(7-minute read)
I want you to take a moment to think about a very happy time in your life. Remember the circumstances and picture the place where this event happened. Carry on the conversation, see the person or people, notice the surroundings and feel your feelings.
Now, take a moment and think about a disappointing time in your life. Remember the circumstances and picture the place where this event happened. Carry on the conversation, see the person or people, notice the surroundings and feel your feelings.
These thoughts all have the same process and operate out of the same place in your Mental Plane. They all follow the same sequence and they are very predictable.
You start with the thought using some sort of “trigger” in your Mental Plane. Think about how you worked through the steps above. Your memory gave you visualization and your self-talk gave you verbiage to match. Some type of trigger, both within your thoughts and within your perceptions, pushed you to feel certain things that led to certain actions.
Some actions brought happiness. Some actions brought negative emotions or regretful actions. This is thinking and responding. Most have a hard time separating thoughts from emotions.
The moment we start thinking about something that stresses us out, we start shutting down. We just feel overwhelmed by negative emotions. The problem here is not the thoughts themselves. Those thoughts will always appear.
There are a lot of people out there who may do things that remind you of the happy times. There are a lot of people who may do things that remind you of those disappointing times.
The issue here is how are you going to respond? How are you going to process the triggers that life sends your way so that they work for you instead of against you? At the very least, how can you process information so that it produces a neutral result instead of a negative one?
It’s very easy to get caught up in the moment to let our emotions get the better of us. We are triggered by a certain sound, taste, smell or sight. Whatever the case may be, all these memories come back, and we interpret them as negative things. Sooner or later, we start saying negative things and before we know it, we habitually do things that we regret later.
This is the process and, although it may seem automatic, it is not set in stone. There is always a choice. It may seem like it’s your instinct or it may seem like it’s even part of your personality or part of who you are, but it isn’t. That’s just an illusion and an automatic emotion triggered. These are all choices.
The moment your Mental Plane focuses on the memory of any trigger, you can choose how to have, feel and respond to those automatic emotions. You always have the power to choose. You learn to distance, how to step back before responding when you retreat within and meditate. Meditation gives you the power to see things without emotional baggage.
You can learn how to acknowledge your thoughts without being owned by them.
When your thoughts own you, your worst instincts take over. Your worst emotions get the better of you. It doesn’t lead you to a good place. It leads you to a place of powerlessness. It leads you to a place of smallness. It leads you to a place of regret, guilt, remorse and fear. Those powerful emotions can overwhelm your NOW and take away your inner power.
Retreat within to start taking control over these Mental Plane triggers. They already happened. There’s nothing you can do about them.
What you can change is your response to them in your perfect NOW. Thoughts and emotions don’t have to own you. They don’t have to define you in a negative way.
Your thoughts and your ability to judge the external world are not set in stone. They’re not automatic processes. They are not “part of who you are”. You can take ownership of them. You can take control of this process and let it lead to a totally different place when you retreat within and master the Mental and Physical Plane influences.
Find your place of empowerment, contentment, happiness, fulfillment, responsibility and self-control. The choice to spend time in meditation is up to you. Change your thinking, change your emotions, and change your NOW.