Sickness without suffering.
Being sick is always a practice. The practice is simple. Don't resist it, and don't believe your negative stories about it. The pain of life is unavoidable...like the pain of an illness, but the suffering is avoidable ...How? It's all about NOT getting caught in your complaining voices story.
A story is when your mind uses your imagination to take the present moment and fantasize what it means about the future. Unfortunately, given that most peoples thoughts are 80% negative, our stories are 80% negative. Ouch! Suffering! Wasted Time, Wasted energy, stress, anxiety, worry, fear, hopelessness...all created by the mind.
And the fantastic truth, is that almost ALL our stories are wrong. The future very rarely follows your story. If you watched, you would see this is totally true!
Here is an few examples of what my mind used to generate when sick.
This shouldn't be happening
It's awful that it is?
What did I do wrong to get this?
It's going to screw up my plans.
I am never going to get better.
It's the beginning of the end.
And then of course just all the complaints. This sucks, I'm bummed, I don't want this, etc.
The practice is to: Stop the complaints, or at least watch them, laugh, and don't believe them. This whole program will show you how when we get there.
For now. just watch your mind and notice this. The key is for you to become very aware of the complaining mind and how and when it engages you. This awareness is where we really start.
We must also learn to cultivate acceptance. If you can't just watch and observe, without getting all worked up, then the complaining mind is watching, not you! Our true wisdom watches with curiosity, not attack.
Watch it, but do not push against it or make it wrong. We can change the mind and free ourselves from it, but we need to take action without punishing it. We judge it as something we want to change, but we don't have to hate it.
We don't need to stop judging and using wisdom to have opinions, we just need to stop condemning what we don't like. When we punish things, we are the ones that really suffer. This toxic energy kills our spirit and our life force.
1. So watch the complaints. I doubt you can stop them yet. At least watch them and don't believe them!
2. Watch the stories you are creating. And again, don't believe them!
The complaints you ultimately can stop, but again don't expect yourself to do it now! It takes time and wisdom to get this. I will do all I can to show you, including teach you meditation designed to enhance this process. It is not a religious practice so don't worry. It's just a way to become more aware and give you some control over your thoughts.
The stories you can change! you can learn the new language and engage positive, wise imagination instead. Once you learn this new language and integrate it over time, the old language of the complaining mind will be forgotten.
These truths replace the old sick stories I used to have. There is a big explanation to each of these coming eventually.
This should be happening! Why? Cause it is.
Truth: You can accept things even though you don't approve of them.
It's not awful...
Wrecking my car is awful, fever is uncomfortable and isn't fun.
Truth: We overreact and dramatize with our words constantly.
No one is to blame. It doesn't matter.
Truth: Blaming is one of our most destructive programs.
MOST things go away!
Truth: Hopelessness is 99.5% of the time a lie.
There's also a whole wisdom teaching on; It doesn't make sense to judge something as wrong, because you don't know the outcome.
So much more to come. :) Thank you for listening. Bryan
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