Is Your Mind Full of Monsters?
Do you remember going into those haunted houses at Fall festivals with distorted mirrors and scary monsters that popped out from hidden spaces? Sometimes my mind is a lot like that. It creates these distorted images of who I am supposed to be, what my life “should” look like, and how I am supposed to present myself to the world.
And the monsters! They seem to pop up when I least expect (or need) them. There’s that monster of insecurity that whispers in my ear, telling me I’m not good enough, not thin enough, not rich enough, not smart enough… That Not Enough mind-monster tries to follow me around and reinforces those distorted images, creating even more of them.
And there’s the mind-monster of rejection. It roars right in my face:
“HIDE! Don’t put your real self out there.No one wants you! No one needs you! No one wants or needs what you have to offer. Stay small! I mean, look at yourself.” Sure enough, the images I choose to look at back-up it’s story.
And the monster of abandonment. “Don’t let anyone get too close. Trust no one. Count on no one.”
There’s the monster of Worry. This is a big one for me. It can cause me to tremble. It says, “Life is scary. Bad things happen. Don’t relax. Don’t trust life.”
These are some of my mind-monsters. What are some of yours? We all have them.
What haunts you?
My mind’s master monster – the father of these creepy creatures is FEAR. And the really crazy part is – are you ready for this? I feed him and his whole Fear Family. Here is how I do it.
When a monster pops up I treat it as if it’s real. I look at a distorted image of myself and buy the whole thing, hook, line, and stinker. Then I feed it. I create this entire story, thought by thought, that reinforces its messages and I follow that monster through the distorted maze of lies, creating more distorted images along the way. I keep feeding it by believing it. Fear thrives on creating internal conversations that reinforce its menacing message. As I follow these monsters through the maze of my mind, I close doors along the way. I close the door of hope, and joy, and self-confidence, and love. I close the doors to truth. I close the doors to who I really am.
Are you feeding your mind-monsters?
I’m working on starving my mind-monsters. I am refusing to follow them and feed them stories that give them power any longer. I am breaking the distorted images of who I am and what my life should look like. I am choosing to see a divine spark within me, that glow-in-the-dark fingerprint of my creator. And I am choosing to believe I am sufficient. I am not my thoughts. I am not my mind-monsters. I am something much more. I am an observer but not a follower. I am more than my thoughts and my fears and my distortions. I am so much more.
You are so much more. Do you find yourself following your mind-monsters, feeding them thoughts and creating stories of doom and gloom? Have you been allowing them to create distorted images of your beautiful self? What are you feeding your mind-monsters?
Let’s just shine the bright light of who we really are on our thought, open the doors to the good stuff, and REFUSE TO FEED THE FEAR.
