Do you sometimes feel like more of a human doing than a human being?
Do you feel like you're always running to catch up, worrying that you're running further and further behind?
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When our emotions and physical sensations are yelling for our attention, our minds are working on overdrive to find out why. Good old rational critical thinking!

You see yourself here (uncomfortable, stressed, anxious) and you want to be there (at ease) so your mind analyses the gap between and tries to bridge it.

It uses the doing mode to break problems into smaller bits, and then attempts to analyse and solve them, trying to inch you closer to your goal. The doing mode is activated whether you're trying to catch a train or pay your tax. Thank goodness we have it! It's one of our most important assets.

BUT it can be not so helpful because it focuses on the gap and if that gap cant be closed despite trying everything, you become fixated on the gap and can't find an escape. You start torturing yourself with harsh criticisms.

‘What started it this time? What have I done to myself again?
What I should have said, done? Why does it hurt so much?

These open-ended questions can increase anxiety, depression and stress, burning up your energy and leaving you feeling fragile and broken. It gives the mind free reign to catastrophise. Maybe I'll never get better, maybe someone’s hiding something…

One fear leads to the next and before long you are lost in dark and maudlin thoughts. It’s a vicious exhausting cycle!

BUT THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE!

You can’t stop the triggering of unpleasant sensations in the body but you can stop what happens next. The spiral of negative thoughts, feelings and emotions. You can learn to take a mountaintop view that is unclouded by thoughts, feelings and emotions. Psychologists call it the being mode.

You can become AWARE that you are thinking. This metacognition allows you to experience the world without your thoughts acting like a distorting lens. You can learn to see the world as it actually is, not as you expect or fear it to be. This can break the cycle that leads to anxiety, stress and depression.

It allows you to step back from your pain and suffering and breaks free from the tendency to overthink it. You will see it as only one aspect of your daily experience. Unpleasant yes, but not all of who you are.

BEING MODE IS NOT BETTER OR WORSE THAN DOING MODE…. JUST DIFFERENT.

It’s bigger than thinking, kinder than thinking and often wiser than thinking and it has been cultivated for thousands of years. And we can learn this by the practice of mindfulness meditation.

The only way to know is carrying out the practices. Belief is irrelevant but it’s certainly worth a try. Isn’t It?

With peace and kindness,

Rita.