“Do you believe in ghosts?”, he asked.
“Yes, not the one they show in movies, but the ones inside us”, she replied.
Inner ghosts or demons are the ones which look silent & harmless, but in a split second, can come out and wreak havoc-both for others and for our own mental peace.
And why am I talking about this now.
Because recently I discovered I had one. And it was frightening.
You think you are the best person in terms of thoughts and actions, be it progressive, woke, politically sound, etc. But the moment it comes out, our whole life’s character arc is questioned.
Was he/she a good person all these years or acted like one? Did I spend countless hours with a person who had such a cheap mentality?
And it makes us doubt ourselves too. How did this ghost come inside us in the first place? Was it by our surroundings, by the society, by the media or the people whom we interacted with in our lives? How!? Ultimately, it’s ourselves to blame for getting these thoughts in the first place.
Whatever the answer is, it doesn’t matter anymore. The moment we discover we have one, the next step is to address it. I frankly don’t know how, but a conscious effort is needed to overcome these kind of thoughts/words from our inner self, be it voluntarily or involuntary.
The content we consume on social media is one of the chief architects of a venomous mind. All the digital minimalism stuff at the helm, the most clever thing is to consume content which you feel is good for you and totally avoid content which feeds our negative thoughts. Are we mature enough to identify the good and the bad ones? That’s upto ourselves to figure out.
But Charles Bukowski once said: “Don’t fight your demons. Your demons are here to teach you lessons.” Lessons that are learnt the hard way I guess. I read somewhere that we don’t need to act on these irrational thoughts – keep telling ourselves that it’s your stupid inner chimp, the limbic part of your brain. That old part of your mind that isn’t rational.
This one truth can quieten those inner demons a little and help you cope when they’re screaming the loudest, until you find a way to get rid off.
Magizhchi.
ganthegr8 