The Rain-X of the Mind
I currently have a couple of small woodchips in my beard. A few minutes ago I was standing at the top of a ladder, with an extendable chainsaw borrowed from the neighbor fully extended, teetering back and forth trying to saw off a limb. The ladder wasn't quite tall enough to reach this branch. So I had stacked up two wooden skids and placed the ladder on top of those. It was not safe. My mother held the ladder. A few weeks ago her house insurance had emailed her about branches needing to be cut.
Then I put a new air filter in my father's car. He passed recently and I have it now. I got the oil changed yesterday, and I Rain-Xed the windows. It's convenient to have the water hit the window and just slide right off, even without using the wipers. It essentially gives the window the ability to let go of the water rather than being stuck with it. There's a similar problem with emotions.
When a traumatically intense thing happens and we're around, that image gets embedded in our minds. It pops up when we're tired, when we're frustrated, when we're sleeping, it attacks us at our weakest moments. Like a drop of water stuck to the windshield. It shouldn't stay there with all of that wind while you're driving down the road, but there it is, wavering back and forth but not sliding off.
Then we're getting hammered continuously. Issues with your primary job, your secondary job, your relationship, your family, your house, your money, etc. Life is like driving down a highway in a rainstorm. You can't see. There are solutions. The wipers of the mind. Do something else to distract yourself, medicate yourself, talk with someone. These things push the water aside, and for a moment we can see, but the rain is still falling and we need another swipe, and another swipe, and another.
Using some type of wipers is good, but with a sticky windshield it's never going to work that great. You're just waiting and hoping for the rain to clear. And it does sometimes. Sometimes there's no rain, sometimes life has less stress and pressure. But you know that if you keep driving you're going to hit rain again, and if you keep living you're going to hit emotionally overwhelming situations again. What do you do?
For the windshield, I use Rain-X. The water just blows right off the window as you're driving. It's great. I just happen to have stumbled, after many years of searching, onto the Rain-X of the mind as well. It's a skill I developed for myself so that I can let things slide off. I have the ability anytime I want to use it. Which is just about daily, so that I can tackle each day fresh and rejuvenated, ready for whatever weather life is throwing at me today. I've then spent the last few years working on how to best teach other people to be able to do it too. The ability of Rain-X to clear the window, and the ability to clear the mind and emotions, both fascinate me.
Find more at JeffThinks.com or JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com and ResetMeditation.com