There is a space between what our monkey brain tells us and our reaction to this. That space is reality....it’s our truth.
At first this space is so small we miss it, spiralling into the thoughts of the mind like it’s all happening right now, our mind is so powerful it can have us believe anything, when used in a positive way this can be the most powerful tool we have to conquer anything, but when... used in a negative way it becomes a weapon against living life.
As we start to catch that space, realising that what the mob is saying isn’t necessarily what is happening we can start to open that space up and see the truth, like ripping through a mesh screen and seeing clearly for the first time, to start with we may only see this truth for a fleeting second but over time it becomes easier to see, and we can stay there for longer, not letting the veil of untruths fall over.
As a teacher I watch students start yoga and struggle to not react to everything the mind tells them, to scratch that itch, to fidget, to open their eyes and look around, to compare to others, but gradually as their practice deepens the time between the the thought and the reaction lengthens, when they realise they don’t need to react to everything, when they realise they can see the truth for that little bit longer.
Sometimes the mind doesn’t like to be ignored and the comments turn into shouts, but we learn to still ignore it as it’s only having a tantrum, and once it learns that we don’t respond to tantrums it starts to quieten, to only speak the truth and to give truth a real chance at being heard. And when you get there, you can realise that the stories that your mind has told you for so long, the narrative of being too fat, too this, too that, is all just that a story, and when you find the gap, the truth you can change your story, to something you’d rather listen too and to something that will help you rather than hold you back. See if you can catch that space and see the truth even for a second to realise you are not your narrative that you choose your narrative.