Building strong roots

I have a cottage on a lake in northern Michigan, surrounded by old and mighty trees. They persevere through the most ferocious blizzards and thunderstorms that come up out of the west.

Yet each spring, I find trees that have fallen towards the west, by winds that have come from the east. After some contemplation, I realized that the roots on the west side of the trees are deep and strong, because they are continually being tested by the weather. I also noticed that those on the east side of the tree are shallower and weaker, because they haven't been continually toughened by the prevailing winds.

We are all pretty adept at surviving the routine stresses of our lives (albeit with some less than healthy coping methods!). It is hard for us to see where our "roots" are shallow, opening us up to being suprised and knocked off balance by something unexpected storm.

Taking as little as 5 minutes a day, every day, to just stop and pay attention, to our breath, our bodies, our thoughts and our feelings, can help us deepen our "roots." We may bend and be tested by the weather of our lives, but with deep, strong roots all around us, we can keep standing through even the most trying storms.

Don't believe everything you think!

"We are what we think. All that we are arises from our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world." Buddha

How often do you examine your thoughts? Are you even aware that you are thinking most of the time? Most of us are not. And this opens the door for your thoughts to run your life, rather than you.

You might want to take a few minutes each day, to just sit and watch your thoughts. Noticing how they arrive, stay a while and then move away, making room for the next one, you can begin to separate the thought "event" from the thought "content." Sometimes thoughts may arise slowly or not at all, and other times may come in torrents. Just let yourself observe, and learn from these discrete events.

When you start to look at the content of your thoughts, you may learn that a lot of what you think is just not true, and may even be ridiculous. It may be rooted in past experience and personal interpretation, and does, in fact, alter the way you experience your life. If you are unhappy with your life, examining the content of your thoughts may provide not only clues to the source of your suffering, but the antidote as well.