Hi there,
I'm Maggie Kelly back again for just a little tidbit of a teaching.
Some of us,
Even if we're just in this conversation for the first time,
Knowing that you're in the conversation really should give you some,
I guess,
Sense of meaning that you're already on the path.
Because you wouldn't be engaged in the conversation if you weren't interested in what being on a spiritual path might even look like.
But today I just want to talk about one of the most essential spiritual lessons that we can learn on the path.
And that's how to differentiate between the situations that we actually experience and our mental commentary about the experiences.
The thoughts about a situation and the situation itself are sometimes difficult to separate.
We see them almost as the same thing and most of us don't even realize that there is a distinction.
Or maybe we do,
But we don't question it.
So during this past year or so of such incredible uncertainty,
Our internal self-talk might be telling us how terrible and unacceptable this whole situation has been.
And that then can trigger some kind of anger or depression or mostly fear,
I think,
For many of us.
A lot of us have experienced the conversations in our heads about how bad it is and how bad it might become as we sort of sort out and begin to really experience the repercussions of the pandemic.
We might question when the economy is going to get better,
Whether we or one of our family members is going to become ill,
When are we going to get our vaccination,
If we've lost our jobs we may be very anxious about finding a new one,
Or any other host of a million different worries.
So if your mind is telling you that it's going to get worse,
I can pretty much tell you that your mind believes it's going to get worse.
So what do you do?
Well,
First of all,
One of the biggest things that we can do is start to practice becoming aware.
And by that I mean is becoming aware of the difference between what's actually going on in the present moment and our internal commentary of the situation in the moment right now in our lives.
Just notice.
I like to call this the practice of strengthening our noticing muscles.
So when you feel unhappy or worried and your mind goes into commentary about it,
Which is totally human,
Right?
See if you can notice the internal self-talk as well as the conversations that you're having with other people too,
Right?
So as an experiment,
So or an example,
Ask yourself how you would envision this situation playing out if no one was around you,
If no one else added any unnecessary thoughts or interpretations,
Including you.
It's kind of hard to think like that,
But just imagine for a minute.
It's actually the first step of your path to spiritual awakening is noticing.
And what you might notice is that the commentary that goes around in your head is almost always negative.
They actually have a name for it.
It's called negativity bias.
For most of us,
We tend to think that something's going to turn out negatively before we ever consider the possibility that it might not.
The mind loves to latch on to a difficult situation so that it can start telling a story about it.
So see if you can start to interrupt the story.
Ask yourself,
How can I handle the situation without unnecessary thought?
Because many of us don't realize that our thoughts are what's making us unhappy,
Because we actually never really learned how to distinguish or differentiate between our circumstances and our internal narrative.
Some of us stay stuck in the narrative for years or even worse yet for our entire lives.
So it's really hard to live with a mind that continually creates unhappy and unpleasant narratives.
And if you're feeling that way,
You know exactly what I mean.
So what if instead we start to take a different approach?
So try on the practice that maybe we could try to refrain from interpretation.
What if we refrain from judging any of the situations at hand as either good or bad?
You might begin to notice that when you stop long enough to ask that question,
It automatically can't help but bring you back to the present moment.
So this is one of the most fundamental,
Basic,
And really profound spiritual practices.
It is really the beginning of your path,
Is this strengthening of your noticing muscles.
So give it a try this week.
I'd love to hear how it goes.
