The Red Ball Analogy
The Red Ball Analogy
It's as if you are holding a red ball in your hand for too long and too tightly. Your hand, and then your arm, start to ache. If you let your body do what is natural, it will open your hand and drop the ball. To let it go, you don't need to know what colour the ball is or what type of ball it is. You notice that your hand is sore from clenching it tightly for too long and you drop it.
In this same way, our system lets us know when we are holding onto thinking for too long or when we are away from being present for too long. There's a tension feeling that eventually grows and grows and becomes anxiety (or panic), if held too long. Over time, this becomes postural tension held in the body.
In our analogy of holding tightly onto a ball, we don't need to know what we are holding. The ache in the fingers of our clenched fist tells us, "I've been holding something tight for too long. I need to drop it."
Our noticing negative feeling or overthinking tension is the exact same signal. We notice it.
We have been holding onto thought for too long. We've been present with our thinking for too long and need to come back to the present moment.
The noticing is your system dropping it. All in one.
Our sense of feeling tension or anxiety lags for a few minutes, in the same way opening your hand and dropping something doesn't immediately dispel the ache.
It takes a few minutes. There's a shift and then a dissolving.
Because of this delay, we often pick up our thinking again or start a new overthinking. "Oh no, I still feel tense and anxious. I must have to do something!"
I know! I'll trace my thought back to its origin and then aim to convince myself it's not true. Or do a technique to try to get myself to forget I ever had that thought, or I'll reframe it or focus on it so much that it intensifies.
In none of these scenarios are you free from the thinking. You've gone farther in.
It's as if you are holding the red ball and rolling it around and poking at it. Perhaps analyzing its makeup and structure. Perhaps trying to figure out where you first picked it up and what it might mean about you. Or who gave it to you.
You're still holding the ball.
Experiment with noticing when you notice. There's no problem in noticing you are lost in thought or spiralling in negative emotion a hundred times a day. The key is you noticed. In the noticing, you are automatically present.
Being present is our default. We are literally the intelligence of the Universe in squishy body human form. That energetic intelligence cannot be anything but fully present all the time. We as full humans - squishy body + divine intelligence - have the freedom and gift of creating with Thought. And dropping it. And re-creating. And re-dropping.
You don't need to do anything. Doing something will only take you farther away from the present. Which isn't actually a problem because your system will cause you to notice eventually.
Notice and get on with your day. Enjoy the present moment.
Reply here and let me know what you notice.
With Love,
Sara Joy