{"id":550,"date":"2013-08-29T13:59:41","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T13:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/?p=550"},"modified":"2013-08-29T13:59:41","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T13:59:41","slug":"my-mind-my-worries-my-madness-who-will-deliver-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/08\/my-mind-my-worries-my-madness-who-will-deliver-me.html","title":{"rendered":"My Mind! My Worries! My Madness! Who Will Deliver Me?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Troubled_mind\"<\/a>Worry is the conversation in your head that fear has with itself.<\/p>\n

Really?<\/p>\n

Maybe that’s why…<\/p>\n

I tell myself not to worry, but I worry still.<\/p>\n

I tell myself I do not worry; but then, that I should worry more.<\/p>\n

I tell myself to stop talking to myself, too; but the talk in my head goes on.<\/p>\n

Who am I talking to? I am talking to me.<\/p>\n

So, how nuts is that?<\/p>\n

Who just asked that question. Was it I, myself, or me?<\/p>\n

Don’t be so smug, reader?<\/p>\n

It’s no different with you.<\/p>\n

And, neither of us is nuts.<\/p>\n

Not yet.<\/p>\n

Or, are we?<\/p>\n

Maybe we are.<\/p>\n

Could talking to ourselves just be an earlier stage of crazy?<\/p>\n

Of course not, I say. Or, was that what you said?<\/p>\n

Who said it?<\/p>\n

I’m in my head still.<\/p>\n

See what I mean?<\/p>\n

I talk to myself incessantly.<\/p>\n

What if…<\/p>\n

Oh, stop it!<\/p>\n

But I can’t.<\/p>\n

Or, can I?<\/p>\n

Can you?<\/p>\n

Is this what Saint Paul meant when he lamented, “Oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me?” (Rom. 7:24-25).<\/p>\n

I need some deliverance today.<\/p>\n

But how?<\/p>\n

The Buddha was once asked, “What do you and your disciples gain from stillness and meditation?”<\/p>\n

“Nothing,” he responded.<\/p>\n

“Then why do you do it?” asked the frustrated inquirer.<\/p>\n

“We gain little,” explained the Buddha, “but we lose much…anxiety, worry, anger, fear of old age, even the fear of death.”<\/p>\n

It is your spiritual practices, my friend, like meditation that enables you to lose what you don’t need – the madness of a mind that won’t stop worrying…fearing…refusing to let go and say, with Saint Paul, “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory in Jesus Christ” (Rom. 7:25).<\/p>\n

Practice going within.<\/p>\n

See what you lose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Worry is the conversation in your head that fear has with itself. Really? Maybe that’s why… I tell myself not to worry, but I worry still. I tell myself I do not worry; but then, that I should worry more. I tell myself to stop talking to myself, too; but the talk in my head…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1004],"tags":[1006,852,1007,1002,1008,138,806,1010,1009,595,64,1011,197,1005,1001],"class_list":["post-550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fear-2","tag-conversation-in-your-head","tag-fear","tag-fear-has-with-itself","tag-fearing","tag-i-talk-to-myself","tag-meditation","tag-saint-paul","tag-spiritual-practices","tag-stillness","tag-thanks-be-to-god","tag-the-buddha","tag-victory-in-jesus-christ","tag-worry","tag-worry-is","tag-worrying"],"yoast_head":"\nMy Mind! My Worries! 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