How Our Outside World Can Help Us Understand Our Inside One Pt. III
What separates us from the world around us is really only the way in which we perceive it. Both inside and out, there are complex systems that operate harmoniously with one another and come together to create this life as we know it. This idea of “as above, so below” nods at the duality of life above the surface as well as below it, and there is a lot to gain in being able to see beyond the barrier. When relating our outside world to our inside one, we have already talked about what plants need to thrive in correlation to how we can better take care of ourselves and how watching the sky is metaphorical for navigating the storms of our minds. In this part, I want to play with the mind again and compare it to how trails are made in the forest because I believe that there is a powerful understanding of our thinking patterns that lies in this analogy. Our minds and forests are two entities that seem to share nothing with one another, but upon further review I don’t know if we’ll feel that same way.
Let’s talk about the similarities between a big forest and our minds. They’re both vast spaces of personally unexplored terrain, certain parts of them may receive more sunlight than other parts of them, and we have trails to go where we need to in them. That said, a big difference between forests and minds is that while we didn’t make the trails in the forest, we are solely responsible for making the trails in our minds. The trails made in forests were made many moons ago by an initial trailblazer, and people followed these trails for years and years. Each step by each individual presses the earth down and the compound effect of many steps taken by many individuals results in very visible trails compared to the rest of the territory. While they may make traveling easier, sometimes the best view is off of the trail. To get those spots, it takes a little bushwhacking, and maybe even a couple scrapes and bruises along the way, but if you’re willing to endure them, chances are you thought the view was worth it.
I want us to take this same running idea and apply it to our minds and how our thoughts carve paths through our brain. Our initial “trailblazer” is our childhood: How we were loved, how we were socialized, and how we were cared for, during a time that we have no recollection of, blazed the trails that we have come to know within our minds today. Our thought patterns act as little individuals, pressing the ground of the mind down a little bit more each time we think the same thing or way. When we experience similar thought loops over and over again, they gain traction and root themselves deeper within our psyche and make it the most conducive way to travel - regardless of the validity of it. So for instance, for someone who has frequent thoughts of “I am not good enough” or “I am not smart enough”, regardless of whether or not those thoughts have any truth behind them (chances are they don’t), it becomes the easiest way for the mind to navigate itself. In a sense, we are unconsciously creating trails in our minds that begin to shape how we perceive this life and the people, places and experiences it gives us.
Just as there are times where the best view in the entire forest is off of the beaten path, the mindset we aspire to have may deviate from the path we’ve always taken. Whether it is more confidence, fewer self-sabotaging beliefs, or the ability to feel more empathy or joy, it is the way we WANT to think and feel. That is a journey that requires just as much if not more bushwhacking. To reach the spots we want to get to, there is a lot of shadow work required on the parts of us that we try to hide or deny. The scrapes and bruises aren’t physical in this case, they’re mental. It can be painful to accept what has happened to you in this life and what the culmination has caused you to become, but there is so much power in self-mastery. One of the late and great Socrates' classical lines is “To know thyself is to love thyself”, and it rings true in this scenario. Once you make it out on the other side, not only will your view be the prettiest one in the entire forest, but you WORKED FOR IT. You did the dirty work and blazed a new path for yourself. Whatever you did to forge it, whether positive affirmations, shadow work/shadow acceptance, or persistent reflection, will result in a newly blazed trail ready. From there, we can start to build thought loops that are more useful to us in this new perspective, beating this new path until it becomes just as easy to walk as the old one.
I can’t tell you that this is the truth, that this is 100% the way our minds work because I haven’t started studying the mind professionally yet. What I can say as someone who has done a great deal of mental work and who spends frequent time hiking/exploring, the two pursuits feel identical to me. I’ve been cut up pretty badly climbing trees and scaling rocks because I thought that the view on the other side was worth it. I’ve absolutely grinded through therapy sessions where I’ve felt like my heart and mind were going through boxing matches in which I was the sole spectator. It hurts in the moment, sometimes unbearably, but if I have learned anything it is that it heals too. Healing is unequivocally one of the most beautiful things this life and this earth have granted us. When forests grow again after wildfires, when a broken person finds their light, healing reminds us that no matter where we’re at and what has happened, as long as we are still HERE, we can grow into the best possible version of ourselves.
We have to experience pain in this life in order to fully appreciate joy, for there is no black without white nor light without dark. Like yin and yang, life is composed of the good, the bad, the good in the bad, and the bad in the good. It is a delicate balance between beauty and rage that fully encompasses this life in its entirety. It’s all connected, and maybe the only thing that separates the forest from our mind is our interpretation of it. As you go on about your way, be cognizant of the trails you’re walking, pick up the litter if you see any, and above everything else ENJOY IT.