"THE MASS OF MEN LEAD LIVES OF QUIET DESPERATION"

Dark thoughts and troubled minds are part of the process of making sense of life and take up a room in our lives like bed and breakfast guests. Often unexpected they usually arrive at night and demand that we accommodate them, and of course we do. It’s late and we are tired and sensing we are vulnerable they already have one foot in the door, it is easier to let them in than to try to shut them out. Mostly they are familiar, we recognise them, we have entertained them before, they wear us out and drag us down but like all guests eventually they leave and we can rest up and recuperate.

Chekhov wrote “Any idiot can face a crisis, it’s the day to day living that wears you out” What of those who live their entire lives dominated by mental turmoil, where there is no escape from the chattering mind. Irrational thoughts dominate every moment of the day and long into the night like uninvited guests at the spectacle of our lives. The mind becomes a ruthless and implacable tyrant to be appeased and kept calm at all costs, and so the rituals begin. Instead of confronting our fears with reason and forbearance we learn coping mechanisms. If we control our environment by repetition and ritual we can keep the mind calm and we can convince ourselves we are in control. How ever life is not predictable and circumstance can cause us to deviate from the path or change the plan, and that’s when it all comes tumbling down and the anxious mind, unforgiving and possessive takes over. Ovid wrote “All human beings hang by a slender thread, the strongest fall with a sudden crash”

Anxiety confronted can halt the racing mind, regressive thoughts always have the potential to become progressive and the path can be found again. Put a high value on yourself, make sure your confidence is well fed leaving no crumbs of anxiety to feed your doubts. Build up mental walls so that when anxiety is winning, you won’t pull yourself together only to fall apart again. Squash anxious thoughts before they can race away with you, for as an old African proverb says “When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside can’t hurt”.

Title quote by Henry Thoreau