamed for believing what they believe—and yet they also aren’t allowed to just walk headlong into predictable disaster.
As a responsible grandparent, you know there is a happier truth somewhere. You have learned the virtues of realizing that EITHER STORY is just our mind’s interpretation. The interpretation where we see how it is just our thinking that created the problem with is a very relaxing, freeing, and often funny one.
Your Own Creation:
Does that mean your pain or illness isn’t real, or that you are to blame for creating it with your thinking? (I know that is one possibility that you very much resist and rebel against. While you hate to think that other people are telling you that, you beat yourself up for that all that time.)
What it means is that seeing your pain and illness as a problem, threat, scary thing, robber of your future, object of hate and fear IS always and only a mind-made construct. Eventually, believing that construct has dire consequences to your health. Even if you have worked very hard to rid yourself of these ideas and you don’t believe them most of the time, the remnants of these damaging beliefs are just as real to you in the moment when you are believing them as when you believed 111% that they were the only reality, and believed them all the time. If you have emotional or physical symptoms, do not minimize the possibility that these beliefs might still be driving the bus. In fact, the part of you that is defensive whenever this topic comes up is the very part of your ego that has found a way to keep its life and stay in denial about the ways our thoughts may still be largely responsible (bottom line) for how we feel. Even though there may be layers and layers over them, the buck stops there.
So, go in and look. Treat the scary or angry or self-critical thoughts that tell you to hate books and other people that imply there is some way you caused this. Look with that tender, unyielding grandparent love and at those thoughts in all the innocence, and at what they are believing. If you are hurting or feeling ’off,’ that hurt is a sign that the belief is ‘off’ from the way the highest part of you and All That IS that created you and ALL THAT IS your world.
My assessment is this: the convergence of all that exists in that moment—including those thoughts—is the highest form of energy that could have been created just then (otherwise something else would have been created). Whatever got created just is–no judgment. Not “my bad” or “your bad,” just no “bad.” And yet you can still look at them. You can still see the consequences to your body and your life of believing them. You can still make amends to yourself and the others you’ve affected when you believed scary monster thoughts like, “If I feel this way, my life/job/relationship is going down the tubes” and acted as if they were true.
Thoughts are the densest form of energy identified (Citation); they will override the judgment-free functioning of your body and your world. They place a very heavy hand on moving your bodily functions to get in line with either their disastrous–or their calm and trusting–viewpoint, until everyone (cells, etc.) is in fact conforming and what you see IS what you get. The fact that what you get feels YUCKY is your cue to walk back into the enchanted maze till you find those pesky little thoughts. It’s not so scary; in fact, it’s magical the way the willingness to help those ‘bad’ thoughts find another way leads you directly out of the thought maze to the best place you’ve ever been.
See them as innocent and energetic—even cute and entertaining; their biggest crime was coming to believe something and thinking they knew more than the grown-ups. Help them find the belief that feels good and consistent with YOUR inner true love by turning the yucky thoughts around. Let those turn-arounds finally come out of their hiding places and guide your subsequent thoughts and actions.
Just Noticing: Don’t be Afraid to Look
When the thoughts don’t seem to project into the past or future and you just want your body to feel differently RIGHT NOW, look more closely. Be as honest as you can about where you are projecting regret or blame into the past (that you or someone or the weather or the food did something to cause the way you feel), or projecting fear or anger or sadness into the future. Just sit with the very timid–but very powerful– thoughts hiding in that feeling in the pit of your stomach or that lower back pain; the ones that assert with absolute confidence that you will continue to feel this bad through the next moment or the next year, that it is likely to get worse, that it will affect your ability to function, and will affect your ability to survive or be loved, or at least to be happy. They’re probably there, just looking for comfort and guidance from the part of you that knows it’s never ‘not OK.’
Night Night Sweetie xoxox (next post is about what to do inside your Mind’s Eye when you can’t seem to get that awareness or make that shift in your thinking.)
Posted 25th January 2012 by MYEA