Imagine your right arm, for whatever reason, couldn’t control itself.
So, you might be walking down the street, and that arm of yours is just lashing out, pointing here and there, turning itself over and over, swinging all over the place.
You’d be pretty embarrassed by it, and worse—in close quarters that arm would likely flail around and hit other people.
Eventually you might even find yourself in a court of law trying to explain how that arm of yours knocked out an old lady at Starbucks.
It’s not YOUR fault; that arm of yours just has a life of its own.
But most of us would still do near everything we could to get that arm under control, including strapping it to our body.
Not Talking About The Arm
Now let’s say that wasn’t your arm, but that part of you flapping around, lashing out, constantly turning, is your brain.
Nobody else can see it. You’re not walking down the street looking like you’re conducting an invisible orchestra, yet that part of you is just as out of control.
Thinking it’s so smart, constantly turning, running the same old programming—some 70,000 thoughts a day, 70-90% of them redundant, and negative.
Latching onto everything it sees. Forming judgements about this person or that. Incessantly thinking about the future or the past, more often than not worrying about stuff, rather than celebrating it.
And even though that brain isn’t outside flapping about for all to see, it is most certainly inside driving every interaction you have.
If that brain of yours is on its good juices maybe you are warmer, more friendly with people.
If not, some of us humans snap at others, and even worse, have that out of control brain take that in control arm and strike out at them.
In all, other than the fact that we can hide it, the brain lashing out has far worse consequences for you than one limb you could easily strap down.
Harness The Machine
The arm lashing out or the brain out of control is the same problem that requires the same solution—You.
You must choose to do something different with it. Unless you were to strap it down that arm would be lashing out all over the place bashing into things for the rest of your life.
And the brain is the same.
You might be “lucky” that your brain every day creates a wonderful utopia for you to live in, but if you’re like many of us, that brain could do with a little tying down.
It is the greatest machine on the planet, but only when we harness it.