I woke up with a startle. I don’t even know what had come upon my mind, but it was something causing worry, angst, sweating, scanning the past, and planning the future all at the same time.
But somehow, this time, I was able to see through the angst. Like, for a flash moment I was a witness to my own struggle and could see it with clarity.
Like I said, I had awoken with a worry. A feeling that something was not right, and this brings a great sense of discomfort! To relieve and avoid this intense uncomfortable feeling the mind goes to work...simultaneously scanning hindsight to see what went wrong to cause the situation, and planning future all the things to try to fix it. This is the essence of what’s happening when we panic.
Just think about it...BOOM 💥 some situation happens that startles you and triggers angst. The mind, now immensely disturbed, is DESPERATE to relieve this intense discomfort it is now experiencing. Towards that effort thoughts of past and future actions come FLOODING in such that you can’t even think straight or decide how to proceed!
It’s simply desperation to remove the sensation of discomfort! Maybe instead I can learn to just notice, observe and be with the discomfort? Even for a moment...pause and breathe through it, instead of this flood of thoughts towards avoiding the pain.
