Getting Behind the Mind's Chatter

I saw a sign many years ago at the Aesclepion Healing Center in San Rafael that said, "Don't believe everything you think."  At the time I thought it was funny, and also knew that while it was profound, I didn't quite get it.  I imagined an existence where we have all types of random thoughts and live as if they are true, but most of them are not.  It would be rather like being actors in a play, pretending.  At the time I couldn't get my mind around that.

I've seen since that life really is like that.  We pretend that what our minds tell us is true, so that we can pretend, for a time, to be less than God.  Because of this, we are provided with our most holy of gifts, that of remembering our Godselves.  It is funny, in an existential kind of way.  And I'm still trying to get it.

The thing is, I'll never "get it" with my head, because we can't intellectualize spirit.  Truth doesn't happen in the mind, but in the heart.

The ego-driven mind's purpose is to maintain the illusion that we are separate, and that there is need to fear.  And so my thoughts can take me on a very convoluted path that becomes a slippery slope to a really unhelpful perspective.  The more I stop to notice where my mind is taking me, the more I realize just how frequently my thoughts turn to worry, and that worry sets the emotional tone of my experience.

When we decide not to believe everything we think, we can consciously choose which thoughts to attend to.  The rest we can notice and release without any concern about them at all.  And that is the tricky part, the letting go without concern, when the thoughts would have us believe they are hugely important in the moment.  How do we trust that the sky won't fall, finally, as everyone's been threatening, if we refuse to entertain the voice of fear that our thoughts can be?

I've found that first I must stop.  I must stop and acknowledge that my thoughts are running loose, and that I can choose which thoughts I want to nurture.  I then focus on my breathing, and watch in my mind's eye as I breathe into, and out through my heart.  In doing so I reconnect with the truth that resides there.  And I remember then to turn it all over to Father/Mother God, as I've been encouraged to do over and over, and in countless ways.  God is there, always there, just behind the mind's chatter.

May this tool be a blessing. . .