From the New Era Elements Tarot, the Six of Water (Cups); from the Tao Oracle, Hexagram 66:
My mind swings wildly through time, touching on dozens of ideas a minute, unharnessed and undisciplined. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.
―Elizabeth Gilbert
Have you ever been lost in a memory, reminiscing about a time that brought joy, only to have a less than enjoyable thought seep in? Evolution has shaped our minds so that we remember the negative much easier than the positive. As Rick Hanson put it: "The brain is like Velcro for negative experiences, but Teflon for positive ones." Hexagram 44 is traditionally called Unexpected Encounter, but Padma has titled it Attraction of Opposites. Both fit the way our good thoughts can be seduced by the bad ones, pulling our attention in their direction. Peace comes when we learn to retrain our brain (over and over) by changing the channel; instead, we make the effort to refocus on the kindhearted, the funny, the beautiful, the wondrous and the beloved.
I'm finding myself more likely to be afraid, these days, than to have courage. Fearful, anxious thoughts, instead of positive, brave, hopeful ones. Now that I've caught myself doing this -- letting myself do it -- I intend to smarten up.
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