As humans, we have evolved with a sophisticated ability to rationalize, analyze, and think because these are keys to our survival.
The mind’s job is to alert us to potential dangers in our environment that may threaten our lives. It does its job so well that not only will it scan our immediate surroundings for threats, but it will even reference past experiences to create predictions of possible future dangers based on our memories.
None of this is wrong by any means. The mind is simply doing what it was designed to do. But while our minds do an incredible job of keeping us alive, the same ability does not allow us to thrive.
For instance, in prehistoric times, many things – animals, weather, illness – were a threat to our existence. We survived because of our ability to communicate, work together, form strong social bonds, and pass down knowledge from one generation to the next. It was vital to stay in our social groups, and being thrown out of our tribe meant certain death.
And so our minds evolved to fear being judged or doing the wrong thing in order to remain accepted by others and not get kicked out of the tribe. Because of this, we sacrificed our individuality and uniqueness to fit in. We learned to not be too different or weird because it might result in us being ostracized. While this may have helped us survive, it also cost us our peace and happiness.
Although our brains are still hardwired this way, we no longer live in a world where social acceptance means life or death. Losing a social bond may be painful, but it no longer means we have to fend for ourselves in the wild.
Today, the question isn’t whether we will survive but whether we are happy with the time we are alive. Our quality of life is determined by the peace, fulfillment, and joy we feel on a daily basis.
And yet there is a mismatch because we are navigating today’s world with a mind that is still programmed with this primitive fear. The problem is we often forget this distinction. Our minds duty is to keep us alive. Our consciousness’s duty is to help us feel fulfilled. Our soul is the reason why we’re even on this journey in the first place – to find peace within ourselves.
If we keep allowing this thinking to direct our lives, we will stay in a state of fight or flight, anxiety, fear, frustration, depression, anger, resentment, and negative emotions because our mind views everything as a threat to our very existence. And it is this tendency of our minds that leads us to the tortuous thinking at the root of our suffering.
If you want to be free and at peace, then you will need to let go of only listening to your minds flight-or-fight thinking. You are not just a product of your environment but a co-creator of it. With this understanding, you can begin to shift your experience of reality from merely surviving to truly thriving.
-Joseph Nguyen, “Don’t Believe Everything You Think”
“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”
-Aristotle
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
“Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.”
-Dorthy Thompson
“Fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.”
-Dale Carnegie
