Marshal Ney.

He was one of Napoleon's generals in the peninsular wars and was a very brave soldier. One morning, while shaving before a great battle, he saw that his hand was trembling. He said, "Tremble on old carcase, thou would tremble all the more if thou knew where I was taking thee today". He went out and did his duty. He ACCEPTED how he felt. He was able to separate his MIND from his BODY. I believe that the BRAIN is an instrument of the MIND. The brain takes messages from the mind and acts upon them. Do you ever feel that there is a 'you' looking down on all this suffering; not suffering itself but AWARE of the suffering?

When we say 'I am stupid, useless, unwanted, a pain to others, a liability, living in FEAR etc, then the brain takes this in and acts accordingly. It BELIEVES it to be true because the 'MASTER', the MIND has told it so. So we come back to the old problem. The inability to THINK properly, not positively, that is too simplistic, but IN A DIFFERENT WAY. Look out of the window. What do you see? Houses, trees, car parks. Not a herd of elephants, or a pride of lions? Your mind tells you there is no danger, so your body is not upset and you are not afraid. Supposing you look out and you see an elephant rushing toward you. (In a suburban garden, I think not!!). What happens? Your mind says 'DANGER' and your brain sends messages to you body. RUN, FIGHT, whatever. The adrenaline starts flowing and we are off. A full blown panic attack. Logical thought goes out of the window. We are in the fight or flight syndrome. Suppose we think in a DIFFERENT way. We send a different message to the brain 'Elephants do not come into suburban gardens. This is just not true, a figment of my upset imagination'. We have 'imagined' ourselves into this place and can 'imagine' ourselves out by THINKING differently and sending the right messages to the brain. By FACING and ACCEPTING our feelings the brain gradually calms. It gets the message ' all is OK, there is no danger as I thought', and it can rest and be at peace. So step aside from the elephant; let it pass and carry on to the best of you ability. Don't go looking for elephants in suburban gardens. Love to all. jonathan.

[ellabella]

Thank you Jonathan, I needed to hear that today. Excellent advice!! Bravo my good friend x