When we looksee, we ‘see’ through our own demeanor. As I look at something particular in this moment, the exact same thing can look differently at another time. How I view life depends on me. How you view life depends on You.
My life lives through all that I am, have experienced, witnessed, thought about and realized. My reaction is a built up and added on to habit from when my awareness of other people’s ‘ways’ and processes became apparent to me.
What I grabbed onto; what I chose; even what scared me.
Our brains are made to support us and keep us safe. As we fear, our brains actually suggest to us to not go there because the part of our brain that keeps us safe gets ignited when we fear and supports the fear. We have to bypass our brain’s ‘support’ and ‘suggestion’ in order to walk forward. Oh, what a hoot! [That is one word for it.]
The Amygdala part of the brain is the ‘threat detector’. It immediately senses the feel of danger inside of us and puts our body into rapid and high alert (fight or flight). Our Prefrontal Cortex is ‘the thinking brain’ and mindfulness helps us use it to observe the situation. When we tap into this, we can stop and question whether we really are in danger and send signals back to the Amygdala, perhaps, thanking it and telling it to shut down/turn off. Fear can be strongly based on memories; perceptions. A memory can ignite fear. A perception can ignite fear. The memory in our brain does not allow the brain to know that it is only a memory, foremost, and our brain turns on the fear response to keep us safe.
While I am not an expert for the brain by any means, I know that we can create new thoughts, be mindful, shut them down, turn it back and reconfigure how we think to create more peace now. Our thinking – our cognitive thoughts (the way we perceive, remember, react and judge) – when reconfigured… can help us to live now in a more peaceful way.
Talk to yourself. Be extra kind. Be self-supportive. Be gentle. Be true. Experiment and find your best way to keep on keeping on. If what you are telling yourself doesn’t feel good, perhaps, tell yourself something different than your usual, habitual response.
May we put our most uplifting ‘looks’ and ‘thoughts’ into each moment; as much and as often as possible.
If you do not like what you are seeing or experiencing, is there a new way for you to look at it…
Be good to You. xo
