When I was a child I thought that sticking plasters and bandages had magical healing powers so I would insist on a plaster for even the slightest scratch until I understood that wounds heal from the inside out and that the healing power comes from within me.
We all know that the body can heal itself right?
We all know that a common cold will pass in a matter of days,
An upset stomach or headache will soon sort itself out and even a broken bone can mend once it's been set in place.
Our bodies are incredible.
They are designed to bring us back to balance and back to health and that's what they're doing all the time.
But what about the mind?
You see there was a time when I thought there was something wrong with my mind.
On the outside my life appeared to be fine and people would often comment on how calm I appeared but on the inside it was a very different story.
I often felt stressed,
Anxious or worried and I didn't know why.
I did my best to just sit on those feelings and hope they'd go away but they kept coming back and I started wondering what's wrong with me?
Why aren't I happier?
Anyway finally I decided to go in search for answers.
First I went down the self-help route and tried practices such as yoga,
Meditation,
Spiritual healing and these all helped me to relax my physical body and slow down my mind but I still entertained unwanted negative thoughts and feelings.
So then I tried techniques like positive affirmations and neuro-linguistic programming because I thought that if I could control my mind and change my negative thoughts to positive thoughts that would be the solution.
Now all of these practices and techniques and therapies were really beneficial but they take time and discipline to maintain and it felt as if there just weren't enough hours in the day.
In some ways they ended up adding to the stress rather than reducing it.
They became yet another item to add to my to-do list.
I'd know perhaps you can relate to this.
Then a few years ago I heard something I'd never heard before and it's something that seems obvious to me now but this one fact about the mind took a load off my mind and helped me calm down.
What I heard was this.
Just like the body,
The mind is self-healing and self-correcting.
Let me say that again.
Just like the body,
The mind is self-healing and self-correcting.
What?
The mind is self-correcting?
This was big news to me.
Is it news to you?
If it is it's okay.
You're not alone.
Not many people realize this but I'm sure you've had the experience of going to bed with a busy mind only to wake up the next morning with a clear head and wondering why you had been so worried the day before.
This is an example of your mind self-clearing.
You see our mind is like a snow globe.
We can shake it up by worrying and overthinking and getting involved in our thoughts and opinions and seeing them as the truth.
And our mind gets clouded by our thoughts just like snow in the globe.
Now if we want the snow in the globe to settle down what do we do?
Well we just put it down.
The natural state of the snow globe is stillness and clarity.
That's what it returns to when we're not shaking it up and our minds are the same.
So I realized that all these practices and techniques that I've been using to quieten my mind were in fact just like sticking plasters or bandages for the mind.
My mind had been doing the heavy lifting all along.
It had been self-correcting all along.
Always has and always will.
So how has knowing this helped me?
Well for a start there's a lot less on my to-do list which means I have more time to focus on doing the things I want to do.
Of course I still get caught up in my thoughts because I'm human.
But when I remember that it works this way I intervene less because why would I?
And I let my mind self-correct.
And it does.
Eventually.
Every time.
So perhaps the next time you find your mind racing and getting clouded by your thoughts you will remember the fact that your mind has a self-clearing,
Self-correcting mechanism built in and that instead of adding to the snowstorm of thoughts you might step back and allow your mind to return to its natural state of stillness,
Clarity and calm.
