Consider Your Thoughts
Have you ever sat down to consider how much of what you perceive is reality vs stories that your mind is making up?
I started to think about this myself this fall after one of our yoga classes on the Camino. We were in a beautiful garden in rural Spain when the sun rose. In Spain, this also includes the neighborhood dogs waking up, which they do with a vigorous barking. I’m not sure if they are barking to be fed or at excitement of seeing each other or their owners, but it is a sound I have gotten used to and have created a calming story about. During the class, the dogs started their morning chorus, and I was sitting there thinking about how beautiful it was that the dogs were waking up and starting the day with us. However, a number of people in the class were thinking that these must be wild dogs and that we were about to be attacked. That morning, we were all greeted with the same sound, and each of us made up a story about it. We never saw the dogs so we really have no idea what the dogs were doing, but what intrigued me was how much the story our minds created about the dogs effected the way that we felt in that moment.
Having been awakened to noticing this kind of thing, I have been aware of this all fall. Sometimes, it is related to a conversation I am having. I may say one thing, for a hypothetical example “Are the dishes washed?” One person might hear that as a factual question, another might hear it as a command to wash the dishes still another might hear it as a criticism that the dishes are dirty. Since I usually am very transparent, what I say is usually just what I mean, but I am trying to stop and learn and figure out what is being interpreted, and I am trying to notice when I myself project my own thoughts and expectations on what people say to me. Imagine if you are simply asking if the dishes are washed and the person you are talking to thinks that you are criticizing them.
I am using the above example, but you might consider how many times you have projected your own feelings or beliefs about something onto someone or something - maybe something they said or didn’t say or perhaps something that they did had nothing to do with you but that you took personally. Our minds are so good at creating stories that the examples are really limitless.
I invite you to see the world through the eyes of the serpent, as we say in shamanism, by simply exploring what is actually there, without creating a story whatsoever.. Once you practice that, you might consider changing your experience of the day but changing your thoughts.
How would it be to see the world through the lens and expectation of kindness and joy?
Copyright 2022 Nancy C Murray
Nancy C Murray is a practitioner of shamanic energy medicine, Reiki master joy professor and spiritual leader. She leads public and private yoga classes and healing sessions, transformational courses, and also retreats and spiritual journeys.
