Where Does Your Mind Go?

[Heather Shay]

When you find yourself drifting away from the current moment, be it at home, work, play, where does you mind take you?

 

For me - I drift into trauma memories, dreaming of quicker transition, and dreams of really being me. How about you?

[Aggie1]

2 hours ago, Shay said:

When you find yourself drifting away from the current moment, be it at home, work, play, where does you mind take you?

 

For me - I drift into trauma memories, dreaming of quicker transition, and dreams of really being me. How about you?

I find myself in much closer contact with my emotions, especially feeling happy. In my mind I’m skipping down a leaf strewn lane, hair streaming behind me, bubbling over with joy. 

I gave a speech at toastmasters a few weeks ago on Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. The speaker who followed me, a conservative baptist preacher, jokingly said happiness for him was everyone agreeing with him. So I gave a speech today in which I presented research on the concept of Happiness, tracing it back from Jefferson to Locke to Aristotle and company, taking detours along the way into the American Dream and the Fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, which are characteristic of happiness. I painted 9 rocks with the words from the fruit of the spirit and handed them out to the audience and then had them exchange their rock with someone else’s and asked them to check their feelings as they did so. I also talked about Dopamine and it’s effects on the body. I concluded by pointing out that they had just given someone Love Or Joy and the way to get it is to give it. To be happy you need to give happiness.

 

I am finding it so much easier these days to express my feelings without hurriedly squelching them behind a brusque exterior shell for fear someone might guess what was going on inside my head.

 

I have given myself permission to be and feel happy and to express it to others and it feels good!

 

Darn it Shay, why do you ask such provocative questions! 

[Heather Shay]

@AgnesBardsie wow - deep and philosophical. Locke.... don't hear his name brought up often but he had a profound effect on your Founding Fathers and Mothers.

 

Why do I ask prvocative questions? Because of receiving wonderful answers like yours.

[Vidanjali]

@AgnesBardsie did you take pictures of the fruits of the spirit rocks? If so, please share? 

[Aggie1]

3 hours ago, Vidanjali said:

@AgnesBardsie did you take pictures of the fruits of the spirit rocks? If so, please share? 

I should have! I painted them the night before and totally spaced on getting pix! Fortunately my daughter was at the meeting and she was a recipient so I only have the one. It’s representative of all the others though! Just a box with a word in it, surrounded by colored dots with smiley faces on them.

[Aggie1]

I should have! I painted them the night before and totally spaced on taking any pix. Fortunately my daughter was there and got one of them but it’s representative of the others. A box with a word in it surrounded by multicolored dots with smiley faces on them.

[Maddee]

I like painted rocks.

 

Mind goes places...

I'm pretty sure this mind is insane.  Too often my perceptions are not aligned with others.  My reactions are different and it offends people.  It's hard to understand some decisions I made, while following my gut.  and prayers.  Thought following the gut was good to do...?.  Time has yet to reveal any rightness of my choices.

 

I have come a long ways, focusing on changes.  Actively doing this daily since weaning off all psych meds 2012-13.  I was on a ton for over 20yrs.  No regrets because I AM better for it now.

Concerned that no matter how much I change, I'm still stuck here as this clueless whipping pole.

And that my mind is betraying me again.

 

[christinakristy2021]

My mind goes haywire when I have thoughts about women and I tend to release my tension.

[Vidanjali]

@AgnesBardsie thanks for sharing the one picture. I love that you have that way to express your creativity.

 

Where does my mind go when I'm not focused on the present? I suffer from scrupulosity. My mind begins to review every single interaction I've had in recent or remote memory to be certain I did not say or do a wrong, hurtful or callous thing. I know a lot of people in my life are impressed by my acute memory, but it's definitely a double-edged sword; I often wish I didn't remember certain things with such clarity. It's an exhausting and painful habit that I wish I could overcome. On the other hand, I sometimes daydream in a creative manner - I think about how I may help people or show kindness, or improve the gardens at home, about ideas for art projects, or ways to more fully realize my gender expression. (What occurs in the mind during moments of peace is an entirely different question...) There's another OC tendency my mind goes to which is playing a song over and over. I don't just mean the phenomenon of having a song stuck in your head. I can hear every detail of the orchestration or harmonies in there, and there's this compulsive drive to complete the song without interruption. It can be very distracting. It is interesting to note where the mind goes during moments of mindlessness if the goal is to be more present and mindful because recognizing patterns is one of the first steps to breaking undesirable habits.

[Heather Nicole]

On 9/22/2021 at 11:12 AM, Shay said:

When you find yourself drifting away from the current moment, be it at home, work, play, where does you mind take you?

 

I'm ADD, so my mind just ping-pongs around anywhere and everwhere. ?

 

Although sometimes it'll fixate on old experience-based frustratuons of trying and failing to get my point across to someone not willing to listen, or otherwise dealing with difficult people. Or any other frustration I may have.