Freeing the Mind from Tension

Hope Johnson Hope Johnson
5 minute read

This post is a follow-up to Hope's Wisdom Dialogues Episode Called "Freeing Tension from the Mind", written by Gail Florence.

Our minds are constantly playing past and future thoughts. Upon waking up, we think about what we will do throughout the day. As the day passes by, we either have thoughts about yesterday or wonder about the future. Even as we sleep, our minds produce dreams, sometimes a marathon of them that we either remember or forget completely the next day. Our entire bodies are busy as we breathe especially the control center, our brains.

With the thoughts our minds present to us, there are emotions involved. There are images or dialogues we simply brush off, some we linger for a bit because of the happy, excited or comforting emotion they tag along and there are other thoughts we replay in our minds no matter how gripping, painful or guilt-inducing they are.

We don’t have a choice on the thoughts popping out in our minds and there’s nothing wrong with the mind functioning so. Our choice only boils down to two – is it love or fear we permit to extend?

When we choose love...

When it is love we choose, we are honest with our feelings, we are true to our being and we are open and accepting of others as they are. However, if we choose fear, we believe the illusions of the mind as reality. Illusions make us feel guilty, anxious, insecure, hostile, and controlling. Despite these, we consider the negativity as normal or true.

As one entity, what the mind does affects our bodies. Our bodies respond to the fear brought by the illusions by tensing up. There is a tightening in our solar plexus, the muscles between the navel and the chest bone. Tension is even felt in other parts of the body like the thighs, hands, behind the ears or neck, or the back.

Thinking adds tensions

Our bodies are innocent and doesn’t need to feel any tension. However, thinking causes it to tense up. It signals an unwillingness to rest the body from the thoughts playing in the mind. There is a lot of undoing involved when we are in the grips of fearful thinking.

First, when an upsetting, fearful or guilt-inducing thought creeps up, accept, allow and see what happens rather than suppress it. When we are willing to get the feeling-effect of a concept, admit that we don’t know what’s going on and allow the spirit to take care of our feelings, it will bring us back to clarity.

Second, take a step back when feeling constantly upset, scared, anxious or guilty from illusory thoughts. Let the pursuit continue until it burns out on its own. The good guide in the mind will show us what we are holding against ourselves. Our willingness to get the feeling will make us immediately see its release. If we do this over and over again, we will know we are not guilty and it is all energy-game. Fear created by our thoughts is never going to have any effect on us. So, we don’t need to believe the illusions of the mind.

Third, we can always ask help outside our limited minds. It can be from a higher power that appeals to us. It is the kind of help where we ask to change the illusion so we can feel better temporarily or to see who we are taking us back to our core and ingenuity.

Undo our minds

We also need to remember we don’t need a time limit to undo our minds. It is unnecessary to push or force it. Whatever higher power we believe in, it is using time exactly as it needs to be used. We just need to let the thoughts unfold and stay in the asking until we are clear of our questions. Once we share the perception of the higher power, we don’t have any questions anymore and we don’t have to ask anything.

Lastly, when we feel any tension in our body, we simply take several deep breaths and observe where the tension is until it gets released. When thoughts come in, the tension rises again. When it happens, we just need to completely rest our bodies and allow it to float in space to get its healing.

Freeing the mind to allow the spirit to move

Freeing the mind is allowing our spirit to move and take care of the self. It will demonstrate its innocence which is worthy of love, care and support. When we are guided by our spirit, we will know what works for us and we are not fearful of any opinion or judgement. We are also not afraid of other people letting go of us. When we trust our spirit, we don’t have to play mind-games with ourselves and we become open and accepting. How we also respond to other people and circumstances is how we regard our spirit. So, when we are willing to put the spirit in high regard, it will also put us in high regard.

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