The Race with The Mind
Initially when I landed at Teniente Alejandro Velasco Astete Airport in Cusco, Peru I immediately asked myself “why didn’t you listen to Mummy and go to Europe?” The airport was not luxurious, the roads were red-dirt and stray dogs roamed freely in packs. To make matters worse my host-brother told me horror stories you would only hear on Locked Up Abroad. My mind suddenly began to race- would I be kidnapped since I am a party-girl? Would I be able to navigate my way around not knowing Spanish fluently? Did I waste my parents’ money? But perspective put me in my place, I was there to learn. It was that simple. I ended my trip gaining unforgettable memories of working in a zoo, wild and yet romantic late nights and accepting a beautiful culture into my life.
It is important to understand your emotions and not let them take ownership of you. Emotions will never let your body rest nor will they let your mind be at ease. They are co-dependent on your mind’s every fragment until it shows on your face and becomes a condition. This condition is generally known as anxiety.
Deepak Chopra defines anxiety as a sort of lingering fear. “Fear is a natural reaction built into the mind-body system triggered by danger. After the danger is past, so is the fear response,” says Chopra. “But when fear spreads out into a general condition, it becomes a mysterious thing: anxiety. Anxious people are afraid even though there is nothing “out there” to be afraid of. Others overreact to triggers that ordinarily should be fairly easy to handle, such as being left alone for a day on their own.” Millions of dollars are deposited from wallets into finding the cure for anxiety. More notably, across cultural lines women can be seen actively searching for treatments for the very thing that is caused by the intangible, fear.
The tangible details that involve fear are based on trauma. Trauma occurs from the series of misfortunate events that made you feel uncomfortable and often times nervous about your future. Although your body sends signals to alert you to be cautious, the mind holds onto these signals even after danger has left the building.
Thought management is a successful tool to help decrease anxiety. In order for one to be triumphant in it you should engage in activities you enjoy and micro-manage your schedule- becoming too busy does not produce goods, it produces stress and leaves your mind feeling like stretched out play-doh. Other factors that help with factoring out anxiety: decreasing your intake of coffee or alcohol. Too much of both stimulate side effects that ignite depression and increase stress levels.
“People who suffer from anxiety bypass their bodies because they get trapped in their panicky thoughts. Panicky thoughts quickly become obsessive, running through one fearful outcome after another. Anxiety makes it all but impossible to make rational decisions; therefore, the voice of fear becomes ever more believable even when the disasters it foresees are not reasonable at all. Rationality is not what matters here. It’s what you believe that matters, always.”
Practice being decisive on what your mind’s pace will be. It is also important to understand what it means to be future controlling versus future conscious. Future control can be defined as manipulative behavior one produces upon others and her own life to receive certain outcomes. This type of behavior focuses on the framework, i.e. titles. Whereas future conscious behavior is based on the content; the content depicts the invaluable merit earned while establishing a blue print for business and relationships. The minds of future conscious people do not race at a fast speed but spend time delaying gratification in order to reap what they desire.
