Why is ill health so confusing? Why do so many of us end up with the sense that we are victims and powerless despite doctors, hospitals, ‘health centres’, ‘health shops’, therapists of all types, and let’s not forget—chemical drugs designed to take control of your body’s functions to ‘allegedly’ keep you healthy. You would be forgiven for assuming that sickness is the natural state of humankind.
What if I were to say that physical illness is the result of internal conflict between the mind and emotions? That the rigidity of our mental belief systems will in turn create emotional inflexibility and, in time, physical disease? In our lack of self-awareness, we block the innate instinctive sense of what is good or bad for us.
There is another level of sickness, to do with -Karma carried over from previous lifetimes. Although the end result is the same, i.e., we acquire mental programming growing up that leads us to the suppression of certain emotions and the creation of illness.
In this article, I will share the power of the mind to shape and unwittingly be responsible for ailments yet to come, via its suppression of our emotions, as well as manipulated patterns of thinking regarding food, health, and its dissociated perception of reality.
First, be aware that our minds are at the heart of our individual and collective confusion and inner entrapment. That the words in our heads interfere with our perception of ‘Reality’ and are mainly responsible for our sensations of isolation from others and our environment. We could compare the words in our heads to subtitles in a film that impede our direct experience of engaging with the world.
Second, the words in our heads because they run pretty constantly in the background and because we are half asleep most of our awake time, go unquestioned, we identify with them and assume these words are ‘us’. Nothing could be further from the truth, for these words are automatic repetitions that will reflect indoctrinated and biased programming.
If you have read the preceding articles (see at the end of this article for links) in the series, you will appreciate what a complex mechanism human beings are, for we are 3 brains in one. Here is an analogy: we could liken the body to the computer’s motherboard, the mind (beliefs)—the software, and the emotions/hormonal system—the electricity that powers the machine. A computer depends on its programming software, which depends on the physical chips already hard-wired into it (DNA-herd instinct, amongst others).
‘The Terminator films’ highlighted one of our greatest fears of technology: that the machine will become “self-aware” and totally selfish, i.e. that it won’t want to share this world with humans who must be eradicated/controlled. This is a projection of our damaged egos that envisage other (damaged) humans as the greatest threat to their survival and to be viewed with suspicion.
What is missing from the above paragraph is that with self-awareness we are no longer blind, fearful reactive machines at the complete mercy of our programming.
Mechanics of the mind
Human brains are created with three separate and interactive centres. The physical (to which the enteric nervous system also belongs) has “hard-wired” programming in its DNA. For example, if a baby is on a table that has either thick plastic or glass sheet on top that protrudes way beyond the edge of the table, when allowed to roam the baby will not venture beyond the edge because, with his/her ability to judge depth, it instinctively knows the danger.
The emotional/hormonal brain is the powerhouse to move the physical (fear/flight). It is hard-wired with two major settings: fear (sympathetic) and calmness (parasympathetic) which manage a large range of glands that have the power to control the body via the release of hormones in a feedback loop that achieves homeostasis moment by moment.
The mind uses memory, observation, indoctrination, and beliefs, learnt as well as gained by osmosis, via its imperative need to belong to the group (herd instinct), particularly when younger, and channels the emotions as per its own programming to prep the body for survival (whether objectively real or imaginary).
Unfortunately, badly written computer code will affect programs adversely, and even make them unusable or ineffective from their original intention.
When two brain centres are working in sync, we have partial self-awareness, i.e., we can learn stuff but we are unlikely to understand it fully. When all three brains are working harmoniously, we have true self-perception and what we learn ‘we own’ and becomes part of who we are. Our attention to our physical, emotional, and mental processes allows us to alter some of our programs by the mere act of self-observation.
Emotions within us are hard-wired for spontaneity, effervescence, and lightning response to our environment. Modern culture does not favour spirited children, we like them to behave, “walk, don’t run.” “We like to -shape their minds.” We do this by filling their heads with indoctrinating beliefs about religion, morality, conformity, and jingoism. “Do as you are told” “stop daydreaming” and, of late, the new kid on the block-“Woke culture” indoctrination.
In a traditional healthy culture, the children would learn from their parents by osmosis, which gave the parents pleasure in interacting in this world. The children, in turn, would do their best to learn and be proficient and, gain satisfaction that they might be appreciated for their efforts.
The parents’ calm, loving composure, self-awareness, love, loyalty, and care for their family and their neighbours would become the bedrock of the software program.
The above is uncommon, for the biological and sociologically programmed machines we call our parents were themselves raised by damaged and pre-programmed parents. Additionally, we are actively subjected to the popular media (TV, news media, etc.), which in a semi-hypnotic trance (only two brains functioning) we absorb without question.
The power to create and co-create perceived reality
If you have ever doubted your power to affect your world, think back to all the times you visualized and desired something strongly, and then note how long it took for your desire to manifest. Our minds control our emotions and, when steered in the desired direction, the power of our emotions will manifest in our thoughts in our environment.
Individually, the average person has a very weak capacity to manifest their desires, for they are mentally and emotionally fractured and conflicted. They are like leaves in the wind, where the slightest gust will lead their thoughts and desires in a different direction. Unfortunately, whilst individually the ‘sheeple’ are weak, the collective power to manifest is still strong. Hence, the importance in our political and commercial world is to control the narrative of the populace, to manifest the desired vision – of the few wolves.
There is a far greater power available to those who have a level of three brain integration and access to heart or love energy to manifest perceived reality. Unfortunately, at this moment, they are few. (I will share more in the next article where I will focus on feelings and the heart.)
The greatest tool available to the mind to control emotions is judgement. Judgement is strong in our culture. The courts of law, religions, sects, and groups, be they political, artistic, food-related, scientific, ‘woke’ etc., all assume the power to criticize, judge, and find us wanting. The punishment is to be cast out of the group, to lose our so-called friendships, our ability to earn, etc. Our DNA is hard-wired to be part of a ‘herd’ for safety. We fear the isolation, and condemnation of the group. And so we learn to be self-critical and self-censor ourselves to conform. The Japanese have a saying. “The nail that stands out gets hammered first.”
They teach us to police our own thoughts, internal imagination, emotions, and even physical expression. Our cultures have a zillion laws and regulations to ‘control’ our behaviour. Our religions, scientific, medical, and historical narratives have all been high-jacked and, enshrined with visions of a pseudo-reality that is heretical to question lest we be labelled an anti…whatever or denier, the implication being that we are not of ‘sound mind’.
As individuals, it is very hard to extricate ourselves from such pressures to conform and ‘to think outside the box,’ and YET, the word freedom implies just that!
You have really depressed me now! How can I help myself?
Our minds are the greatest obstacle to inner freedom because we are not fully awake. We go through life in a semi-dream state and the words in our heads speak with the non-questioned authority that they come from ‘our essence’ or soul if you will.
There are very few tools available to help us move beyond the rigidity of the ego from within the ego. Here are some:
- We should enshrine and tattoo this one on our foreheads: WAKE UP and be an observer of your body sensations, posture, your emotions, and the thoughts that run incessantly in your head and your imagination. -Set up an alarm reminder for every hour. When it goes off, focus on your physical body sensations and posture in relation to others, your emotions, and the thoughts in your head. Remember the last time the alarm went off? How long were you present for? Less than one minute? More? Give yourself permission to experience a pang of regret.
- No one likes to be criticised. It is very hard to be relaxed in the company of a critical busy body. It is very hard to be at peace with oneself when we are being self-critical. Agree with yourself, from this day forward, you will stop putting yourself down. No more: I am bad, unlovable, ugly, fat, etc.,
- From this day onwards, focus on positive affirmations regarding yourself as well as others.
- From this day forward, you will be ruthlessly honest with yourself—no more self-lying. Own your emotions without judgement, however unpleasant. i.e. I am envious, angry, disdainful, fearful, cowardly, etc. Self-observation is a tremendous tool for change as long as we are honest with what we observe.
- From this day forward, be mostly honest with others. When you catch yourself saying words that are untrue yet you say them for the sake of belonging to the group or making yourself appear important, wealthier, or less of a loser (‘I have been there!’), own up! Say to the other person, “That is not true.” “I don’t know why I said it. ” Show your underbelly! If they are worth knowing, they will understand.
- Words have tremendous power to create as well as reinforce existing programming. Words have the power to alter our or others’ perception of reality or not. Never belittle yourself with words and emotions such as “I am such a sh*t.” or “I hate this”. Delete all negative words from your thinking and talking. Aim to always speak or think of yourself with affirmation. For example, people often say, “Oh I could never learn that!” You might say, “Yes, I think I could learn this if I were interested enough.”
- Last, learn to laugh at the thoughts in your head, they gain importance because you don’t question them. They are tape loops of built-in programming. We can not fight them, but we can dismiss them by laughing and not taking them seriously. Practice leads to proficiency.
I appreciate that I am only skimming over this vast subject. However, if you are new to these ideas, I hope they will be fertile ground on which to build your expanding perceptions and experiences. Self-observation is the foundation that leads to change.
In my next article, I will focus on feelings and the heart, and I will bring together the mind, body, and emotions, focusing clearly on how we can extricate ourselves from the rigidity of ego identification.
Previous articles in this series:
Have you had enough of being sick? Would you like to learn how to be healthy? Part 1
Have you had enough of being sick? Time to connect with your body! Part 2
Have you had enough of being sick? Time to connect with your emotions! Part 3
