Are you living inside your head?

Living too much in my head wasn’t serving me. Back in 2016, I realized there must be a better, more authentic way to understand reality than through the constant chatter of my mind. I longed for a deeper connection – with myself, the world, and something greater. I asked God, the Universe, the Holy Spirit, to transform my perspective.

And transform it did…but that’s a story for another day!

Today, I invite you to consider: Are you still living inside your head? Is there an alternative way of living? Might it be time to pack your bags and relocate?

Your head will always be there. Our minds, with all their amazing capabilities, are vital tools. Yet, when we draw our identity and our truth entirely from the thoughts swirling within, it’s dangerous. This is what I mean by living inside your head.

Experience has taught me that, at best, living in my head is like living in a house of cards. No matter how grand or stable the structure seems, one wrong move, one unexpected breeze, and it all comes crashing down. The mind spins narratives about reality and our experiences, and they’re so tempting to buy into…until they turn out to be unreliable or flat-out false.

At its worst, living in my head is like being trapped in a prison cell, complete with a torture chamber. Anxiety, pain, and fear unleash their wrath on me, their unwilling captive.

You’ve been there too. In life, love, career – we often fall for stories and ideas that eventually let us down. It’s the mind’s default mode: judgment, analysis, opinions on everything. The trouble is, this pulls us from the Truth of the present moment, from the joy of being alive, and locks us in a prison of fear or delusion.

The only antidote I’ve found to avoid the mind’s tempting traps is to choose to simply live. I choose the present moment, not the confines of my head. Not some hypothetical future or romanticized past. Just this moment – the only moment there is.

With every invitation, however alluring, or every threat, however dire, to take up residence in my head, I politely decline. I prefer living here in the present, because this is where it’s all happening, where life unfolds. This is where Grace is. This is where God is. Where Love resides – not in my head, but here.

Or as my 10-year-old put it so wisely, “Dad, would you rather be happy or smart?”

The smart choice is actually the happy choice.

May this New Year, 2024, bring you blessings and the happiness that comes with choosing presence.