Our Overthinking Mind

Below is some great Cherokee Indian wisdom about our overthinking mind:

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.”
“One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
“The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.”
“The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Our Birthright

What the Cherokee grandfather didn’t say is that the good wolf is at the core of all of us. Nothing can disturb this – it is our birthright. When we allow our minds to calm down and be present, we can be more aware of this. Nothing can take away our ability to be in the here and now. Our brilliance and safety lie within the quiet and clarity of our minds. At a deeper level, we know this is true. Nothing can break us – except our thoughts tell us something different, and the real problem is that we believe our negative thoughts.

Our Overthinking Mind

What if our minds contained 2 separate versions? I like to call these our front and back office minds. The front office is our busy, chaotic, ego-driven, judging, overthinking mind. This intellectual mind can be the biggest con artist of all. In contrast, the back office is a calm, present, loving, resilient, creative, and compassionate mind. Which one of these versions comes and goes? Which one of these minds is real and ever-present even though it doesn’t always feel that way? Hint if you are confused 🙂 : The front office, intellectual, ego-driven mind comes and goes. The back office, our true nature, is always there yet we don’t always feel like it is.

Whenever we have problems where do we look to get answers? Do we look within our front office, intellectual overthinking, ego driven mind, which made up the problem in the first place? I’ll admit, it is compelling to do this. Or, do we take a step back and look within the back office mind, the settled and present mind, to find real wisdom?

              “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”                                                                                                                                                                   Albert Einstein

Our Thinking Lens

What if we considered our mind(s) like an old-time movie projector vs. a still image camera? A projector projects through its lens what is on the film and from what we see we create feelings, or experiences that are always ebbing and flowing. Whereas, a camera lens captures moments in time, and from its images, we conclude something as being real or fixed… but are they?

Which reality of the two types of lens is made up internally through us, not to us? By that I mean …our experience is always created from within us by our thoughts in the moment and not by others or our situations just like the projector. This is an important distinction. If we truly see this as Truth, then we can see the innate power that resides within each of us.

Our Understanding

This is not to say that knowing this prevents us from acting up or going off course from time to time. After all, we are human. We create our own version of reality according to our state of mind at any given moment. The beauty and gift of understanding that this is how life really works enables us to more easily get over ourselves when we get caught up in the misguidance of the front office mind. And yet, when our minds calm down – things look different even though nothing outside of us has changed… giving us more clarity and understanding.

Our intellectual mind is a beautiful gift but could it be that we misuse this analytical gift in our overthinking of old stale thoughts? If we want fresh answers then consider tapping into your back office mind; there you will find clear, neutral wisdom.

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