For so many years I prided myself on knowing my own mind. I considered myself emotionally intelligent and very self aware and yet there were frustrations that kept reappearing in my life. Now that I know how the mind works I better understand what’s going on but I still speak to a professional from time. I speak to someone who works the way I do because she understands that it’s not something wrong with me but some way my mind is tricking me.
I often get people coming through my door who say things like “If you had told me a year ago I would be coming to see a counsellor now I wouldn’t have believed you”. Whilst people don’t think twice about going to see someone about a “physical glitch” they are more reluctant if it’s something mental. If you have a sprained muscle you might see a sports massage therapist or a physio and if your mind has tied itself in knots you’d come to see me.
For some reason we think that we should be able to sort out our own mind. Funnily enough the brighter you are the cleverer the mind can be in tricking you. The mind has developed over millions of years with the main aim of protecting us from perceived danger. This can have very interesting implications when we are wanting to make changes.
I’m sure you’ve heard that definition of madness that is ‘repeating the same behaviour and expecting different results’. Well this pattern is due to the trickster mind. Since I am on the outside of your mind, so to speak, I can identify what the mind is doing. Most people that come to me have a pretty good idea of what’s going on but don’t know what to do about it. Together we uncover what is going on and how to address it.
One of the techniques I use has people laughing out loud at the trickster mind. Beliefs we have had for decades can be turned on their head in minutes. I have seen skeptics shaking their heads and laughing for the rest of the session at how the mind had convinced them of something. People have said it’s like a magic trick.
Once you know how the mind uses smoke and mirrors you will see things in a different light. The mind can make us forget things that are important to us, convince us things are just fine they way they are and keep us in the dark about things that would be helpful to know. The brilliant mind is practical, logical and cunning and it’s job is to keep the status quo.
