Everyday Practices
Why Our Minds Do What They Do
For Understanding the Stone Age Mind in a Modern World
US$6 4 practices · 7 tracks · listen or download
Get the pack · US$6Our minds can seem to go looking for trouble. One critical comment sticks, while ten kind ones slide straight off. A small disagreement with a friend turns into hours of worry. It’s easy to think there’s something wrong with us.
There isn’t. For most of human history, the brain’s first job was to keep us alive, and it still scans for danger the way it did in the Stone Age. As Dr Russ Harris puts it, the mind is trying to keep us safe, and to keep us from discomfort. When we understand that, we can stop blaming ourselves for what it does.
That understanding is where these tracks start. Once we know why the mind does what it does, it gets easier to look at our thoughts instead of from them, and to hold the mind with a bit more kindness.
There are four tracks here: two short talks, a letter to the mind, and a longer practice that pictures your awareness as a blank canvas. Three of them come in a shorter version too, for when you only have a few minutes.
What’s inside
The Stone Age Mind
2 versions
Full version · 8 minShorter version · 4 min
For understanding why the mind is always on the lookout. Our Stone Age ancestors survived by spotting danger, and being cut off from the tribe meant death. Our minds still run on that safety-first setting. You hear how this leads to worry and avoidance, and how awareness helps you step out of the cycle with a simple ‘Thank you, mind, for trying to keep me safe.’ The shorter version keeps the Stone Age story and the compassion, without the examples or the part on awareness.
Key Insights From Never Mind Your Mind
6 min
For a short overview of how the mind works. I take you through four ideas. The brain evolved for survival, not happiness. The mind has two goals, safety and comfort. There’s the negativity bias, where one criticism outweighs ten compliments. And there’s the compassion that comes from understanding all this. It finishes with something you might try saying: ‘Thank you mind, for trying to keep me safe. I know you’re just doing your job.’
A Letter to My Mind
2 versions
Full version · 4 minMicro version · 2 min
A letter to your mind, written in a café. It thanks the mind for the helpful thoughts that come with planning and creating, and is honest that it isn’t always a friend. It talks about looking at thoughts more often, instead of from them, and choosing a kinder relationship with the mind even when it’s unfair. It ends grateful even for the unhelpful thoughts, as ‘an excellent reference point’ to choose from. The micro version keeps the opening and the part about looking at thoughts, then goes to the sign-off.
The Blank Canvas
2 versions
Full version · 11 minWithout the letter · 8 min
For when you feel covered in your own thoughts and feelings. Every experience is a pot of paint, from the flutter in your stomach to the stream of thoughts in your head. An artist paints them onto a vast blank canvas, and the colours fade like chalk in the rain. The canvas is your awareness, and underneath all the paint it stays untouched. Then a letter to your mind, and the affirmation ‘I am the canvas, unshaken, serene.’ The shorter version leaves out the letter.