Ever felt like stuck like a beetle on its back? #mindful solutions

Ever felt like a beetle on its back?

As I walked into the porch this afternoon, I saw a beetle struggling madly on its back, lying on the plastic cover of a letter that had dropped through the post box.

It made me think of times I had felt like that. The harder I had tried to sort something out the less effective my efforts where.

It can be like that with our afflictive thoughts and emotions which flip us on our back. We try to solve them with rational critical thinking, thinking that will flip us the right way – but like the beetle we remain stuck.

It is when we stop the ruminative struggling (like leg waving in a beetle) and step out of rational critical thinking (what psychologists call the doing mental gear) and step into the being mental gear that we can begin to right ourselves again. We do this by coming to our senses and anchoring ourselves in our breath, or in a body scan, or mindful walking (mindful awareness practices).

It really does flip us back to being the right way up, even though it feels counter-intuitive. Give these mindful awareness practices a go, and let go of the mad leg wiggling of rational critical thinking.

By the way I did rescue the beetle. I am sure it waved a thank you.