Tag: Mind

Random Thoughts

by Ebb Then Flood

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‘Random Thoughts’

Random thoughts.

Fuzzy often.

Or like sparks igniting unexpected insights.

Going off on tangents, in every direction, hard to control.

It wouldn’t be any sort of mind life without them.

Sometimes they make no sense at all; at other times they are the missing piece in a puzzle.

Thoughts are just that – thoughts. You don’t have to act on them, but you can!

I mean, this post was going to be something completely different until the above image sent my mind off and running somewhere else.

So, I will leave you with these random thoughts for the day, and wish you moments of your own filled with delightful randomness!

 

Fog Inside My Head

by Ebb Then Flood

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I can remember where I took this picture.

It was in the hill country just north of Taumaranui in the central North Island, at a highway rest stop.

I  can describe the weather.

There was a fog, like smoke, opaque and wispy at turns, drifting through the pines and scrub, leaving all damp to the touch.

But I truly know what fog feels like.

For it was in my head, in a troubled time, when there was no clarity and no respite and for a brief period, no hope.

And even though I have climbed out of the worst of it, there are still moments, small intervals, when the fog returns from banishment.

Very frustratingly, I might add.

Then I remember that the fog must lift, and the sun come through, as it did a only a few minutes down the road…

 

 

Blue Swirl Reflections

by Ebb Then Flood

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Geometric swirls of a carved gateway to a Maori marae ( meeting  place) reimagined in blue, and mirrored.

Not as the carver intended, but how it was in my mind’s eye, on a day where the mood was blue, little was calm in my head and mental waves churned like the sea below the marae.

And, after a little reflection (so to speak), I’m okay with that.

 

The Monkey Mind

by Ebb Then Flood

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I only became aware this week of the Buddhist concept of the “monkey mind” when I was reading  a story online about a depressed US army veteran who had been taught tai chi in order to quiet the negative voices in his head.

Another magazine article at home awhile back described an acquaintance of mine as having a “manic, fizzing mind.” The description was bang on.

I can relate …in fact this blog reflects a lot of things that just bounce around inside my head …I have to get rid of some of them in cyberspace…sorry!

But seriously ,apparently the average person has about 50,000 separate thoughts a day(many about the same thing) and a lot of those are not relaxing or mindful thoughts.They are of the “need to do this..now”  and  “next, that”, or just general worry bead handling.

Some of this is necessary for personal organisation and survival; too much of it causes mental and physical fatigue.We simply can’t unwind and become restless and unsettled.

Buddha wrote: “Just as a monkey swinging through the trees grabs one branch and lets it go only to seize another, so too, that which is called thought,mind or consciousness arises and disappears continually both day and night.”

The trick,supposedly, is to understand that aspect of ourselves and then tame the monkey, not fight it.

I won’t get into the mindfulness techniques to do that because I am no expert,but  it is good start just to realise that maybe we can hold a thought,if a beneficial one, before launching for the next “branch” .

Lastly,the monkey picture was taken at a popular tourist island in  Langkawi, Malaysia. There are constant warnings to the boatloads of  visitors:”Do not feed the monkeys”,as they can be quite excitable and  aggressive.

Good advice for those with “monkey minds” too!