Are you just being Paranoid?

In our formative years, I wished they taught ONE class on basic life skills too; how to write a check, how to construct a letter, how to open your bank account, how to change a tire…

A class on problem-solving (not just math) would be worthwhile.

I wish one class was dedicated to relationships; love, courtesy, forgiveness, compassion, communication, good manners, good listening and how to allow others to save face.

There is a skill set in moving on. I wished they taught that too. There should have been a class in school; the Art of Moving On. :) It's like we all seem to survive our hell and then we can't deal with the life afterwards. I however don’t think survival is taught, we just react like animals and run for cover. The only difference is an animal will escape something, go for cover, wait for safety and then reemerge like it didn’t happen. We on the other hand, carry this baggage around with us and get emotional about it.

Knowing what to do after being burned should be systematic and not so emotional, but it isn’t. We seem to enter a paranoia phase where our mind starts making up potential scenarios of what could happen and skews its own reality.

Something I learned to combat this was to count my blessings and do a reality check. We’ve all heard the saying, “There’s always somebody worse off than you.” Even though it’s the last thing you want to hear when you are in pain, it’s simply true. I don’t bring it up to deplete anyone’s pain, because my hope is for everyone to be happy. But if you are living in a crappy apartment, there is someone living under a bridge. If you hate your assembly line work, there is someone unemployed. If you are in a loveless marriage, there is someone who was kidnapped and forced into slavery. If you hate taking the bus, someone is walking to school in bad weather.

But it wasn’t enough to do this reality check; I also had to look at what was good around me. Friends, family, pets, hiking, and of course tea were there.

The simple things in life have become overshadowed by worldly items to the point where if we don’t have them, our entire world is bad! But how can we ever get back to thinking the simple things are important again? We keep wondering how to move on from our hell when perhaps it’s in moving back!

For me, I moved back to childhood where my happiness was tried, tested and true. I returned to my silliness, my art, my creativity, my writing. (outside of blogging, I have stacks and stacks and stacks of poetry, song-writing, stories and garble which I simply do for the fun of it) Even though I believe children’s childhoods are currently being stolen from them (and children are being completely deceived by thinking things equate to happiness) my own childhood rocked…and funny enough was about rocks. :) There was long grass and fields, rocks and trees, flowers and ditches, ponds and cricks, animals and clouds…and those haven’t gone away. Even if you live in the city, you can travel a small distance to find them even for a visit. If you are an artist, you can create it even in your own home!

But then, the paranoia seeps in and the negativity rules supreme. It should be simple; you survived hell, now build your heaven. You are blessed, you are special and unique…you do have the capability to move on by returning to yourself again.

While I am sure many people are sad by not having the affection of others, I am more certain that when we lose touch with our inner child, our true suffering, paranoia and inability to move on becomes stagnate.

The one thing I have learned from animals is they just know what they are. Sure, they suffer abuse, their personalities become compromised because of it and require rehab just like us, but they move on better than we do. Children are more resilient than we are too! (and fearless) Think of all the dangerous exploring you did as a child (because you didn’t know better maybe) yes it is good to have some fear to protect ourselves, but being delusional and paranoid isn’t at all helpful.

I have found it’s best to just stare reality in the face and then go through the appropriate steps. Making up potential scenarios that cause inaction are not good for our journey. How can you walk when your feet are frozen, right?

But once we are truly ready to move on and the danger has passed, how is paranoia going to help? It just doesn’t. Caution? Yes. But I would hope we could be cautious about something real and not just made-up in our own mind.

I have been diligently trying to keep my imagination for art, music and writing. That is the child-like state. :)

Hope you do something today consistent with your inner child and channel your paranoia into action!

ROCK ON my friends!

Karen :)

To me, one of the most beautiful quotes I have seen;

“You cannot catch a child's spirit by running after it; you must stand still and for love it will soon itself return.” ~Arthur Miller