{"id":46514,"date":"2022-04-11T12:10:02","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T12:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/?p=46514"},"modified":"2022-04-11T12:12:24","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T12:12:24","slug":"the-joy-of-losing-your-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/2022\/04\/11\/the-joy-of-losing-your-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"The joy of losing your mind."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sometimes it feels like I am almost losing my mind.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a good sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It just appears that I am very close to transcending the story of Marnix, that it\u2019s about to happen, that there is peace beckoning just around the corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then the mind snaps back into place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou need me!\u201d it says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Without me, there is no you, no story, no importance, no safety, and you would be TOTALLY lost!!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s sheer automatism, sheer habitual response, that allows the mind to snap back into position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steadily behind the wheel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pretending to know what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pointing out possible dangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accentuating what\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guarding us against evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the \u2018I\u2019 we believe to be, the mind is absolutely essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It keeps the story going, it remembers and predicts, and creates an uninterrupted version of a human life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what we hardly ever see, is that the mind is literally nothing without attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn’t even exist if it’s ignored by the light of awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only power it actually has… is telling us it has power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Screaming, shouting, threatening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou need me, without me you are lost!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is bullshit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because if there is no \u2018you\u2019 to begin with, there\u2019s nothing or nobody to get lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mind is its own guardian, its own biggest fan, and we have simply learned to obey it and get lost in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It tells us we wouldn\u2019t exist without it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is, in fact, nothing more than an appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mind is not the creator of life, it’s not the source of existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a craftful storyteller, it\u2019s the secret, commanding voice that keeps consciousness caught up in a very small version of itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when it shuts the fuck up for a bit, we feel amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we are not lost in the drama, the predictions, and the judgments, the raw deliciousness of consciousness flows into awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The signs are so clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stuff doesn\u2019t bring happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Status doesn\u2019t bring happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reaching goals doesn\u2019t bring happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It just results in moments where the stressed-out mind is absent or temporarily ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We feel good when we\u2019re not lost in personal thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we\u2019re no longer lost, we feel free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The freedom that is already there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really hope you lose your mind today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by @dodji_djibom, for Unsplash)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes it feels like I am almost losing my mind. In a good sense. It just appears that I am very close to transcending the story of Marnix, that it\u2019s about to happen, that there is peace beckoning just around the corner. And then the mind snaps back into place. \u201cYou need me!\u201d it says. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[97,117,100,116,113,103,112],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46514"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46517,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46514\/revisions\/46517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}