Excerpt... Change Your Story, Change Your Brain

by Dr. Linda Miles

“The Three Questions” is among the many fables and myths of the world which seek to convey to us human wisdom and truths while embellishing them pleasingly as evocative stories. At the simplest level, as Mark Goddard has pointed out in an essay, “a myth is an attempt to make sense of things.” Globally renowed Swiss psychologist Carl Jung was quotes to have ntoed how much pain humans can astonishingly endure—and we only stop enduring, he observed, when we feel that the suffering lacks purpose or meaning.

Humans are always seeking meaning, consciously or subconsciously. That meaning, it seems, is ultimately interrelated with joy. When he was asked what was one of the most important lines that has been repeated throughout world mythology, famous educator and writer Joseph Campbell responded: “Follow your bliss.”

Bliss is defined by most dictionaries as “a state of complete happiness” and “utter joy and contentment.” Bliss can only be found once we let go of the clutter and the noise that blocks out our kind and compassionate inner voice. Mindfulness is the key to helping us attain bliss, as the practice of mindfulness does just that: it blocks out the negativity, teaching us to let it go. Mindfulness allows us to identify toxic thoughts that we may wield against ourselves, thoughts which sabotage our peaece and joy. After identifying such negative thoughts, we can restructure and redirect them, replacing them instead with non-judgemental and kinder thoughts of appreciation and forgiveness.