Psychology Has It Backwards

Christine offers the metaphor of life seeming like a high-speed train ride.  We settle down, look out, and take in the view as the train slowly starts to move.  Then we experience the illusion, as the train speeds up, that life is moving past us.  Suddenly, when the train reaches full speed, life is a blur rushing by, and we can barely take it in or enjoy it.  Many of us spend a lot of our time moving and thinking so fast that we are always in a hurry -- doing the best we can to make sense of the blur, and never realizing that it's the vehicle we're riding in, not the life we're passing through, that is too speeded up to appreciate it, or reflect on it, or learn as we go.  We have the power to slow down, to be present and use the feelings of anxiety and pressure to push ourselves, as a sign to ease off, and trust that a quieter mind will "see" life clearly and awaken to wisdom, insight, and inspiration. Support the show [https://www.psychologyhasitbackwards.com/support/]

Life, as Sydney Banks described it, is "a contact sport."  In a contact sport, each player has great plays and terrible plays.  Wins and losses.  Injuries they cause and injuries that happen to them.  No one can expect smooth sailing under cloudless skies every minute of every day.  Our life is our learning adventure.  Life offers us the development of new skills, the clarity to learn from mistakes, the humility to recognize that denying our role in ups and down holds us back.  Denial sustains the uneasy experience of insecurity.  When we accept human frailty in all of us, when we don't try to evade or deny or refuse to see our part in the course of events, we are cheating ourselves from learning life's lessons, building trust within ourselves and with others, and finding peace of mind.  Denial keeps us stuck in time; denial keeps us stuck in our own beliefs about ourselves and life.  Stuff happens.  We make mistakes.  We are sometimes thoughtless and hurtful.  We are human beings.  Denial slams the door on our spiritual growth and our capacity to acknowledge and learn from our past, and the ability to take responsibility for our own missteps and then let them go. Support the show [https://www.psychologyhasitbackwards.com/support/]

When people are in low moods -- such as anxiety, hopelessness, grief, anger, discouragement -- the immediate response is to figure out what or who is bothering us so we can deal with the perpetrator or circumstance that we think is bringing us down.  That is the trick of our mind explained by the Principles.  We are the source of our thoughts -- but as we experience thoughts coming to life, it looks like things are happening TO us.  As we understand that we are the thinkers creating our experience, we find our natural power to navigate ups and downs and realize our power to change. Support the show [https://www.psychologyhasitbackwards.com/support/]

Optimism is looking for the best in people and looking for the beauty in life, and trusting we'll see solutions when faced with challenge.  Hopelessness is insecurity about whether people will accept or like us, seeing risk or danger in life, and focusing on analyzing what is wrong when faced with challenge.  Those opposite states are not the result of life; they are the result of how we are using our thinking to describe life.  Hopelessness and Optimism are both habits of thought that we adopt without intent.  Understanding how we think and generate our own unique experience gives us the opportunity to accept that ups and down are part of life, and the assurance that we can always change. Support the show [https://www.psychologyhasitbackwards.com/support/]

Over time, we take on ideas about who we are and how we are.  We start to see them as our personality, our character.  Maybe someone we respect has frequently referred to us as a hard worker.  Maybe a friend has commented favorably on our looks.  Maybe a sibling has called us stupid.  Maybe a counselor has diagnosed us as anxious or depressed.  Whatever "labels" have affected us become the story we believe about ourselves.  Without understanding the way Thought works, we can hold ourselves back -- or exceed beyond our dreams -- depending on how seriously we take our labels and whether we recognize that we can decide what thoughts to take to heart, and we can change our minds. Support the show [https://www.psychologyhasitbackwards.com/support/]