Our minds are built to make patterns out of chaos. We’re highly skilled at it and if you don’t believe me, try paying attention when you’re driving in traffic one day. You’ll be amazed at the amount of pattern making you do in trying to figure out what the next driver is doing and how to negotiate your way on or off a highway. We’re freakin’ physicists almost ever day!
Unfortunately, the ability to make patterns can be a hindrance when it creates patterns that don’t help or support our lives. Because we approach our world, the things around us, from the perspective of those patterns. We wear them like masks and only see what the eye holes allow us to see. So if the mask is a victim being thrown around by drama after drama, then all you see is that in the world and you act that way when you’re in it. The world around you may be nothing like that, but since that is all you can see and that is how you act, that’s what ends up happening to you eventually. Self fulfilling prophecies and alla that stuff.
The great thing about our minds is that, while they resist it, they are able to change. They are amazingly dynamic that way. So we can change the patterns we use as the structure of our lives. We can choose to wear a different mask. Perhaps one that is vulnerable but flexible and therefore able to have healthy relationships rather than abusive ones. Maybe one that is a bit more adventurous and tries doing something new. Or one that has enough courage and hope to make it through that degree or ask for that raise and promotion. What mask are you wearing today and how does it effect how you experience your world?