the power of the mind

there certainly was a theme on my walk this morning.

the power of the mind.

and not the positive power.

i started out thinking of a conversation i had yesterday.
of why a friend was reacting to relationships the way she was.
it made total and complete sense when you looked at her background.

completely logical.
so we took some time to remember that there should be compassion
for herself as she tried to work with all that was inside of her.

and we talked of how she'd have to re-learn.

sigh.

there's that re-learning stuff again.

i walked and thought of how much our pasts direct our present
and how we really really don't even know how much...
and what exactly do we do to relearn?

and i thought of how powerful the mind was.

then i got distracted by thinking of yet another conversation i had
yesterday.

this person uses the word 'tragedy' to lump together a real tragedy
with stuff that isn't tragic at all. my divorce is clumped into the
tragedy catagory which always hits a nerve with me. which is probably
why it came up in my thoughts this morning.

and i started thinking of the word 'tragedy.' how some things really
ARE tragic. and some things aren't tragic, but they make us very sad.
and some things that make someone very sad make someone else very happy.
and i got to thinking of how our outlooks on the things happening
to us and around us will make all the difference in how we handle them.

and the power of the mind came back to me.

seeing my elderly neighbor sitting outside, i went to sit with her a
few minutes. she was having a rough morning. and she told me she hadn't
slept much. so much on her mind.

she needs a new fridge. i've told her i'll help her get one.
but she's fretting over it. we set up a time to go look at them.
she'd been worried about her gutters a lot, zakk cleaned them the other
day. she felt better about that. but now she was fretting over paying
her property taxes. not about the money, but about the act of paying
them. her bank merged with another bank and this has her anxious.

oh boy.
i sat there and watched her face all worried about it all.
i tried to soothe and be understanding. and i knew for a few moments
i could make her feel better. but it wouldn't last and she'd be
awake at nite again worrying about the different things.

as i walked home my head was filled with the power of the mind.

how much of our life do we waste because we're letting it drive us,
instead of us driving it????

all the way thru....at all the stages....

i really think it's something to be workin' on.......
relearning so that we can keep the past from imprisoning us,
using the right vocabulary to wrap our minds around things
in positive ways, and working with calming ourselves and
steadying ourselves......

ah, sounds so logical and straightforward....
think i'll hold a little compassion for myself as i keep at it.