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Holding On To Illusions
by
Michael Levy
A couple of weeks ago I was performing one of my daily exercises swimming laps
when I observed a women, in her early seventies, enter the pool and securely
grasp hold of the side. She slowly made her way round the pool to the deep end
by holding on to the side of the pool and moving her hands to guide her way to
the deep end. She then let go and swam on her back all the way to the shallow
end.
I watched her repeat this routine over and over. Of course, I could not let an
opportunity like this pass-by without asking her what she was doing by holding
on to the side of the pool to get to the deep end. I asked her why she did not
swim to the deep end.
She explained that since she was a child, a fear of putting her face into the
water had stopped her from swimming on her front. Her fear of drowning by
swallowing water was so strong that for most of her life she could only swim on
her back and feel secure. Swimming on her back towards the shallow end was
acceptable to her mid-set, however if she reversed the routine and tried to swim
on her back towards the deep end, fear overtook her and she could not release
her hold from the side of the pool.
Well, me being me, I explained to her how fear is an illusion of the mind, even
though it be a persistent one. I gave her a few practical tips on how to
overcome her trepidation of swimming on her front. I spent about half an hour
showing her how to move a few steps from the shallow end, kick off the bottom of
the pool, and float to the shallow side. She tried it a few times without
success and told me she will work on her mind-set thoughts and keep trying this
new technique of floating a few feet to the shallow side.
I did not encounter her again in the pool for a few days. Well, a few days later
what do you think happened to the seventy-year-old fear of not being able to
swim on her front. The answer was ... nothing I could say or do could help her
change her fearful mind-set.
She continued to hold on to the side of the pool for dear life until she made
her way to the deep end and then let go and swam on her back to the shallow end.
She told me that she had thought about what I had said to her, but she just
could not get over her fear of swimming with her face in the water. I jokingly
said to her that perhaps her body was not made to swim face down and only
constructed to swim on her back. Not realizing the humor she relied, what about
all the other people who can swim on their front ... Why can they do it and I
can’t. I replied, simple because they do not believe it is impossible to swim on
their front.
Now before you start to think that this woman is somehow unusual let me ask you
a question... Can you live in a joyful state of mind, every second you exist in
the pool of life? What is that you answer! You declare it is impossible to live
in a joyful state of mind every second you are on earth. Well, what mind-set
leads you to believe it is impossible?
• What types of thoughts have hold on your mind that limits your happiness?
• What are you clutching on to that restricts that natural flow of serenity and
contentment?
• Are your thoughts of limited joy any different from the woman who finds it
impossible to swim with her face in the water?
By my observations of humanities habitual patterns and characteristics, I have
determined that most people in this world hold on to thoughts throughout their
lives that restrict them from living in a natural free flowing way.
Yes in - deed, most peoples brains have been influenced by perceptions, ideas,
thoughts and suggestions from other people and are limiting the way they live
their lives.
While getting a good education well-meaning teachers may have seeded your
thoughts.
• The thoughts may have been planted by well-meaning religious viewpoints but if
you still hold fears what good is the religious doctrine doing to your every
lifestyle of happiness.
• Well-meaning scientific experts may have planted the thoughts and delivered
new inventions and hi-tech gadget but how much lasting happiness does that
contribute to your life of joy.
• Well-meaning family and friends may have planted the thoughts since you were a
toddler however, how has that helped your well-being for long-term mental
stability and permanent blissfulness.
With massive amounts of intellectual, educational books, texts, journals and
expert advice, no person is immune from synthetic thought patterns that can
restrict the natural free flowing truth, intrinsically gifted in all human
beings. How many people do you know who are not restricted in some way or other
and have no need to hold on to unwise teachings that are seeded in their minds
by other people?
Maybe it really is impossible to teach old dogs new tricks. So why not just
settle for getting-by with holding on to the sidelines of bliss and understand
you are mentally constructed in that confined way. Just make do with the average
joyless moments most people tell me is inevitable. What is the point in looking
for what you deem to be unlivable blissful answers, no matter how truth-full
they may be, but make no sense to your intellectual, thought-life possessor.
Well, there may be one alternative to holding on to all elemental fallacies
contained in … intrinsic doctrines, inbred intellectual reasoning and logic,
informative philosophical debates, ingrained religious teachings, entrained
educational rules and regulations, entrenched spiritual habits and other deep
rooted meaningful ... Perceptions, Ideas, Thoughts, Suggestions (PITS) ... but I
doubt you would believe me if I told you what it is.
So rather than disclose to you how to live your life in a manner that is
unacceptable to your knowingness, maybe I’ll give you a little hint into the
types of mind-sets that can un-anchor your brain and cast you adrift from a more
realistic mode of authenticity.
• If a person has a strong intellectual mind-set it may smother them
• If a person has a weak intellectual mind-set it may drown them
• If a person has a medium intellectual mind-set, it may suffocate them.
However if a person can live with an objective detached mind-set, it will be a
game, set and match ... liberating a winner/winner.
So, if you feel it is impossible to live in a joy-filled mind-set all the time,
just continue to endure sharing the unsatisfying holds on your mind, with others
who also share your accustomed viewpoints. Keep away from all those other
strange people, who are in the same mode, but with different slants on truth,
but like you, holding on to the edge of the thought-life pool, without ever
being in the free flowing blissful central moment.
Although, in the final analysis, everyone will swim in the same erroneous human
pools of thought, that restricts joy they do not have to accept it as their
reality. Even though many people will keep a stiff upper lip with differing
viewpoints, that will cause conflicts of interest and unrest, a few simple minds
will not buy into the illusions that surround them ... As an early warning sign
perhaps we can give the erroneous mind-sets brigade an official title ...
How about ... Contriving Orientation Navigators ... Thoughts that CON you out of
a joyful-thought-life and navigate you into worrisome, depressive deliberations.
The good news is that when you learn to live joyfully, despite what your
conditioned mind-set may determine is impossible to live, you have overcome your
fear for the truthful wisdom you were born with ... When your life ends, you
will have no regrets of missed moments of joy ... And that my friend, is the
only proper definition of success… The merry moments of blissfulness lived.
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