What Are You Thinking?

How are you doing, friends?

It’s a continuous roller coaster ride here. One moment I'm in complete anxiety mode and the other moment totally relaxed. I’m guessing you can relate.

It’s so easy to get caught in the “what if”s”. Things are changing rapidly and whenever I hop online to learn of the latest news, I am overcome by anxiety and fear about things like my children’s safety, my husband’s job and how this is all going to play out not only for my family and friends but for all of us.

That’s when I go outside to, as Eckhart Tolle has said, “Find the foundation within yourself that frees you from fear.”

Sitting under the tree with budding leaves, watching the brilliant red cardinal and his mate flitter from branch to branch, I’m reminded that for us humans, our thoughts create our reality.

Nature is continuing in its cycle as it always has. Spring is in full force. Life is budding. Nature is going on as usual around us while we are having our moment of chaos. Everything is business as usual.

Nature is unaware of the suffering because the suffering comes from our thoughts---the judgements we make based on what we are seeing in front of us, our perception.

The other night, I was on a call with some forest therapy guide friends, one of whom is living in New York City and is struggling with her emotions right now. We spent the call reminding her of what we all learned from the forest and someone said, “Be where your feet are.”

Be where your feet are. It’s a statement that best describes the only way I know how to navigate right now.

Letting my thoughts and my imagination run rampant isn’t going to serve me. Losing myself in the thinking mind is not helping me.

Fear and anxiety arise because of the sentences we hear playing in our heads which then create those emotions.

If the sentences in your head are filled with what ifs and worst case scenarios, they will cause unnecessary suffering.

I’m not saying ignore what is happening, to put your head in the sand. We need the information but realize as humans, we think and think. It’s what we do and given the choice, our minds will naturally veer toward the negative. And if we aren’t aware, those thoughts will consume us.

The practice is to notice when you are getting caught in the thinking circles that aren’t serving you, be kind to yourself, and then come back to the present moment.

Come back to your body. Where you are right now, reading this email.

Come back. Take a breath and feel the aliveness of your body. Listen to the sounds around you. Find something that catches your curiosity, some small detail that you may not have looked at before. Spend time there. That’s the present moment.

And then, ask yourself, what do I appreciate about what I am noticing around me or within me at this moment?

Come back to the present moment. It’s something that has to be worked on continuously.

And that is being human.

💚 Julie