Swine Flu. Really? I now have to be afraid of a pig disease? I thought it was EATING pig that would kill me first.
So, my reactions to this latest fright fest are twofold: my intellectual brain feels scornful of the media hype and nonchalant about any real threat faced by me here in Massachusetts. However, what I find far more interesting upon self-study is that my reptilian brain does feel a tinge of fear. I catch myself running a split second scenario through my head where my child or spouse is stricken my a health emergency and the ER docs are caught scratching their heads. If only they had known about XYZ Syndrome! This is the sort of awful fodder that makes talk shows and magazines successful. The media has become adept at surfacing our nearly unconscious thoughts, and most of the time, we have not even noticed it happened. In these cases, swadhyaya (self-study) can be a powerful tool. Just noticing -without judging- how I show up in life and react gives me insight into my deeply held beliefs and thoughts. In my case, fear can creep in faster than you can say Tamaflu.
The question is, does it matter if I am a little freaked out by what I hear on the news? Over the long term, mental health can either contribute or detract from our physical health. So, yes, it is important to become conscious about choosing a healthier mindset. We need to count the cost of habitually negative thoughts. In this case, a swine or bird flu pandemic provides the excuse to take notice of how easily I can get swept up in a cycle of fear, which pumps nasty stress hormones through my body. Our thoughts move much like water – deliberately seeking the path of least resistance. Like rivulets in the soil that get deeper all the time, thought patterns form grooves in the brain. So, even if my intellectual brain diverts from the path of fear and attempts a rational reaction, my habit of fear has formed a pronounced pattern, which ends up being the road more traveled.
While it not impossible to re-pattern our thoughts and swap unhealthy ones for good ones, it is not easy. We are trying to turn the river that has been a lifetime forming. The best way to use self-study is as a sturdy oar. If you see the rocks in front of you on that river, steer hard around them with all your might.
