The Maps That Guide Us
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This was an incredible discovery when I first came upon this truth and it is great analogy of how the human mind works.
I think the difficulties most people have are those inner conflicts within their own minds. Worry, fear, anger, loneliness are just a few of the negative emotions that results from the many inner conflicts that people in general struggle and learn to cope with.
Typically we all grew up believing that we are the sum total of the influences we grew up with. These influences effect us deeply about what we believe about ourselves and how we see ourselves. But, this is where I begin to leave conventional thinking which tells us that we are powerless against the perfectible hand writing on the walls of our lives and the resulting emotional havoc.
The best way to explain this is by using an analogy of a map of a city. We know that maps develop over time as a city begins to grow. As they continue to develop over time they can become quite detailed and complicated. Today we have Google Maps, MapQuest as well as the GPS systems in our cars and mobile devices. Like I said, in today's world Maps have become quite detailed, giving you directions of every turn of every street as well as the houses and business on those streets.
What does this have to do with your head?
Think about it, from the moment you were born you began to make associations to the world around you. You were like a giant sponge absorbing massive amounts of information. Information you would later use like a road map to the world around you. Association were made about the every experience including the taste of warm milk running down your cheek. Later you made associations with what it met to you, feelings of security, certainty perhaps? In the end, you made an association regarding the name of what you were experiencing "Milk"!
It's amazing when you think about the wealth of information that you as an individual have absorbed over time. Just yesterday as I started the car I noticed a certain sound coming from the engine and as I listened carefully I instantly knew that it was the water-pump bearing. After a while I asked myself, how I knew that? I really couldn't point to a specific time or experience that I "learned" that that particular sound meant the water-pump would be going out, but one thing was for certain, I was sure of it!
Somewhere along life's journey I had experienced that sound and made an association with the word "water-pump". I marveled at the complexity of the mind and thought to myself how many terabytes of information must me unknowingly stored upon the maps of our mind.
Now, let me get back to the Maps we use to get around our city streets and what it has to do with my topic here. Most maps will somewhere have a written across the top what the map represents i.e. The City of Denver or the City of Amsterdam. The important fact that I want to point out here is that even though it says the name of the city across the top, it does not mean that it is actually the city that the map is representing. It is only the work of a Cartographer who spent considerable research to put the information together. Now if I were to start thinking that this indeed was "a city" it would be long before you started calling me crazy! The fact is that it is ONLY A REPRESENTATION of that city and is only to be used as a reference point for guiding oneself to a destination. The map does not represent the value or worth of the city and to do so would constituent someone strongly delusional.
In the same way, for you or I to draw all of our conclusions from the maps in our head regarding our worth and value is just as ludicrous. Now the point is that you are NOT the map, it too is only a representation of many experiences and associations.
It was never meant to be this way
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Again, where does the map in our head come from? They come from our outside experiences. It is these experiences that we draw our conclusions, beliefs and judgements from. In other words we end up living from the outside in. This is why when our outside world deteriorates and difficulties side swipe us we emotionally fall apart. Remember, your own personal map was only meant as a guidance mechanism, it does not represent your identity or value. Your map is just that, a map! It is easy to fall into the delusion that it is the real us. It is apparent that intuitively we know this to be true. Why? Because we are self-aware and know that when we are worrying or fearful. I have watched people change in an instant their emotional state just by who walks into a room where they are at. In other words, we can "choose" to rely on the map in our head that is telling us "we are doomed and there is no way out" or step back as it were and take another perspective.
This is how our world has "learned" to live and most will fight the idea that we are separate from our thoughts and are more powerful then we realize. So how was it meant to be you might be asking? We were created first and foremost to live life out of fact that we are products of an infinite God who loves us. That in itself gives us value and worth. God's intention was that we live from the inside out, not from the dictates of a changing and unstable world. Your identity goes beyond the house you live in, the clothes you wear or the children you have. Your identity is not the outcome of anything from those things the majority draw their conclusions from. You are infinitely more powerful then you realize and greater then any circumstance you may face.
The problem is that we have lived this way throughout our entire lifetime and as a result it has become our "normal". We simply don't know any other way to live then to live by the dictates of the maps that are based upon the world around us. Now don't get me wrong all maps have value and have there use but they are not to be mistaken to be the real you.
er. Now if I .
Pin ItIn the Far East, there is a tree called the Chinese bamboo tree. This remarkable tree is different from most trees in that it doesn't grow in the usual fashion. While most trees grow steadily over a period of years, the Chinese bamboo tree doesn't break through the ground for the first four years.
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