Understanding the Operating System of the Human Mind

I made up my mind last month that I was going to live more simply, stop complicating my life and making it so hard. I had an insight that showed me just how much I was complicating things for myself. Well, you know how the best laid plans don't always work out......... that's what happened to me. I found myself overcomplicating my business again this week.

And of course, once I had the realisation that that was what I was doing, the first thing I did was criticise myself for knowing better and not doing better, but then, fortunately not too far down the line, I remembered that all I was doing was adding to the massive amount of thinking a.k.a. stress that was already there, and I so I stopped. Haaaaaaa .... deep sigh of relief ........ .and when I did that, the new thoughts popped in – it was easy!

I felt like I had been holding myself hostage for the last few hours, torturing myself, as if I had been bound to the chair and put under the spotlight – (evil voice) “you will find something to write about in your e-zine, and it will be valuable and it will be helpful, and it can't be anything you've said before, come on, get on with it, get on with it ...!!!”

Does this sound familiar? Any (reforming) perfectionists out there??

I had been grinding away at the job at hand, trying really hard to come up with the solution to my problem, and the moment I recognised it - the overthinking, the uptight feeling, the pressure I was putting myself under, the fact that it felt just too hard - I could let it go. And in the letting go, I automatically made space for the new thoughts to come in.

It sounds too simple doesn't it? Clear some old thoughts out to make room for some new thoughts. The truth is it is simple in theory. Not unlike lots of theories. But until we actually put it into practise, and we are doing it without thinking about it, it can feel like hard work.

Until we learned to walk it seemed really difficult. How many times did we fall down until we mastered the skill of walking? And how often do we think about walking now - the actual standing up on our feet, putting one foot in front of the other? Never, until there is a fault in the system, like an injured ankle or something, then it's something we have to think about.

So clearing the old thinking to make room for some new more helpful thinking is no different really. And just to be clear, there is no doing here, I am not suggesting that you set about examining your thoughts and sifting through them and choosing which ones to keep and which ones to get rid of. And this isn't about positive thinking either.

What I am saying, is that when our state of mind is anything but clear, peaceful, calm, and so on, then that is a sign that our thinking is off, and to stop and allow those thoughts to pass, and wait for new thoughts. No action required.

That's the beauty of the operating system of the human mind, no action is required. All we need to do is nothing! Just like we don't need to do anything when we cut our finger. Apart from keeping it clean, we know it will heal. We know our physical body has an intelligent healing system that does the job without us having to do anything.

Well the human operating system of the mind is just the same. If we leave it alone, it's natural default setting is calm, peace, happy, well. All we have to do is stop interfering with the system.

Whew! Do nothing, that's the key, that's all we have to do, nothing.

What's that I hear you thinking ........... “It can't be that easy..... that simple?”

And that's exactly how we innocently interfere with the system. We question the simplicity and start on the cycle of thinking, adding more thinking to the “pot” until it builds up and up and we are feeling stressed, again.

I know, I do it too. Thank goodness we are so resilient and can keep on going through the cycles. Though wouldn't it be great if we could become more and more aware of just when we are interfering with the system? That way we could have more peace, well being and ease, more of the time.

So how can we be more aware?

By understanding how the system works. Any time we don't feel the way we want to, that's our signal to become aware. Simple.

What's that I hear you thinking ...... “it can't be that easy ...... that simple?” ............