The Sandbox of My Mind…
Regardless of what activity we may be involved with at any given time, there is a piece of us that drifts back and forth between our conscious existence and the mysterious realm of the subconscious. It is there grinding away at varying speeds, doing what it does, day and night, whether we realize it or not. We spend most of our waking hours and some of our sleeping time (dreams) noodling around in the sandbox of our mind.
The sandbox of our mind helps keep most of us reasonably sane and able to function in the reality of a world turned upside down by natural disasters, greedy politicians, idiotic bureaucrats, militant religious nuts intent on self-destruction, sports heroes on steroids, and entertainment superstars whacked out on drugs and booze. In the sandbox we are safe. There we can do and think whatever and be whoever we wish at the moment. There we can play games, make plans, have secret loves, you name it.
Much of what happens there is different from the reality outside the sandbox. Some of what happens there becomes reality. Our individual codes of conduct (moral, ethical, legal) balanced by our individual priorities (needs, wants, desires) determine what stays in the sandbox and what emerges to become a component of reality. The ability to maintain that balance determines in large part our sanity and functioning as members of our culture and society.
Next…what determines our ability to maintain that balance? Genetics? Vitamin E? Regular flossing? Comment with your ideas…
3 Comments so far
It has been well proven that REM sleep (the dream state) is vital for mental and physical health for humans. Before I started using my CPAP (the machine used by persons with sleep apnea), I was able to manipulate my dreams to a large degree which led to some interesting dreams that Freud and perhaps Pavlov would have loved hearing about.
Using the CPAP, I am at last sleeping deep enough that I cannot manipulate my dreams. It has been interesting to evaluate those dreams and comparing them to ones I had before. The dreams I have now are very bizarre with seemingly unrelated bits and pieces. Such as a flower pot that was everywhere I went in my dream, even the beach.
So was my time spent manipulating my dreams me in my sandbox (which is not to be confused with litter box)?? Or is my mind now in its own sandbox??
Sometimes I wonder how much control we really have of daydreams. Often times I find myself doing one task physically but doing something completely different mentally.
There is a state in which the artist disappears and is nothing but the creative process. No thoughts exist outside of that. It can last a brief moment or it can last much longer. I experienced it as a potter and now again as a writer. Ram Dass refers to it as the ‘Be Here Now’. The here and now is all that exists. To be present in our thoughts and actions is the goal of enlightenment.
So where does the sandbox fall? Is it the here and now or is it some other plane of existance?
Well, it’s a sure bet the “greedy politicians, idiotic bureaucrats, militant religious nuts intent on self-destruction, sports heroes on steroids, and entertainment superstars whacked out on drugs and booze” aren’t keeping anything in the sandbox. Must be they don’t floss regularly.
But even those of us who do lead imperfect lives and sometimes it’s hard to know whether to follow our dreams or maintain the status quo. Inevitably, we make some mistakes, hurt the ones we love - and other times we don’t.
Although I am far from advocating the unleashing of every “need, want and desire” circulating through the sandbox, no one, in old age, ever regretted what they did in life - only the things they didn’t do.
I honestly tried in vain to answer this and two weeks later am still working on an answer.
Absolutely no idea!