Come Down From the Attic of Your Mind
Placing our consciousness in the right part of us.
This is my personal and subjective view of life. I believe that the human being is made up of two parts: body and soul. The soul — the essence of who we are — inhabits the body, which is only a vehicle of life. When we die, it is our body that dies. Our soul remains.
Between the two is the third part: the mind. I’m not sure how it articulates with the body and the soul, but I think that’s what allows us to think, among other things. The body is fixed. My hand remains my hand, and my nose remains my nose. But the mind can concentrate on some parts of the body.
I have two ways of being in the world. I’m either in my head or in my body.
When I’m in my head, it means I’m cutting myself off from the reality of things. I can perceive the sounds of birds, the feeling of the wind, and the ground beneath my feet, but I don’t pay attention to any of that. I am in my thoughts. I am locked up in my head. My mind is cluttered up there.
Conversely, when I fully inhabit my body, my mind leaves my head and begins to flow throughout my body. My sensations and perceptions of the world become sharper, more vivid. I place my attention on the surface of my body. I move it from the center to the surface.
And it’s liberating.
Go up into your head to think, down into your body to live
We’re the only beings capable of thinking they’re thinking. Sometimes we can go days, weeks, and months without being fully in our bodies, except for a brief glimpse from time to time.
Slowly, this leads us to cut ourselves off from reality. We are already living in our own version of the world, but this phenomenon accentuates this situation. Over time, as we live in our heads, we become more and more removed from reality, and this does not lead to happiness at all, but headaches.
This is the way our society is made. We constantly create and have problems. Work, relationships, money… All of these are triggers that jump out at us and make us think, lock us in our minds.
It’s healthy to get inside our heads when it’s to think, to try to find solutions, to reflect. But once we’re done, we should go back down. Just like when we climb up the ladder to get something from the attic. When we’re done, we don’t stay up there, do we? We go back down, back to the real world.
Go up into your head to think, down into your body to live.
How to get down from the attic
Easier said than done. I’ve been thinking about it a lot since the day I realized that I felt like a veil was preventing me from seeing the real world. As if too much of me was still constantly in the attic, keeping me from being able to soak up in the reality of things.
I’ve come up with some solutions. Here they are:
Practice surrender
Have you ever tried moving your nostril? If it’s not innate to you, maybe you felt like you were looking for a string to activate in your body, in the same way, that when you move your arm, you activate the corresponding string. But the string in your nostril is not easy to find because you are not used to using it.
Surrender works the same way. Once you’ve found the string, satisfaction is immediate. The more you set it off, the better it works.
Try to take a moment and deeply accept everything in your life. Surrender. This doesn’t mean you won’t stand up to change things that don’t suit you. But for now, accept things as they are. Let go. Let go of all the annoyances, tensions, stress.
You should feel relief, and you should feel your mind getting clearer.
Pay attention to your breathing and your senses
Breathing is the simplest link we have with life, and with the world. To continue living, we inhale some air from the real world. It enters us, our body takes what it needs, and then it comes out.
Try to pay attention to your breathing. Don’t control it, just observe it. Conceptualize it as your connection to life and the real world.
Then try to pay attention to your senses. It is your tool for grasping the reality of things. What can you hear? What can you see? Can you feel the warm rays of the sun on your skin? Or the cold of the air? Feel the ground under your feet. Try to reconnect with your body and the information it gives you.
Be less self-centered
Human beings are by nature self-centered. We focus on ourselves, our problems, and our thoughts. We think that we are the only ones who feel the way we feel. For once, let’s try to see the big picture.
Try to picture the world as a whole. Feel the billions of human beings around you, from near and far. They are doing something, and millions of thoughts are running through their minds, just like you.
Try to put things into perspective. To perceive the greatness of the universe, of life, and to detach yourself from it all. Try to blend in with nature, with your surroundings. You are part of it. Feel the world around you, begin to include yourself in it, to see yourself as part of it. It’ll open you up to reality.
Climb down the ladder as often as you can think of it. You’ll be climbing up to the attic a lot. It’s our default mode now, but we can change that. Every time you get in your head, gently bring yourself back to the real world. The more you do it, the easier and more natural it will get, and the deeper and more frequent your connection with the world will be.
