Continuing from Part 1, this article emphasizes the importance of breaking free from the mind's control and the steps to take to separate the mind from Self.
- Mind-Body Connection: Explains how the mind-body connection works, detailing the continuous activation of the autonomic nervous system and its adverse effects on health when constantly reliving painful experiences.
- Unveiling Hidden Wounds: Encourages introspection by revealing the often overlooked wounds from the past. It emphasizes the understanding that we all have wounds, and their need for acknowledgment.
- Practical Steps for Freedom: Practicing mindfulness to stay present, identifying triggers and their origins, confronting past traumas through journaling, and relinquishing perceived control over the past and future.
Freeing yourself from your mind is vital. Scientific studies emphasize how reliving past pain in the mind detrimentally impacts not only our mental but also our physical health.
Our thoughts evoke emotional and physical responses from our body. Our mind and body cannot tell the difference between a thought (stressing over past/future events) and what is ACTUALLY happening in the present moment. Which means that reliving painful experiences activates our autonomic nervous system, aka fight-or-flight mode.
Our Autonomic Nervous System response is meant to help us survive in stressful situations (think a bear chasing you or a man in a dark alley). Our nerves send our system into overdrive. It skyrockets our adrenaline and cortisol hormones in order for us to have the ability to either fight back or run. It is then supposed to drop back down moments later when the threat is gone. However, because, as a society, we're reliving painful experiences we just can't let go of in our mind, the stress doesn't go away. Cortisol keeps flowing and our fight or flight circuit can't fully shut down. Our bodies get stuck. Over time we get burnt out from our system running on overdrive for an extended period of time, which causes high blood pressure, elevated blood sugars, and a weakened immune system. All increasing the risks of deadly diseases.
This means that we can weaken our own immune systems and make ourselves sick by living in our minds. This is how incredibly powerful our minds are, and we are letting our minds run rampant.
For over a year and a half, my mind ran rampant on just one situation. And reflecting on many situations in my past, I realized how stuck I was in all of them, allowing my mind to entangle me in pain. For my whole life I've let my mind control me, all of my reactions and emotions stemmed from unacknowledged and unreleased past experiences.
So, how do you break free from your mind's control and constant pain? Through your pain. No more avoidance or running circles around it. You must be brave enough to face the things that give you anxiety, that hurt you, and that you fear. You must finally become aware of - and acknowledge - all of it.
Understanding that we all carry scars from the past is crucial. While you might initially dismiss this notion, claiming that your childhood or past experiences haven't left any lasting wounds, have you truly delved deep enough to be absolutely sure of that statement?
SPOILER ALERT: WE ALL HAVE WOUNDS.
Wounding, emotions, pain, it's all part of the human experience.
I stand as a testimony to this realization. Initially thinking that before this I had no 'major' wounding or trauma as nothing 'really bad' had happened, merely 'normal' breakups and family fights, until delving deeper. Small moments, seemingly insignificant as an adult, were profoundly harmful and traumatizing to a young child.
TIP: Try looking at everything in your past from the eyes of child and you’ll start to see unhealed and unacknowledged wounding. This perspective shift was so incredibly eye opening to me and allowed me to perceive wounding we all carry.
The journey toward self-liberation begins and ends with you. Being aware of your mind's wandering is the first and most significant step. Practice mindfulness, noticing when your mind drifts away from the present. Acknowledge and investigate the feelings and thoughts you tend to push aside – the things you are triggered by. In doing so, you've already traversed half the journey.
The key to this inner transformation lies within you. Here are three stages I've discovered to help liberate you from your mind's prison:
- Practice Staying Present: Remaining vigilant about your mind's relentless chatter is essential. Practice mindfulness - be aware of your mind at all times. Notice when you are no longer aware of the sights and sounds around you and your mind has taken you to the past or future. Practice being fully present each day allowing you to gain mastery over your mind.
- Become Aware of Being Triggered: When you feel an intense physical or emotional reaction to a statement, idea, or situation take note of it and investigate why you reacted so intensely in that moment. What did that situation, idea, or statement remind you of from your past? When did you feel like this in your past?
- Confront Your Past: Revisit and confront the past, exploring suppressed fear-based emotions such as being scared, feeling pain, hurt, or embarrassment. The best way to do this is through journaling. Through this process, you relinquish the constraints and walls that have unknowingly bound you, gaining a newfound understanding of yourself.
- Relinquish Perceived Control of the Past or Future: We cannot control the world. What has happened has happened, you cannot change it. Accept there is complete uncertainty in the future. By surrendering to the unknown, you free yourself from the anxiety of what's to come (because it could be amazing, but we only latch onto worst case scenarios). Trust the universe's guidance.