When we are experiencing less than good mental health, we tend to use phrases such as, ‘I think I’m going mad’, ‘my head is wrecked’, and ‘I think there’s something wrong with me’.
All these phrases relate to thinking; all just thoughts.
When talking of our emotions we say ‘we feel‘ but we tend to convert emotions to thoughts in an effort to interpret our feelings, moving us away from the sensory experience – we learn ‘intellectually’ in school, so this is normal for us.
We get ‘butterflies in our tummies’ if we are nervous; we feel like our ‘heart is in our mouths’ before we speak to a crowd of people or perform in public; we feel ‘sick to our stomach’ when we hear bad news; we feel betrayal and loss as ‘gut-wrenching’.
All these descriptions are sensory/bodily, however we interpret them intellectually.
We cause these bodily sensations by our thoughts, however we fail to see the connection between what we think and what we feel physically.
This denial leads to manifesting our mental anxieties in our bodies, causing us actual harm.
We are not ‘going out of our minds’, we are ‘going in to our minds’ and away from our bodies, home of our gut-instinct, misinterpreting its signals, which is adversely affecting our mental well-being. Our thoughts are literally ‘driving us crazy’.
Mind-made reactions
Our fast-paced, 21st century lifestyles ironically have had the effect of making us more reactive, rather than using our brain-power; the capable, cognitive reasoning we have available to us as evolved, human beings. We react when anxiety taps into our ‘primitive brain’ (amygdala) resulting in our ‘fight or flight’ panic response – a powerful survival instinct – releasing hormones into our bloodstreams to either fight, or get away from, a threat. This reflex-action is necessary, and serves us well, in a genuinely dangerous or emergency situation. However, what seems to have happened is this response can be activated automatically as a default-setting for mildly worrying experiences when we are feeling anxious.
It has become a bad habit, and worse still, it is self-perpetuating as it originates in our brains – it is caused by our own thoughts. We are living in our heads too much, then dumping toxic hormones into our bodies to flee from ‘perceived dangers’ which, in turn, keeps us on high alert for the next ’emergency’, in a vicious, harmful circle. We are simply letting an innate, survival instinct become habitual thinking – bypassing cognitive processes, causing unnecessary mental anguish.
Autopilot
It is scientifically proven our wonderful brains create a blueprint, a ‘schema’, on how to do routine tasks, like driving, which is then at our disposal automatically. We are literally on autopilot. We do this with a million tasks every second of every day, to get on with living. Our fast-paced lifestyles increase this thought-process.
A downside of this efficiency is we will naturally try and side-step rational, concentrated thinking, falling into the bad habit of using our stored bank of schemas (old mental ‘videos’ of past experiences) as fact to interpret what is happening in the present moment rather than picking up signals, using our senses in real-time, which are then relayed to the brain for considered processing and appropriate action.
We are not seeing what is in front of us, we create a version of reality in our heads, by using our preconceived ideas of what we think is going on.
By using autopilots as a default setting, we are literally ‘making up stories’ in our heads, which can be far worse than the actual situation we are in. We struggle to find a match in seconds for what is happening by running a search on the mental libraries we have stuffed full of old, stored experience -interpretations. These can be false, unhelpful, biased, blatantly untrue, judgemental, warped and outdated.
The consequences of these thoughts can be to fight, or move away from, a perceived threat. Negative thoughts then cause unnecessary anxiety, paralysing us from taking appropriate action, leading to depression and hopelessness.
Senseless
So why are we over-using the reflexes of our ancestors? I think this comes from living in a hectic, technology-rich age; the legacy of first-world, enlightened civilisation. We have lost touch with our natural selves. We are missing a step – we are being ‘senseless’.
Humans are made up of the totality of mind and body: we need to slow down, ‘come to our senses’, let the body and mind work together for our benefit, as they are wonderfully designed to do; allowing our senses to pick up the messages firstly, then let our brains interpret them properly.
Mindfulness
One of the many ways of helping you do this is the practice of Mindfulness, which has been scientifically proven to lessen the overuse of the default settings in our brains, letting us use our evolved, cognitive reasoning. Results show successful Mindfulness practitioners are leading happier, more contented and stress-reduced lives.
- It is a meditative (not mind-emptying – as you can’t get rid of thoughts, you just decide which ones to pay attention to) and contemplative practice of awareness; paying attention to how you operate in, and connect to, reality
- It ‘brings you to your senses’
- It grounds you and stops you living constantly in your head
- It brings mind and body together to help you stay present and awake to the world
I came across this description: ‘Mindfulness is the opposite of Mindlessness’ – which is living on autopilot as described above.
- So take your time, breathe and ‘get out of your mind’
- Challenge these so-called ‘facts’ your own mind is producing
- Reconnect your mind and body: listen to your senses first, then relate signals back to your brain to make a cognitive decision of action based on reality, not on the schemas your brain has manufactured purely to process information as quickly as possible – it only takes a few seconds more to do this
Our thoughts are predominantly either in:
- The past; trying to analyse it
- The future; full of expectations of maybe a better life
Try and bring them to the present.
The sentient body is always in the present – what you decide to do today will guide your life in a real way, rather than being stuck in the past or obsessing about an insubstantial future.
Mindfulness can help quiet a churning brain, allowing clarity in the present moment. We can then take action to make changes, if needed and when ready, to handle the challenges the world lays at our feet (they are not going away, we can’t control them, we can only manage them), building resilience in ourselves to render us capable of withstanding the slings and arrows of life, while fostering happiness and well-being.
Make sure what you are picking up is actually the present reality you are in and not some scary, made-up mindscape which leads to an anxious, unsettled and unhappy life-view.