In last week's Ezine I pointed out that turmoil starts in our heads. The "outside world" has different effects of different individuals: the same event or circumstances motivates one, whilst stressing another; if your football team wins, whilst you are elated, the opponent's supporters will be deflated. Everything depends on your point of view - how you see the world, what creates your world.

In general, psychology tells us that we see the world through a negative lens - we prefer to dwell on the bad stuff. Indeed, research shows that, left in an enclosed room with no distraction, the normal person becomes a negative mental mess within hours - or, more ot the point, the normal person begins to outwardly display what is already going on inwardly - that entropy, or abject disorder, is the normal state of mind.

We are rarely aware of this inner turmoil for two reasons: firstly, it mainly takes place at a subconscious level and, secondly, it is normal, it is what is going on in our heads all of the time, the normal mind pays no attention to the normal! However, this inner turmoil is the source of effort in our lives. It is the source of annoyance, worry, anxiety, frustration, fear and loathing... all good stuff!!! And, as today's Normal People story exemplifies, the normal mind is very good at putting a negative spin on the most positive of realities.

Without the turmoil, life is effortless. Without the inner struggle, there is no struggle at all. Once our minds stop doing mental cartwheels that take us ever further away from the reality of the moment, that reality simply is - it is experienced. And, once you experience reality, you can start working with it, in ways that the normal struggling mind cannot know. You can start working with reality to create what you want to create, to achieve your goals and objectives - or goals and objectives beyond what the normal mind, with its limited conditioned perspective, can imagine. And it is all effortless because, once the inner turmoil stops, there is no turmoil.

Thursday April 23rd, 2015 - Dublin

Five individuals were instructed to go for a walk to go for a walk - a Buddhist exercise in mindfulness: to simply see, feel, hear, smell and taste the experience of reality as it is. As the first guy returned, I asked him how he had got on: "That was awful!" he said.

"I walked down towards the river. I saw the white clouds move across the blue sky. I heard the birds singing, like I've never heard them sing before. I smelled the petrol fumes from the cars. I felt the light breeze on my face and the sun on the back of my neck. I felt my thigh muscles move my legs and my feet strike the pavement".

"And then a red BMW went past and I said to myself 'That's a nice car - I'd fancy myself in one of those'. I thought I might arrange a testdrive at the weekend but then I though 'You can't afford that, don't be so ridiculous - if you were really honest with yourself, you can't afford what you're driving at the moment!' And, then, it occured to me that, if I don't win that new bit of business I'm chasing, I won't be able to afford the family holiday that I've just booked."

"My mind went into overdrive" he continued. "Next thing, I was thinking 'And, what if business dries up - then you won't be able to afford the girls' school fees. In fact, I'm really skating on thin ice. If things don't pick up I won't be able to keep the mortgage payments going!'".

The normal mind does turmoil really well! And the turmoil doesn't have to start with a negative thought - any thought will do!