Mind your own business
Have you ever wondered why sometimes, we feel exhilarated, and see everything through a positive lens and other times, we feel like surrounded by a black cloud of misery, and see everything in a negative light?
We feel that we’re walking on cloud nine, and that the world is so beautiful, everyone is loving, and we are fully content to be alive. And those other times, we can’t see past one experience, or we feel blocked in a situation, or we embrace negativity like a second skin.
You see, we live in a world of energy. Our thoughts are energy. When we use our conscious thinking to grasp a thought that has been taking a walk in our mind, we give it energy. We bring it to Life. And this is when the problems start to happen. Our lack of understanding is responsible, not our mind.
Our thoughts have all the same size when they show up in our heads, and when we attach to them, they grow, grow to the point of becoming a belief, or a way of being. If it’s a positive one, we think we are all good.But we still attach to it. But when it is a negative thought, we become agitated, restless. Now we’re in trouble. Now this thing is bothering us, is preventing us to be happy. What a misery!
Working hand in hand with our mind is important. We know we must move our body, feed it proper nutrition and take care of how we treat it every day, in order for it to reach optimal health. What about our mind? What training do we go through, every day? To get to know it, like we would do with our body. Working out with our mind to see how far we can push, and from that, observing and see its patterns, its positive or negative traits. In our Western societies, we place a lot of emphasis on training the body, which will eventually die. What about our mind? We have the obligation to take care of it. For our own sake and the sake of others.
Most people are ignorant of the problems they put themselves through. We feel that we are in charge, that we have our stuff together. We think that we earn good money, have a loving partner, obedient kids, relatively healthy relationships. We work, go on vacation, and we are content. But as soon as a little grain of sand comes to disrupt us, it becomes a catastrophe. It’s our mind that dictates that. Nothing around us has changed, it’s just our mind that has been going on a trip.
When I walk down the street, I always picture people carrying a world of their own around their head, like a bubble floating around them, with their own stories, characters and actions taking place. This is the reality. There is no intrinsic reality, except the one we are creating for ourselves in our mind at each second. The movie never stops, it’s a continuity of scenes, and the mind is the writer. Because we don’t know it well enough, doesn’t mean we have to live a miserable Life. We must examine our own mental attitudes. We must examine the way we react. When we get good news, we’re jumping to the roof. When we encounter someone nasty, we are upset. They shouldn’t be that way. But our mind is the one reacting. Why do we react? Because we have forgotten the true nature of Life.
Life is made of constant changes. Life is impermanent. This concept that nothing lasts, so we should never be attached to anything. When we attach, we suffer. Believing things on the outside world are going to fulfill us for the rest of our lives is living in denial. Believing that a partner will free us from a lack of love is living in denial. Believing that when we reach retirement, we will be at peace. These beliefs place us in a cage, and believing this for ages has made it hard to break free from it. But those things arise in our Life to teach us something. That no matter what, we always have the choice to experience our mind at peace. They keep coming back, to show us how limited we’ve created ourselves, how narrow we’ve made our inner world. Nothing or no one can make you happy. The outside circumstances do not matter. Only our way of Being does. This starts with us understanding the true nature of our mind.
Instead of looking for someone to blame on the outside, because we experience unease, we should always look at ourselves. Putting the blame on our partner, our boss, our politicians is very easy, but why not taking accountability for our own lack of skill set when it comes to our reactive internal patterns?
When we act in such a way that shows we are reacting to something on the outside, we show how weak we are. How short-tempered we are. How not in control of ourselves we are. We keep lying to ourselves in doing so, and this behavior is not sustainable in the long term. Why don’t we aim at being happy, joyful? We are in charge of ourselves. Not our partner, family members, politicians. Whatever they do is their business. What about what we do? What do we do, every day, to improve our peace? Satisfaction comes from our own mind, nothing else. Our mind holds the key to heaven, or to hell.
Let’s make sure we treat ourselves with kindness and wisdom. Let’s ask ourselves, how does being stuck in our heads benefit others? How our irrational behaviors, short-tempered states, contribute to the greater good? What aspects of ourselves are we denying?
With love and gratitude,
Caroline
© Caroline Caanl 2025. All rights reserved.