GROW OR SLOW?

I’ve been spending time going through my notes and insights from last week’s Free Your Mind Retreat with Alex Manzi. Naturally I came back feeling calm and mentally nourished from a week of deep conversation and reflection but I know how these things can go…

Similiar to that warm, calm, slowed down state that we often return from a holiday in, these insights and light bulb moments can float down our mental river and dissappear from sight all too quick and we find ourselves returning to our old ways of thinking and being.

To combat that, I’m finding that writing about and really exploring those insights helps carve them out and push them deeper into my conciousness, hopefully cementing them into my mind to move forward with.

Here’s one question that sparked a lot for me…

‘Is this thought here to make me grow or is this thought here to keep me in the same place?’

This is a powerful question that really resonated with me on many, many levels. I visualise this phrase as some sort of bouncer in front of the gate of my mind, as a thought approaches the bouncer asks the question…

If the answer is the latter, the bouncer sends the thought a different way, to dissolve, if the first, it permits entry.

A prompt like this is important for me, it initiates my active mind so i can start exercising and training my mind in how to engage with my thoughts…. There may be an arguement that we shouldn’t engage with the thoughts that don’t serve us but having the thought in itself is engagement to some degree, so for me adding a layer in to assess it is a great help.

It has allowed me to question my thoughts, like ‘what is your intention here son?’

This question becomes very helpful when dealing with fear….

My awareness of fear arising allows me to deal with it. Recognising when it shows up will then trigger the question above.

Sometimes in the past fear has been present but I have mistaken it for caution or being considered, when in reality there was no actual ‘danger’ and the fear was stemming from the past… an insecurity or lack of belief in myself and my ability. It was there to keep me in the same place and stop me from experencing any growth.

I realise i don’t need fear to not be there, I just need the awarness of it and then to ask the question, is this here to make me grow or to keep me in the same place?

Fear is so often the gateway to possibility and new potential.

I recognise many instances in my past where i let fear dictate my actions because i didn’t realise it was fear or i simple didn’t ask myself the question.

This insight will allow me to better filter my thoughts and improve how I engage with them as well as push me further into my commitment of constant growth.