“A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind”
Robert Oxton Bolton
What Do I Mean By The Phrase “Believing Stories”:
By “belief” in the context used throughout this blog what I am intending to make clear is that language is always referential or symbolic. The word CANNOT be the thing it points towards. To quote Adyashanti “You cannot read by the light of the word Sun and you cannot quench your thirst with the concept of Water.”
Or to quote an old proverb “Don’t mistake the menu for the meal.”
When we confuse our concept of things for the things themselves we set up a paradigm in which energy cannot flow easily and relating to others or the world in general can be challenging. Lets look at the example of “our relationship with our Bob”. (podcast below)
Why Is Believing a Story Potentially Problematic? (How Does It Affect Health?):
Mistaking our concept of something for the thing itself (believing our stories) can be quite detrimental in our ability to relate to others however our primary focus today is on how it can affect your health.
The “problem” is 2 fold:
- Reality will never match your mental image of reality.
- In the same way that “Bob” is much more than your mental image of him, YOU are also far more than your mental image of yourself.
- Mental images are skewed by past history and “undigested experiences”.
- Not only is Bob more than you imagine him to be; he may be nothing like you imagine him to be.
- A simple example can illustrate this (although this goes much deeper as well). I have 2 friends that are a married couple. Whenever we get together the husband (Frank) is wonderfully social, up-beat, and quite funny. His wife (Betti) is fairly quite and reserved but quite genuine and open hearted when she speaks. For some crazy reason despite my many years of knowing them the mental image my mind comes up with when I “picture them” is the opposite, in my mind Frank is quite and reserved and Betti is upbeat and social. Because I don’t believe my story about them this does not cause me any distress but I am wonderfully surprised every time we get together at this little trick my mind likes to play.
- Not only is Bob more than you imagine him to be; he may be nothing like you imagine him to be.
- The stories you believe skew not only your perception of reality but also influence the emotions that are created from seeing things in that way.
- If you believe the story “the world is a dangerous place” you cannot help but see danger and feel fear.
- If you believe the story “I will never have enough money to retire” you cannot help but worry
How Specifically can This Affect Health?
Remember from the thinking/emotional brain page as well as the body brain page that whenever energy gets stuck (either in thought or as a felt sense/somatically in the body) it interferes with the normal expanding and contracting of these 2 aspects of the Mind.
We could say that from the context of a healthy Mind we are not interested in the content of your thoughts or feelings (positive outlook vs negative outlook or happy vs angry) but whether or not they are allowed to “flow” smoothly into and out of the system (expand and contract).
Up Last: Personal Practice, De-story Yourself In Real Time.