Taming Wild Mind

What is wild mind?
Any thinking/feeling that leads us into the rocks (crashing) and reeds (tangled up).

After seeing the movie Argo (yeah, a while back - this blog entry started that long ago) -  I was left with the question: How is it that emotions can take over so powerfully - that anger and hatred become our home base?

From inner conflict to interpersonal blips to political violence - it all feels the same to me.
A surge of big, urgent emotions with accompanying story lines and radically black/white beliefs -  grab ahold and takes us on a wild ride - where our primitive/emotional mind is galloping out of control.

This state of wild mind feels so right - so real - and we just want to keep riding hard and fast.

It's like a trance that can only be broken when we STOP - and ask ourselves - what's the point here?
Sounds simple.
It's not.

This stopping in the midst of the most powerful surges of wild mind - is the essence of the practice of mindfulness.

Mindfulness practice - helps us to push the pause button - and ask ourselves - if what we think and feel - is so real and right - is more important than creating peace (within and between).

I hold fast to the pause button.
It's my  talisman.
It has been a tried and true calming agent -  in my most wild mind moments.
With it - I become a wild mind whisperer.
Placing a hand on my racing heart (shhh)....
Gently pulling back the reins a bit (slow down sweetie) - so I don't go careening over the cliff - words shooting out wildly - words regretted, words flung toward another, words without grace and love....

So - yeah, I begin again with each wild mind moment - forgetting and then remembering - to push the pause button and name/tame; befriend/tend my wild mind.

Addendum: There's also the yummy wild mind - the one Allen Ginsberg and Natalie Goldberg and Gary Snyder and all those buddhist-leaning poets talk about. That's the wildness of raw creative flow - thats full of grizzly grace and luscious love!

Comments

  1. I've been thinking about this since I read it the first time. I know that experience, from 0 to 60 in a flash of red or the deep dive into the dark cave, there to hide and never come out again. To think that all it takes is seeing it, naming it and calling it back to the start gate, so long as the watcher is watching. Thanks for shedding light, as you always do, Elizabeth.

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