The mind

Happy Thursday,

How is everyone doing on this wonderful Thursday afternoon? What a beautiful day outside. I’m loving the cooler weather and the nice breeze. I sure do love the sound of wind as it grazes through the trees. How about you? How’s the weather in your neck of the woods?

Hey, tomorrow is Friday and that means, one more work day until the weekend. Yippee!! Anything planned for your weekend? Shoot me a text or drop a comment, I’d love to hear what you’ll be doing.

John and I are getting together with our good friends Saturday for happy hour, super excited. We always have a great time with them.

Tonight’s giving me a ton of anxiety for sure. I have not 1, but 2 MRI’s I have to do. One for my upper neck and the brain and the other is for my waist down. UGH, I hate MRI’s. Good thing my doctor hooked me up with 2 valiums. I’m gonna need them.

Yesterday I officially went back into therapy. My new therapist is wonderful, the only thing I don’t like is, she can only see me 12 times. Funny how 12 seems to be the magic number with some doctors. Oh well, I do like her and I’m excited for my next 11 visits. I’m hoping to take away a lot of positive feedback and suggestions for keeping my anxiety in check. I’ll keep you posted.

Today I wanted to talk to you about the mind. Seems fitting now that therapy is back in full swing for me.

I know over the last few weeks we’ve talked a little bit about how I do the “what if’s” in my mind. I’m sure we all do to a point. It just seems like I’m doing more and more lately. I feel like I’m a tad bit out of my comfort zone, which is good, at least that’s what one of my battles of thinking is saying to me. I know, being out of my comfort zone means that I’m learning lessons and growing, but the “what if’s” creep in from time to time and argue with my, I’m learning and growing brain, and boy oh boy, do I have some crazy scenario’s running through my thoughts.

“Your mind is your true enemy. If you don’t control it, it will control you.”-unknown.

Couldn’t be more true. I was listening to the final chapter in my Audible book, “The Confident Heart,” Renee Swope, and in that chapter she was talking about how letting your thoughts run away with you, you are actually causing yourself so many “what if’s” and really, only 8% of those are accurate. Think about it, of all the thoughts we allow to consume us, only 8% stick and come to fruition. Something to think about. I know I need to ponder on this more often.

Allowing our thoughts to escape us can be a wonderful experience, that is, if we are day dreaming, however, if we are allowing them to take over our thinking, then we allow ourselves to become limited in what we can actually do in this life.

“The sky is not the limit. Your mind is.”-Marilyn Monroe.

If we are determined to do something, generally we don’t allow anything to get in our way. One thing I’m determined to do is have my own home again. I want to buy a home and live there, fixing it up while knowing it’s mine to keep, well, mine and Johns. That goes without saying.

I’m also determined to become a published author. I’m determined to help others through my story and I’m determined to always be a mom to all my boys, for as long as I live.

I want to rid my mind of the negative possibilities and the “what-if’s” of what could go wrong pursuing getting my book published. I’d rather give it my all over looking back someday in the future saying, “what could have been if I only submitted it to a publishing company.”

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”-Albert Einstein.

Why is the intuitive mind such a gift? Well, perhaps it is because when we react on our intuition, we are moving forward with a thought based upon our gut feeling. We are so entuned or we should be entuned to our thoughts and how our body reacts to those thoughts. We should know instinctively if our decision is right or wrong. Our mind is working with our entire being. When we suppress such feelings, my opinion is, over time, we no longer give ourselves the ability to chose right and wrong for ourselves. We become so entwined with others thoughts and feelings, ours gets lost. Maybe that’s why Einstein said the intuitive mind is a sacred gift.

God gave us the ability to use our intuition to help guide our steps.

When we allow rational thinking to take over, it’s an entire process. Rational thinking is being able to think with reason. It’s supposed to give us the tools to come to a conclusion on a matter based upon facts, logic and data. But, is that always the case? I don’t think so. Why? Because at any given time, others could have an opinion and we could find ourselves getting caught up and lost within their so called facts.

This is why critical thinking is such a huge deal. While I believe its awesome to be able to exchange thoughts and ideas with others, I also feel we need to take the time to chime into our own, intuitions. We cannot allow that gut feeling to be suppressed to the point of us losing our ability to make the right decision based upon what’s good for us.

Coming out of a cult and looking back from time to time, I ask myself, how certain people I know who are so intelligent, how can they continue to be fooled? I’ve watch numerous documentaries on how people get caught up in those cults and being someone who is on the outside looking in, it’s easy for me to say, “Really right now, your buying into that?”

Not long ago, that was me buying into the BS they spew from their podiums. I am humbled beyond words to be able to say to you, “I no longer judge, I simply pray for their deliverance from the cult life, that is, if it’s not healthy for them.

Cults and certain leaders in our society know exactly how to lure us in. They know how to manipulate our minds, that’s why we need to use both our rational thinking and our intuitive thinking together. Both are useful tools, especially in today’s world.

Rational thinking at times can be said to be based upon facts, rather then emotions. When we think in a rational matter, we focus on resolving a certain problem or achieving a goal. While this kind of thinking is good, we need to proceed with caution and be mindful because we can influenced by others strong opinions/perceptions of what they deem facts. On the other hand, there’s so much to learn from others perspectives. We can learn to develop not only how to set parameters in our thinking, but we can make some wonderful connections with others and we can learn to not only accept, but share ideas.

The mind is a powerful tool. We need to proceed with caution before accepting things as fact. We need to be careful of those “what if” arguments we tend to create in our head and we need to embrace that sixth sense we all have, intuition, after all, it has served many people well.

Mind mind is racing today and I’ll be honest, I’m having trouble calming my thoughts. I need to put into practice some of my own advice.

Today is a rough one for me, even as I write this blog. I’m literally in panic mode over these MRI’s I have to do in a couple of hours. UGH, being in that tube just causes me panic attacks. I’ll be taking my first valium soon.

I realize, I need to calm my thoughts. I need to control my thinking and just do what I have to do. I need to get out of my own fear thoughts and just realize, it’ll be over quicker if I only relax and calm my mind. I’ll work on that.

Well guys, I should say goodbye for today. I didn’t want to let another day go by without checking in and saying hi. I love writing to you and giving you life updates and a glimpse into the way I think.

My thoughts are just that, my thoughts. I respect everyone’s ideas and and I would love to hear how you feel about today’s topic.

Until next time, wish me luck and please don’t forget, Love Life++ Hugs.