Have you ever considered that everything you believe in, and think you know, the principles you stand for, every taboo, every theory and prejudice, your allegiances, all those precious or terrifying memories, all of it, may just be stories?
Stories that only exist in your mind?
As far as we can tell, our minds inhabit the slimy lump of brain-meat inside our skull and the intricate web of gangly nerve tissue ending in receptors that attach to it. These nerves respond to stimuli (such as light, chemicals, sound waves etc.) from what we think of as the physical world.
Since it seems we can never experience reality beyond what our senses tell us, and since our senses exist inside our mind, can we can ever really be certain what is beyond our mind in “reality”? We compile the inputs of our senses (which are no more than electrical and chemical transactions) and with that information create the stories we tell ourselves to explain why those senses happen to be firing.
Indeed the entire conscious experience of life is our mind (our ego), attempting to interpret the transactions of the nervous system and compile those signals into some kind of coherent consistent concept of reality or what we guess is happening outside us, what we think we know or believe is a story we’re telling ourself.
It seems we are each the story we tell ourself, about our self.
Of course it would be absurd to suggest that nothing is outside ourselves, we generally all see the same things and experience the same physicality in the world... but it's only our perception of the physical that we hold in our minds. And perception is by its very nature subjective and not an absolute.
Since we cannot ever really KNOW for certain what is outside our own minds, we certainly cannot ever really KNOW what is inside anyone else’s mind either. We have stories about why other people do things, we assign them objectives and intentions, but they are our own stories, and the motives we assign to others and the roles we assign them in our own narratives say more about our self than they do about them.
So here we are, each trapped alone inside our own personal Mind Bubble. Our stories, the mechanism through which we navigate life and deal with those we come into contact with, bumping against each other in some medium beyond our comprehension, the contents of our bubble (our stories) may be the only “thing” we ever truly own or know.
And let’s face it, if you’re trapped inside your Mind Bubble for the long haul you may as well try and learn how to fly the damn thing right? It's just you in there, make yourself comfortable, be mindful of the stories you’re telling yourself, reflect on which ones are making your life better and which are holding you back. This is how you control the Mind Bubble and guide it to your will.
Try to forgive those who wrong you, what’s done is done, pride and a sense of justice will demand you hold on to that pain but pride and justice are stories too and forgiveness isn’t a gift you grant others, it’s a release you permit your self. When we hold onto the stories of pain inflicted up us, those stories are fouling up our bubble, not theirs.
Try to forgive yourself. Move on and permit yourself to grow, the heroes of our mythologies aren’t the characters who started out great and easily win, they’re the flawed underdog who fails, struggles and overcomes. Don’t allow yourself to think that because of some prior trespass you can't be a better person now, guilt is self indulgent and unproductive it doesn't make things better.
Being better, makes things better.
Allow yourself redemption, you’re the only one who can.
We’re each pilots in a crowded sky, learning to fly without an instruction manual or formal training, there will be accidents, that is to be expected, we just need to do our best to not to make things any more difficult, for ourself or anyone else, everyone has stories as vivid and rich as our own and a journey that’s just as valid.
Let’s try to be the best Mind-Bubble pilots we can be.