Tag: mind

What do words mean?

Posted on by philipdodson

What a person says could be very small, what we think about what the person said is usually very large and literally, in some cases, last for years after the words were uttered. What they said was maybe one or two words, what we read into it was a whole book.

We attach so much to words, words that often come from the ramblings of another person’s unconscious thought train and then we analyse them, dissect them, and think about all the possible meanings there could be to what they said. We take everything said about us or to us by others so seriously. When like everything in life, they do not matter unless we choose to make them matter.

They might have just said ‘good morning’ but our own internal pain bodies will latch onto that and they will see a meaning in it that wasn’t there. Our prejudgements about a particular person will cloud what they actually say in a fog of thoughts and preconceived notions…we will even analyse things as they are said not often even hearing what they said. Our mind often makes up what was said to suit its stories. Then after we question even the tone of their voice. There wasn’t actually a ‘tone’ that was wrong but that is what our mind heard regardless.

As with everything, what is reality, is what we believe it to be.

If we believe the world and everyone in it are out to get us, then they are, as that is all we will see and believe. What we believe gets manifested.

What people say is a collection of simple vibrations formed into words that we and society have attached a meaning to. We choose how to receive and react to those words. They’re just sounds and it is our mind that chooses to attach suffering to them or not.

Lastly, where has all this endless analysis ever got us? Nowhere, other than suffering and bad relationships. Also, this is before we even start on the written words in texts, WhatsApp messages, social media posts and emails. That’s off-the-charts analysis!

What do we have to do to make it happen?

Posted on by philipdodson

In life, if we really want it, then we have to build it. 

Of course, we can dream about it, think about it, and plan it. However, at some point, we have to take the plunge and actually build it, whatever ‘it’ is.

Think, talking, planning and conceptual things are cheap and easy. However, the real work starts when we have to turn those things into reality, whether it is physically building a house or writing a book, it takes commitment.

Committing to things is a challenge as the mind will do whatever it can to minimise any risk for its pal, the Ego, and will come up with any manner of complexities, dramas, and reasons to stay safe and carry on thinking…something the mind is good at and loves, thinking.

Sometimes we just need a simple thing or reminder to wake us up and get us into this moment now. Now is the only time we are actually alive, it is the only moment of real life, in fact, our entire life consists of now. Therefore, we can only build something now and that requires us to be conscious, awake and aware of this moment, so that we can focus our energies on the doing, instead of the conceptual.

Naturally, as an artist, I have a brightly decorated and coloured skull on my desk as my reminder that at some point, I do not know when, that’s what I’ll be, a skeleton. By the way, It’s not a real skull, it’s made of polystyrene. Well, actually it should be a jar of dust, as that is the destiny for all of the 8 billion humans alive today at some time in the next 50-100 years or less. The point is it will happen, so stop thinking and start creating. Build your dream NOW!