The Movie of the Mind

Cars, computers, washing machines, TVs and so on come with instruction manuals, but our minds and brains don’t. Something to think about perhaps because our minds and brains are our most precious resources. They allow us to see life as it exists for us but we have no instructions to tell us how they should be operated

When benzo symptoms are at their worse and the brain starts malfunctioning so the mind imagines the worst and can make things even more disturbed. We search for the magic switch to get everything working correctly again. All too often we press the wrong button in desperation and the operating system crashes!

We need to get that operating system rebooted and back into normal service and we can help to do this through our minds. There are many therapies and physical interventions that work on training the mind from Emotional Freedom Techniques to Mindfulness and Yoga.  All these can play a part in our recovery but simplest of all is to just pay attention to the thoughts that come and go in that space we call the mind. These thoughts feed the brain and it’s the brain we need to help recalibrate. 

I’m not saying think only positive things as that’s futile and who can be positive in the midst of benzo hell? Just observe your thoughts, let them come and go as they will, don’t try and control them watch them from afar as if you’re watching a movie...the movie of your mind. 

It’s actually quite fascinating to see what your mind is telling you. It’s in full colour with emotions attached and even reactions as well. It’s like watching a horror movie sometimes when symptoms are flashed up on the screen! It causes the imagination to create worst case scenarios and definitely an unhappy ending. All this tells your brain that it’s not going to recover it pulls the wrong levers and clicks the wrong switches. However, continue to watch from afar, don’t alter a thing, let it flow through unhindered and gradually perhaps very slowly you may find that movie plays itself out and is replaced by a one of greater serenity and calm. The operating system is slowed, spaces appear between the thoughts and you realise it’s all just a movie, not real but an interpretation you have applied to your story. Imagine instead a happy ending and your brain and your body will feel this.

In order to recover let all this happen. Don’t fight it, let the thoughts flow, let everything go unhindered and realise that this is your own brain returning to homeostasis and it may be rough but it’s all going to work out ok in the end. You don’t need to find the right switch to control what is happening because your operating system has an inbuilt function that will do this for you if you trust it to. We really are more amazing than we can ever understand.