Are you thinking straight?

Why?

Would crooked thinking be more fun?!?!

How about no thinking at all?!?!

What if, you spend an entire 60 seconds not thinking?

While you’re not likely to stop your mind from thinking, you can put Mind Muffs on. That way your thoughts are muffled enough so that you can pay little or no attention. Instead, listen to your “gut” – or your heart.

You haven’t stopped thinking – you’re just thinking from a different place. Are you giggling?!

Thinking = information. Information generally requires some sort of conduit to get from origin to insertion. Is mind thinking our only conduit? Since our mind cannot think pain (that’s a brain thing), how about “No”. What about that feeling about someone and the phone rings and they’re on the other end? Take a look at your child or someone you love more than yourself – heart thinking? We are more than mind, skin, bones and muscle.

It is different “thinking”. It is thinking without ‘reasoning things out’. It is thinking without excuses. It is knowing because you know.  This is Body Thinking.

There is no indecisiveness, unless you mind horns in and starts telling stories.

There are no ‘what ifs’, ‘I wonder whys’ or ‘guessing’. Once you trust this different thinking, life looks simpler. Life isn’t complicated.  We get in our heads and make it complicated.

Body Thinking.

How about Body Talking? Yea, fine, also known as Body Language!

Have you ever paid attention to what your body does when your mouth is going? Pay attention the next time you’re having a conversation. Don’t change anything, just observe. What did you notice? Is your body and mind in agreement? In other words, as you were saying “yes, ofcourse, we would love to have you for dinner”, were you shaking your head as though indicating ‘no’? Were you leaning into or away from the person? Were you inviting this person for dinner with your entire being – or just your mouth (or mind that tells you, you “should”)?

Our communication is frequently unclear or we may say things that we don’t mean. Our mind speaks from lifelong conditioning. It’s not appropriate, it’s conditioning. It’s no surprise then that our relationships are unclear, without deep truth and fraught with misunderstanding.

What is the sensation in your body? During your next conversation, pay attention to the sensations your body is sending you. Pay particular attention to the primary sensation. In other words what’s the big thing you’re feeling? Is your heart pounding? Are you about to vomit? The uncontrollable desire to run like hell – and maybe even scream some as you do the running?! Is something telling you not to give this person the information they’re asking for?

We are conditioned to be polite, often at the expense of our emotional and physical safety. As children, it is expected that we are obedient and do as we’re told.  Even when it feels wrong. When we are young it is our bodies that tell us we are not safe. We don’t yet have the real life experience for our minds to draw from. Our bodies are telling us that sitting that close to Uncle Roy isn’t safe, but mom is telling us that it will hurt his feeling if we don’t. Our feelings are invalidated. It is clearly communicated that what our bodies tell us isn’t valid, true, acceptable, worthy. It isn’t polite.

Very shortly we believe it and we stop paying attention to our Body Talk.

We put duct tape over and around one of our conduits so that the sparks are no longer felt.

We begin to rely on our minds to tell us what is safe, what is the wisest decision, who we should have in our lives. Our mind, that creates and imagines and dreams and processes constantly. The same mind that tells lies as easily as truths – and we can’t tell the difference. They’re our thoughts so they must be true – we thought it – is it true? Your body will tell you if it’s true. The body doesn’t lie.

Spend those 60 seconds with Body Thinking.

Then spend the duration of your next conversation with your Mind Muffs on and just listen.

During the conversation after that one,  listen with your MMs on while also paying attention to the sensations in your body.

After that, notice what your body is doing as a result of those sensations. Is what your body’s doing in agreement with what you’re saying? If not, why not?

Begin to go longer with your MMs on. Once volume of your Body Talk is equal with the volume of your mind, you won’t need the MMs anymore. You will be more fully engaged. When you are in conversation with another it will be with your entire self as opposed to a lax body under moving jaws. You are activated. Aware. Alive!

So stop thinking straight!