Too Much Thinking, Not Enough Being

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How often have you watched your mind becoming more and more caught up in life's daily tasks, thinking about job, school, family, or relationship responsibilities/issues in a way that feels overwhelming? What is the effect of these moments of mind-preoccupation and drama-creation on the whole experience of life? When you begin complaining and feeling that life is asking "too much" of you, do you fantasize about an escape, an angry confrontation, a vacation, retirement, dropping out, being rescued—all of the above? 

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When we find our minds swirling, it is a sure sign that there is too much thinking, too much doing and not enough Being. May I offer a suggestion based on experience and practice? Just stop! What is here when we simply stop? Even a single moment when we are free from identification with our thinking, judging, worrying, narrating mind can immediately begin to transform our relationship with the moment, and relax the body-mind. When we stop, we fall into the full experience of Now without resistance to it. Shoulders drop; energy swirling in the head begins to descend. We come out of the egoic-trance that seemed to claim our consciousness. 

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When you notice your mind operating from a trance state, first be aware of what notices it. What is aware of the trance is not caught by it. Then you might be moved to find a park bench, a quiet corner, a spot in front of a sunny window, or simply to close your eyes while sitting in front of your computer, and STOP. There is always space, quiet, and peace in our true nature. In the deeper dimensions of Being, life is neither too much nor not enough, but simply what is. When we are not overlaying the moment with our judgments about it, life will be what it is, but our relationship and response to it changes altogether. And in the deepest mystery of what we are, there isn't even anyone to have a relationship with life or with an "other." Find out for yourself. When there is too much thinking and not enough being, what is here when you simply stop?