Why does the mind take over? We are a mind dominated culture. Often we value ourselves on how many books we have read, or the level of our degrees or schooling, or even our wealth of trivial facts we can call upon in a social meeting or occurrence. We also undervalue our emotions. We aim to be controlled and remain invulnerable in the workplace and often among friends; some of us even in our relationships. It may seem weak or unprofessional to share or show the true inner feelings one is experiencing… so much to the fact that we become out of touch with our emotions ourselves. Beliefs can be tied to emotions and deep inside we can be wrapped up by fear, loathing, hatred or sadness. If it is unaccepted to explore these things in our day, with our fully lived American lives, how will we ever even know our own truths?

We have separated mind and emotion, mind and body, body and emotion to the point that we are deeply unhappy, many of us, and we know not why, let alone that we know not how to find the source or alleviate our suffering to which we cannot put a name. Perhaps these are the times when we must relax our mind. Perhaps knowing facts, thinking, and over using this muscle we close the inner doorway to our emotions. Often folks will placate their minds and emotions through distraction by turning it all off to be soothed by Hollywood, popular TV networks or the internet. Emptiness is form and form is emptiness. Sometimes it is in the lack of a response, the lack of a thought, or in feeling an uncomfortable, complex and perhaps unattractive emotion, that we can move through to a place of happiness and acceptance. It can good to put meaning to this process, these feelings, fears and unwarranted belief systems we did not even know we had in place. Folks may seek to find out why they feel the way they do by focusing on what has happened in their pasts, and even design their healing based on what they wish to have happen in the future. We should not get too caught up in either the past or the future. In this present moment, which we have eternally, I wish for you to let go and do something unconventional. Do something dorky or perhaps even crude. We must be honest and feel what we truly feel, sometimes even think what we truly think, but most of all, we must release our grips on reality to let what needs to escape have a doorway through our souls. Perhaps then we will be left with the serenity we crave.