Sever the Suffering

There has been a drought all summer, as I have run over what used to be Scary Snake Swamp turned into Dry Ground Gorge. All summer the ground has been cracked and dry without a drop of water.  Without water, there are no snakes.

As I watched this dry ground this summer it reminded me and reinforced how important it is for us to cut off the life source of the “snakes” in our lives.

For snakes to live, they need an environment that allows them to eat, multiply and survive. Without the proper environment and food, they must go somewhere else or die.

What is it for you?

I have had some poor ways of thinking, some tragic stories that I have told myself, and some narrow-minded explanations I have told myself over the years in response to painful situations. Someone how these unhealthy thoughts have satisfied my need for answers over the years. Yet these stories, these explanations created an environment for the snakes to multiply, to grow, and remain in their nice comfortable swamp, swirling around my neuropathways, like they run this place.

What the dry ground has reminded me of this summer is how important environment and sustenance are to keep things alive.

We are creating an environment in our minds. We are feeding the fears, the lies, the bad immature thoughts, and explanations, that keep us in the same place, a Scary Fear-Filled Snake Swamp. Or we cutting off their life source and giving our attention and energies to creating a new environment where those snakes cannot survive. 

Being on the other side of some really difficult, trying, painful situations, I am seeing the work of creating a new environment pay off. I am seeing how cutting off the source and refusing to feed these lies changes our “minds”.

I was introduced to the phrase “sever the suffering” a few years ago and feel it encapsulates this in a perfect way. We are continuing to suffer because of the way we continue to allow ourselves to THINK. It is time to stop allowing ourselves to revel in the same pain over and over again.

It is time to find a new way.

How?

Here are a few things that worked for me:

1. A few trusted friends that can hold your story without judgment.
2. Acknowledge the pain, affirm the “little child in you”, that it was okay to be hurt by “that”. Seriously, speak to yourself.
3. Challenge the story. Is this true? Do you know it is true? Was it true at one point but no longer true? Replace with truth.
4. Fill your mind with truth. Podcasts, sermons, reading, uplifting music
5. Speaks things out loud, talk to yourself, pray out loud, yell, scream, let the hurt/pain out, and replace it with love.
6. Learn to dance, celebrate, cheer at a sports game, worship/pray with your whole body, take a risk, do things you love by yourself, find uninhibited expression in some form to find your freedom.
7. How can you get to the place where 80% of your time is for work/obligation/responsibilities and 20% is focused on growth, goals, healing, and dreams?
8. And the one we all know and hate, we must exercise. You must release healthy chemicals back into your brain without a “substance” we must regain balance.

I had written about Scary Snake Swamp a few years ago when this area dried up for a few weeks. During that season it hit me how I was so scared of this area and was on guard because of all the snakes that bred there in 2020. I would see a snake on almost every run. Because of this reoccurring experience, do you know what happened? My brain started making every stick or root, small or large, into a snake. I was looking for snakes everywhere.

When we have gone through the fire of life and maybe even reoccurring situations and pain, our brain will only care about keeping us safe and as far away from that pain as possible. I recently read that “our brain doesn’t care about you being happy, it only cares about you being safe.”

So recognizing that my brain is only trying to keep me away from pain and suffering, helps me have a different perspective on how to interact with my thoughts, anxiety, and triggers.

It helps me see that my brain is going to try to keep me away from snakes even when they are NOT there. It might create things, exaggerate things, find things that look familiar and it is my job to recognize my brain is just doing its work…survival.

It is my job to move myself to a higher level of thinking to get out of survival mode and begin to live in thriving mode. My intentional work can get me there, my brain never will on its own.

My dears, this is what I want for you, today identify the snakes that you have allowed to multiply for too long, and begin to drain the swamp. Change the environment so the snakes must die.

The world needs your best, we need your highest most thriving mind, we need you to shine.