What to do with the ongoing antics of your mind

“You’ll be fine. Feeling unsure and lost is part of the path. Don’t avoid it. See what those feelings are showing you. Take a breath. You’ll be okay. Even if you don’t feel okay all the time.” ― Louis C.K.

I just had an amazing session with Martha Creek. She’s a teacher, a spiritual life coach and a beautiful human being. She asked me to speak at next week’s Affiliated New Thought conference. Which is a really cool honor except for one tiny little thing.

It terrifies me. For the last week, I’ve been fretting about it, procrastinating the preparations and well, feeling like I would do everyone an enormous favor if I just backed out, ran away, canceled this commitment I made many months ago.

In other words, as Martha so generously pointed out, I’ve been having normal human thoughts.

Our brains churn up thoughts. It’s what brains do. By some estimates, the average human mind regurgitates 60,000 to 90,000 thoughts per day.

As Martha reminded me, it’s the mind’s operating system. It’s reality. The war begins when we pluck a particular thought out of the normal litany and declare it to be “a problem.”

It’s when we set up a framework of good and bad that the stress begins. Having fear is the most normal thing in the world. As Elizabeth Gilbert once said, “I know fear’s social security number and its mother’s maiden name.”

When we make a thought wrong (say, my particular thought that I’m not worthy to speak to all these New Thought gurus) is when it owns us.

What if it’s okay to have fear? What if I didn’t make myself wrong for having these thoughts? What if I simply recognized that there’s nothing bad or unnatural going on here?

Fear is a pretty standard 45 in the jukebox of every human mind. As Martha reminded me, I can always put a period at the end of those thoughts. I’m afraid. Period. I think I can’t speak. Period.

It’s only when I start adding humiliating extra clauses (I’m afraid and that means there’s something wrong with me, I’m panicking and that means I’m inferior, I’m terrified and that means I should just run away) that it grows into an insurmountable thorn bush.

So thank you, Martha Creek and thank you to my perfectly normal, enterprising little mind for delivering the perfect intel at the perfect time.

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.