Illusions of the Mind

Our minds are one of the most fascinating things about being a human. Scientists consider our minds to be the most complicated things in the universe! Sometimes they seems to be running the show and sometimes they can be our worst enemy.

Our minds can play strange tricks on us. Have you ever felt as if your mind is a dark, cluttered closet and you’re stuck inside of it? It’s filled with all these false beliefs, opinions, thoughts from your past, worthless “mind stuff.” Outdated stories that we’ve picked up during our lifetime, mostly from our parents, teachers and society. But when you’re in that dark place, it feels very real and can be quite painful.

When you get wrapped up in your negative thinking, it feels a lot like being in a tiny closet where you move around aimlessly, bump into the walls and all those other “things” and get hurt in the process. You try to escape, but the only door out is blocked by all that clutter. Everywhere you look you see those old and expired thoughts, they surround you and scream – “Look at me, I am here, I am real”. Some of these thoughts are saying: “You’re not good enough, you’ll never amount to anything, you’re a fake, you’re a failure and a loser. You can’t do anything right!” All this inner talking is from your past. None of it is ever true, but these thoughts keep playing in our minds over and over again. They block our true potential, create anxiety and paralyze our creativity. This kind of thinking is one of the reasons people get depressed.

When you’re stuck in the middle of this agony, it’s very hard to remember that these thoughts are not true. They’ve been in your mind for so long that they actually seem real. However, this is the most critical time when we HAVE to remember that these are just illogical beliefs and distorted illusions. Damaging thoughts and feelings that have no basis in reality.

This post describes some ideas on how to get over this loop of habitual negative thinking: 4 simple rules for better YOU.

If you’ve ever experienced something like this, how did you pull yourself out of this psychological pothole? What tricks or techniques did you use that were helpful to you? Share your experience, so you might help somebody else in the same situation.