Freeing my mind and opening my heart

Messages from the Pod
Freeing my mind and opening my heart

The mind is a funny thing, This monkey mind, our monkey chatter. The incessant talk that never stops. And it’s a true gift to be able to calm it down or drown it out just a wee bit. Just enough to drop into a place of quiet mindfulness (Mind-Lessness if you wish).

My mind really does think the world will end, will apocalypse, if I don’t: “do this now” – “let someone know what’s next” – “write down my thoughts or I might forget my insight, my brilliant next move” or “change a habit today”. It forgets, or doesn’t know really, that a true insight, a brilliant idea, a ‘knowing’ is instant, fresh and new. It cannot be forgotten and will find its way. Only the mind needs time for the dust to settle, needs the time for new ideas to ripen.

If I had followed my train of thought every time it feeds me something, I would be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Or probably in the abyss by now and I would never get things done.
This is because mostly, I work from a place of intuition and gut. Most of the time I know what’s the right direction because I know myself, my desire, my talents and skills. I also know my non-existent talents and skills, my limitations. Where I want to go and how this can serve a greater good.

Now how do I know this? Because for years, I spent so much time in silent contemplation. These days I often don’t need to seek so much silence, I know when and why my heart sings and it tells me the truth. It’s my head that gets in the way: it distracts me and designs concoctions for all the what ifs, it keeps trying to control things. Mainly because it thinks that the world will end and it will be a HUGE disaster if I let go, follow my instincts and my intuition. Or so it keeps telling me.

See, the mind is made to repeat, to keep looking at the past for answers which I understand because it’s like a computer and that is the feed it derives information from. But I am not my thoughts, just like I am not my emotions. I have thoughts, I have emotions. I don’t need their permission to move.

I can move freely and decide to change my mind.

Be well and safe.

in compassion, ~ Barbara

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Barbara writes about the qualities of kindness and compassion and takes a positive approach to health. She supports leaders and teams in their personal development and compassionate leadership. To cultivate what is often referred to as ‘soft skills’ and what she calls the ‘hard skills’; communicating with presence, practicing deep listening and a non-judgmental attitude; being (self)compassionate and building (self)awareness. www.berooted.nl

“By connecting to yourself first, we start living from the inside out and become more resilient.”

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