The power of our minds

Sadly we are all not alone in the fact of how our minds can beat us up.  I just read a post of someone struggling in this way and it was so touching to read all the supportive comments from followers encouraging her to just love herself and take her time with things she obviously thought she should do.   I am coming to see how my own mind creates so much of my own painful feelings and I hope it doesn’t get boring when I tell you I am reading yet another book but this one Calming The Emotional Storm is all about how those with emotional dysregulation so often get beaten up by the rational mind and then our emotions due to not having been mediated or regulated growing up then tend to over take us, overpower or overwhelm with a negative impact.  It is an issue the Dan Seigel also addresses in his excellent book Mind Sight.  

Collectively I think this issue of how our minds so often run the show in ways which lead us to depression and anxiety is such a hot topic at present. We live in a time when our mind can run amok. There is just so much information out there in the world together with a host of opinions which is not all bad because educating and informing ourselves in ways that lead us to greater calm and peace of mind were never more essential that they are now.

Consumerist, materialistic culture teaches us to focus outwards and focusing inwards can lead to too much rumination as well, and at times it may be good to distract ourselves in the material world (not necessarily consumerist here, I mean nature, looking at a sunrise, washing the dishes, planting a garden, sweeping the path) taking some action is a good antidote to getting too caught up in and overwhelmed by our thoughts.  But we also need good emotional intelligence into our inner life as emotions as energy in motion have much to teach us about what we need, what is good for us and what is not, about boundaries and limits and reason and all kinds of things.  So we need a good awareness of the inner world.

And I think at times the spiritual disciplines have in some way negated the material aspects of life and emotional connections.  It may not necessarily always be healthy to just take yourself off to a mountain retreat where you isolate for long periods if what you are really needing is an emotional connection with someone or something.  In the end its all about balance and that brings to mind that we just had the New Moon in Libra which as an air sign relates to mind but being ruled by Venus also relates to feminine nature and values, receptivity, balance, the ability to weigh up options and to discriminate rather than just judge things as black/white, wrong/right.  One of the downsides of Libra as a sign can be that it is not as comfortable with darker realities which the soul tends to face in the next sign of Scorpio and since its ruler Venus is placed in Scorpio for this month of the New Moon which commenced on 5th April (it will move back into its own sign of Libra during this period too) we will be focusing on the deeper feelings relationships evoke as well as emotional values and past experiences of trying to connect and being fearful or opening due to a host of other fears.  We may even see how we come to fear our own shadow during this time and then judge others who remind us of it.

This post is morphing at the moment and I think it may be a result of one cup of coffee on top of an empty stomach that has my thoughts running away.   I just wanted to post a post to say how the power of the mind and how we use it to relate to our past and thoughts and emotion is so very critical to how well we feel on any day.  In Scorpio the tendency can be to spiral down into dark depths and gloomy thoughts.  The antitode is to remember at times to take breather from all the internal chatter and surface for some air, perhaps a walk in nature if the focus is becoming to negative and intense. Just remember to be kind to yourself with your thinking, is my point.  And try to use the wise mind in you, not be captured by the emotional or rational minds which may convince you of things that at times are not necessarily true, accurate. helpful, healing or in your best interests.  (Message for me too really, fellow bloggers, not really you!!!)