37 of 100 Stay Centered and Aware

There are times when my thoughts are nuts. My mind races with disaster thinking. It's like the world is about to end and I have to rush to find cover.

It's usually caused by something unexpected. If I look at it like an outsider disconnected from the panic, I can see it's triggered by an innate fear of annihilation. In the caveman days, it would have been a dangerous animal threatening me or someone close to me. It would be something that needed to dealt with immediately with life and death consequences.

Today's modern society doesn't have many real things like that, but our minds and bodies are still set to respond as if there were. My solution to this is to stay centered and aware. My mind is an organ just like my heart, stomach and lungs. It's designed to solve problems. It responds to what's happening around me to keep me safe. Unfortunately, it can easily over respond and work to solve issues that don't need solving.

I work to set time aside every morning to get centered. Writing this article is a part of that. My meditative practices focus on seeing myself as an outsider would. You know how easily it is to see someone else freaked out and you can calm them talk them back into reality. This awareness enables me to see myself objectively and develop ways of looking at myself as if you were detached and outside myself.

From a spiritual perspective, it's about escaping from the day-to-day and seeing yourself as my God sees me. I like the saying, "In a hundred years we'll all be dead and this won't matter." That's really settling. If I look at a lot of what's going on today, it won't really matter tomorrow much less next week. Using this awareness can be so freeing.

Not to self: I don't always succeed, but I've got to stay aware and centered. Panic thinking does me no good.