NEGOTIATING THE MINDFIELD

When I was in the third grade I was the fastest runner in our class. One day playing a game in the gym I ran so fast I failed to make a turn and ran face first into the closed bleachers.  On my way down to the floor I saw the customary stars and woke up with a big bump on my forehead.  It has now been scores of years since I ran fast.  Now it is just my mind that runs too fast for its own good. Thoughts, opinions, beliefs, memories, daydreams all develop a momentum that take me away from my deeper, healthier self.  These are not particularly good thoughts or bad thoughts, just mental noise that I can take too seriously and give too much attention to. Like white water rapids they bounce me along so fast I believe I have no control over them. Even though most of this stuff is just baggage I picked up from someone somewhere I can think they are me but even that is just a thought. Maybe now that I have "dealt" with them (at four a.m.) I can go back to sleep.