Greetings you fabulous reader!

Last night I woke up with a start.  It was about 2:30 in the morning and something woke me up.  At first I thought it was a raccoon outside our window.  The raccoons around here talk to each other in the wee hours of the morning.  Have you ever heard a raccoon talk?  Quite the trippy sound!  Anyway, as I lay in bed listening intently, there was no sound coming from outside.  Since I couldn’t quiet the pounding in my chest, I decided to get up and take a peek out the window.  Nope.  Nothin.  Not a raccoon to be heard.

As I was returning to bed, I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  Crap!  The boogey monster is back.  I jumped into bed really fast…cuz if I am gonna face the boogey monster, I want to have my blankets and pillow to protect me! I could have woken  my fella, but me and the boogie monster have a secret relationship.  No one ever sees it…but me!  So, I sat up in bed with the blanket up to my chin and my pillow in my lap…ready for action!  I tried to will the darkness to part so I could see this sneaky little beast.  Another something out of the corner of my eye.  Dastardly thing!  As soon as I turned my head…it was gone.

Slippery little sucker!

After a handful of moments passed, I became aware that my heart was racing and was about to leap out of my chest….hmmmmmm…best settle my little self down.  So I did what all respectable grown ups do when confronted with the dastardly boogey monster….I burrowed down into the bed and put the blankets over my head…oh, and my pillow was placed over that…just in case!  I guess the boogey monster can’t get past blankets and pillows!  Soon my heart settled down, and the boogey monster was fooled once again and went off to where boogey monsters hang out…and I fell back asleep.

Upon waking up this morning, I noticed that I was draggin a bit.  Tired from the all the outsmarting of that monster.  I lay there thinking about this monster.  Where does it go to in the light of day?  What does it transform into?  Fear of bankruptcy?  Uh…yep!  Fear of my IC coming back again and slamming me down to the ground? Uh…yep!  Fear of my son being hit by a car and laying dead on the side of the road in Arizona?  Uh…yep!

This is a sneaky monster.  In the night I can see it out of the corner of my eye.  In the day, it lurks around the corners of my consciousness.

We all have our own unique version of the boogey monster.

What’s your?

When does yours show up?

What I have noticed with myself and folks that I work with, is that when energetic reserves are lowered…the boogie monster comes out.  When people have been under stress, when folks are feeling ill for too many days in a row, when sadness has lasted too long, when anger has lasted too long…the boogie monster starts to feed.  And feed. And feed.  The more it eats, the more “real” it seems.  The other tricky thing is that the boogey monster needs to be “right” to seem “real.”  So, when reserves are low, it starts to gather evidence of it’s “rightness” to exist.

So…what the hell do we do about this?

Well, the first thing–and this is always the first thing–the first thing is to notice.

The second thing is to follow the thought.  What is the boogey monster telling you?  That you are a loser?  That you are fat?  That you are unworthy?  That you are unloveable?  That you will wind up on the streets living in a box?  That you will loose everything?  What?  What is it telling you?

After you have heard the main thought…then challenge the thinking.

Here is the line of questioning:

Is that true?

Can I absolutely know that it is true?

How do I react when I think that thought?

Who/what would I be without that thought?

*this tool comes from Byran Katie: The Work

What this line of questioning does is it allows you to look the boogie monster right in the eye!  Once you look that sneeky little sucker in the eye…it begins to transform.  In fact the minute you notice what it is saying…it begins to change form.  The minute you look it in the eye…you begin to see that it doesn’t have sharp pointy teeth and vicious mean eyes…in fact, it is missing most of its teeth and it looks sorta sad.  Like maybe it needs a comfy blanket and pillow!  Oh, and maybe even a cookie!

The other important piece of challenging the thinking is that you are showing yourself that these are just thoughts. They are no more true-er than anything else.  Remember that a belief…is just a habit of thought.  That’s it.  Think something long enough, you will find proof that it is true.  Once that happens, you got yourself a good ol belief.

So, the next time the boogey monster shows up in your dreams, or in your daytime thoughts instead of covering your head with a blanket (although that does work, at least for a little while), look those dastardly thoughts in the eye and if you feel inspired offer them a blanket, a pillow…and maybe even a cookie!

Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies are my boogie monsters fav~