Several dear people I know recently have reported they’re scared because some massive upheaval has occurred in their lives.
The death of a parent, a cancer diagnosis, a house burning to the ground with all possessions lost, the discovery of betrayal.
These shocking pieces of news or experiences don’t exactly feel easy to go through.
Sometimes when something like this happens, you still think about it years later and remember it as that terrible hard time.
When your life the way you know it was forever changed.
I notice the longer I live, the more of these encounters happen. They aren’t frequent, maybe even quite rare, but wow….
….they sure make a big impression. To say the least.
However, I know it’s very true, through inquiring and investigating over and over again, that pain may happen, but you don’t have to suffer.
You don’t have to generate the same feelings of loss, guilt, anger, rage, fear or resentment repeatedly….
….if you question your beliefs.
Who would you be without the belief that you are especially in danger, that something has gone terribly wrong, that something isn’t fair, that it shouldn’t be going the way it’s going?
Without that belief?
Wow, when you first try to answer that question, you might hardly be able to imagine who you’d be without that thought.
Without the belief that something has gone wrong…it almost seems like I’d be crazy. I’d be delusional.
Of course something’s gone wrong!!!
And yet, you may notice that you forget about it sometimes. Maybe only for a moment, but maybe for a few hours. You sleep at night and you aren’t thinking about it. You watch a movie and you forget about it.
Without the belief you’re doomed, this is a disaster, you can’t recover from this….who would you be?
What would you be?
I notice without doomsday thoughts, I look around right in this moment.
I see the room, I hear humming silence, I hear the sound of the kettle boiling, I smell the trees or rain, I touch the desk, the car steering wheel, my friend’s shoulder.
Without the thoughts of how terrible, how terrible, I’m just….here.
Now.
“Nothing terrible has ever happened except in our thinking. Reality is always good, even in situations that seem like nightmares. The story we tell is the only nightmare that we have lived. When I say that the worst that can happen is a belief, I am being literal. The worst that can happen to you is your uninvestigated belief system.” ~ Byron Katie
Holy smokes, that is stunning.
Check it out for yourself, though. Try it on. See who you’d be, even though the difficult thing happened (or is happening)–who you would BE without the belief that it’s a nightmare?
You’d be mystery, life force, human, beyond human, movement, change, wild love in action.
Much love, Grace