There’s a little phrase that get’s thrown around quite a bit in the world of mental health with a whole lot of emotion attached. You might have said it. You’ve probably heard other people say it. It is: “I feel like I’m going to lose my mind!!!”
This was one of my big fears. With a family history of mental illness, even schizophrenia, it’s one of those terrors to which my mind loves to circle back. It produces a good movie with lots of special effects.
But it occurred to me today. What if this thing that so many people fear really summarizes a beautiful possibility that we don’t know is there. What if losing your mind, your little egoic mind that is, would be the best thing that ever happened to you? We’ve spent our lives being run and cajoled and terrorized by this little egocentric survival machine that is prone to glitches and regularly gets stuck on repeat mode. What if we could let it keep running alongside us but lose the false importance that we’ve assigned to its content.
Wait, that would actually mean living in reality rather than a nightmarish illusion. Because our minds have never actually been running the show. They’re just really loud commentators that can manage to slow us down or occasionally convince us to chase our tails.
If we lose our mind in this way, we can then recognize it for what it is – a repetitive survival machine that continuously questions and comments on the incredible force of love that actually drives us. How freeing is that?
I’m here to tell you that you can lose your mind, and that that is very good news indeed.
love this 😍