The Choice We Have

The mind works by means of a vortex. It establishes one thought and then expands on that thought moving in a spiral direction forward with the original thought as guiding principle.

So, if you wake up in the morning and hurt your knee getting out of bed, the next thought you will most likely have will be how much it hurts, will the doctor be available? Can you even get to the car? What if you fail to get an appointment? How much will whatever drug cost and can you afford it? And the list goes on until it is time to wash the coffee cups, and you start musing about the high cost of dishwashing liquid, or how sad it is that you have mis-matched dishes, or how filthy the kitchen is, or how you just don’t have the strength to clean it. Etc.

Negative thought breeds negative thoughts to the absurd conclusion. Before you know it, you are contemplating the end of the world, your place reserved for you in Hell, and how hot it might be.

That is the nature of the mind. Often this is seen most vividly in bi-polar disorder, but all humans are wired this way.

However, the good news is that if we start thinking positive thoughts, the same pattern applies. That beautiful flower in the garden makes us glory in the lovely sky, the joy of the wind on your skin, etc. All the neat and fun things you might do today that you have put off. How lovely a cleaned kitchen will look, and how much fun it will be to get that done finally.

Positive thought is a vortex also and in the opposite direction of negative vortex thought.

This is one of the big secrets of life.

Now the big clicker. All it takes for you to change vortexes is to quiet the mind for a small period of linear time. In that silence nothing exists. And we get to choose anew. If we choose a bright and positive thought, then that will be our vortex. If we choose to continue in negative thinking that will be our vortex.

Make no doubt about it, vortexes are addictive. There is a mental “payoff” being in either vortex.

Once you start thinking negatively you relish the thoughts of how much worse it could become. One gets a perverse thrill out of dreaming up more horrible things to come. The difference between joy and thrill is only intention. The same adrenalin rush accompanies both. The brain is wired for your body to produce adrenalin. This is what powers your “fight or flight” response. This is what gives you the strength to move a car off a person’s leg. Super-powers come from adrenalin pumping through your system. You can imagine how powerful that “juice” is when it is connected to your thinking.

One of the great secrets of life is discovering “how we work”. With age and experience we find out the trigger mechanisms for ourselves. We read more, discover more, learn more about our bodies, our minds and our beings. Knowing that adrenalin is the “revving” element in all directional vortex thought allows us to “choose anew”. If we didn’t know what was going on chemically within our heads, we might miss the chance to get out of a “mood”.

Now that you know that you create the chemical that runs your mania for negative or positive, it is imperative for you to choose which direction you mind will go.

It is your choice.

We make that choice in silence and quiet. There is no other way. This is the essence of prayer, meditation and chanting. Getting to a place where no thought enters allows us the blank space in our minds to let go of all thought. In that space of pure quiet we can spring into any direction we choose. This is why in times of crisis the great thinkers and leaders of the world become quiet and self-possessed. They know the importance of finding that springboard to constructive action.

We all possess the same faults, the same ability to worry, to obsess and to fear. And we all have the inner knowledge that prayer and meditation will bring us healing.

So, amid all the pandemic news, all the warnings, all the news reports, all the restrictions and all the obsessive internet dialogue, I suggest we all find our inner quiet space and choose anew.

The same situation will exist whether we find it negative or positive.

You are alone in your apartment or home. OMG you are lonely, or OMG you have time to yourself to really get things done you have postponed for ages.

You have limited access to food and beverage. OMG you are going to starve, go hoard from every store you know.

Or OMG this is a great time to really control my eating, think about what I am going to eat, how much I need per day that will fit into my new diet goal, and pare down on all the bad stuff which is invariably in your pantry. What a great idea to achieve the goal you have dreamed of for ages.

You see, there are silver linings everywhere. This does not dismiss the reality of the world, but it allows us to survive in a mode of growth and good change rather than being overwhelmed, diminished and depressed by the world at large.

Today, go to that quiet place and choose anew.

I will be excited to find out what you have come up with to do once you have a positive attitude from inside yourself. Please share you list of things you are going to do today. So many others will get such a benefit from your sharing.

Fox is a candidate for Long Beach Council District 2.