"Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, All we have is today" (AA slogan)
Our minds are frequently all over the place. From the moment we wake up, they are constantly scanning our external and internal environments. Its a primitive survival strategy but with modern updates. We no longer live in caves and are no longer somewhere in the middle of the food chain, yet something triggers us and we are emotionally thrown into a primitive fight/flight/freeze reaction, the degree of which is dependant on our current emotional state, the time of day and who we are with.
As our minds begin casting about through memories and experiences they are looking for a similar flavor, feeling or emotion so that we can "appropriatly" respond. We search for "cause." Sometimes, we have the wherewithall to judge our environment and "catch" the reaction before it goes too far. Sometimes, it seems like all the chains have been released and the reaction goes out of control. When everything calms down, and the reactions do eventually calm down, we are left to pick up the pieces.
We have similar responses to our thoughts when we project into the future. Our egos, not being able to see into the future, can only predict based on past experiences flavored with a little anxiety or fear. It usually doesn't occur to us that everytime we pull up a memory from the past, we are looking at it in a completely different context than when the event occurred. Whatever is going on right now adds a thin layer to that memory and can color or embellish that memory. We do this everytime we remember. Again, a primitive survival instinct, but one that it usually doesn't cause us to question its validity, particularly when we are projecting future events.
All of this happens in an instant, in the blink of an eye. What would it be like to develop an "automatic" intervention? Maybe some kind of "gap" between the virtual trigger and its subsequent reaction? I say "virtual" because I am talking about those things from memory or projection. These are things that are not tangible right now. Certainly, if a lion jumps through your window, then a reaction would be appropriate, but if it is a construct based on something that is not here and now, is it real? And do we have to react to that trigger, in that same way every time? I think this idea is worth considering.
There are many methods to insert a gap into our automatic processes, but they all have one thing in common: they take practice. Some of us were taught to think before we react, but I suspect the majority of us did not have teachers that themselves knew how to stop for a minute, "take a knee" and objectively pause before reacting. It can be very helpful to know how to do that. Who knew that "peace of mind" was an actual thing... right now.
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