Optimal state of Mind

Most of the time one wonders why does the mind persist in staying sad, in quitting, in being confused and going mad! But what if we asked the other way around... how does the mind manage to stay normal, despite the multiple processes and changes it goes through? We're restless... some get to meditate, but I dare to say that not so many of us are able to do it, to peacefully quiet the mind and heart.

Scientist will call these lesser than optimal states of mind as possible non optimal configurations... Indeed, they are non-optimal.

But we have an awesome power that too often is undermined by its lack of structure, ruling and consistency: Imagination.

“One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.”

_

Bertrand Russel

Imagination allows us to create a different reality, empowers by surpassing what might hurt us and pull us down through imagining that impossible things can be possible, and they can... it's a whole new world that opens up in front of our mind eyes.

We can change... we can overcome and comeback. We can change, but to do that we can't believe in the same things we were taught to believe. We have to listen to our silliest laugh, to our trickiest smile, to our fantasy of being completely seduced by those "silly" ideas that come up into our attention which, in pure cowardness, we prefer to quiet them down.

Care less about what you will look like if you do this or that. Make it for yourself, for your own pleasure. Allow yourself to be delighted and then share! Yes, share with thankfulness for Life's amazing opportunities to experience beauty, to learn and grow.

Unfortunately we are taught too early to play in a certain way, within certain boundaries or we might risk loneliness, frustration and of course, punishment. So we keep on living respecting all the learnt rules without ever questioning. Why should we respect or even love another person besides the obvious ones... You must have your space and I have mine. Is this what you call belief?

What can we learn if we don't dare to break some "rules", if we don't dare to speak our mind, if we don't question and allow our imagination to open new "doors of perception".

I dare you to break the rules and desire. Desire, and feel pleasure.

"The human soul is hungry for beauty… When we experience the Beautiful, there is a sense of homecoming. Some of our most wonderful memories are beautiful places where we felt immediately at home. We feel most alive in the presence of the Beautiful for it meets the needs of our soul."

_

John O’Donohue

We are always haunted by the myth of our potential, of what we might have it in ourselves to be or do… We share our lives with the people we have failed to be. Let's stop living frustrated for not being the amazing version of ourselves and let's return to that kid that ran and laughed simply, unequivocally (we didn't even know what that meant!), who cared because he/she could feel when someone just like him was feeling fear, pain or embarrassment. We were no more or less that the boy or girl sitting by our side. We were and we had fun.

"If somebody treats you with unkindness, it’s likely they have endured similar treatment in the past from others, and are only repeating unconscious patterns in search of a love they cannot find. They will continue to repeat until they wake up from their nightmare of projection, and truly see who you are, who they are, who we all are.
An excuse? No.
A way to begin to find compassion for them, to stop taking their behaviour so personally and so seriously, to begin to break the cycle of violence? Perhaps. And that ‘perhaps’ is everything when it comes to loving each other."
—

 Jeff Foster