Caught in a Trance

Transcript

I was thinking about this model of the world I used to have, this belief or explanation of human behavior.

I used to think people go through their lives living in trances, going from one trance to the next.

Having strong beliefs and emotional reactions and being fixed in a sort of way looking at the world.

Now I say that model of human behavior is a little too simplistic but I think there’s still something to it.

Now I think, what might that trance be? They have a certain emotion and a certain interpretation of that emotion.

They might get stuck in a certain loop like they have this emotion like anger or maybe love or despair. Could be any kind of emotion really and you have this interpretation with it and perhaps this interpretation leaves you with these thoughts that end up circling back around over and over.

People have these viscous cycles, they’ll have one emotion and feel angry then feel ashamed. Like how can I be angry I have higher standards for myself than this.

And they realize that they’re getting into a more negative state and maybe they feel guilty or depressed because they feel they aren’t making progress.

Likewise people have virtuous cycles. Maybe they feel love and maybe they look at that and say they’re grateful they have that feeling. Maybe they feel joy like its a good day to feel grateful so I feel joyful.

Now if we do get stuck in a feedback loop maybe the only thing we need to do quite often this rule of thumb that applies during meditation and also applies during many parts of life. A kind of mediation we might say.

Many times during meditation it is not necessary to control our thoughts and emotions to acknowledge them or observe them. If we can do that somehow through the magic of consciousness things often will be resolved of their own accord because consciousness shines a light on things previously forgotten and enables us to untangle those cords in our mind, just to release. Often to relax a muscle it is sufficient to become aware of the muscle.

Of course some times you might need to tense it to become aware. The analogy with our emotions is this idea that comes from Victor Frankl Paradoxical intention.

If we intend to be angry, guilty or intend to have a certain behavior it might we gain consciousness of that behavior and it need not continue.

Have a certain emotion, we can be aware of that emotion. WE have an interpretation and we can be aware of that interpretation.

The interpretation might cause another emotion. We can be aware of that emotion.
It doesn’t really matter really at what point we become aware but becoming aware of the object. When we do become aware, this is a kind of house of cards because this is all of these things stem from a sort of unconsciousness. So to become conscious of any part perhaps this vicious cycle will start tumbling down.

We’ve become aware of the topic had hanging in this delicate balance and we can allow the other cards to fall.

Then if we are free of our emotions and interpretations we can begin to decide.

As Abraham Maslow talked about self actualization. Who do I want to be today?

In that glorious space of our minds free from preconceptions and ego constructs, that fertile land where we can build our new self, identity, new life and perhaps even new emotions.

Thank you for listening, thank you for being aware and taking the time to ask what am I thinking now? What am I feeling now? Whats inside my mind and my body, my heart and my soul?

Most importantly have a wonderful day.