Imagine a glass of water with a fine layer of residue at the bottom.
Left undisturbed, the water is clear.
Light passes through it lucidly.
But stir the glass, and the residue swirls, clouding the water into murk.
This is the analogy I often use with my clients about how our minds work.
The residue is our thoughts.
We stir our minds when we take our thoughts seriously and try to interfere with the thoughts that will inevitably appear.
‘What if they don’t like me?’
‘I’m not earning enough money.’
‘I wish I didn’t make that weird noise in that conversation.’
We interfere by thinking more and more in an attempt to assert control over our lives.
But this is a problem.
Because to perform well in life, we need stillness.
When the mind is still, we open up to an intelligence that sits beneath the murk of overactive thinking (that would be the light passing through).
You know this to be true because your best thoughts come when you aren’t trying to think so hard. For example, when you are in the bath, walking or just in flow.
