Day 9: Runaway Train Brain & The FourSquare Blessing

Two of the three persons in my household got up this morning having had no sleep. I don’t mean sleep lite either, I mean, none. Both of them had to go to work today.

One of them was troubled by dreams. It happens. The other’s runaway train brain ruled the roost right before bed and, by following her own train of thought, she concluded her way into the utter collapse of healthcare—where she earns her livelihood. Ouch.

In an article in this morning’s Times about the Bronx dry cleaner that has served Broadway since 1908, Ernest Winzer, the owner was quoted as saying that things were “definitely uncertain.”

Now there’s an oxymoron.

I got a call yesterday from a client in Kenya. It took us an hour to sort out what were facts from what we didn’t know. She is on the precipice of making a decision to book a flight and leave, but she has no guarantee that she’ll be allowed into Canada when she arrives. Definitely uncertain.

Lately, I’ve found that the list of persons for whom I have been asked to pray is growing exponentially. Fortunately for me, I have had a long-term relationship with Divinity so I can use a little shorthand to express what’s needed.

I call it FourSquare Blessing.

It’s predicated on the notion that human beings are fourfold creatures. In more than 35 years of doing well over 13,000 sessions with people, I’ve found that the best way to divide the human pie is in quarters.

The four divisions, although we’re really not divisible at all, are Body, Heart, Mind, and Spirit.

I’ve listed them here in order of energetic density. Think of their elemental correspondents.

Body is Earth.
Heart is Water.

Mind is Air.
Spirit is Fire.

I view the quadrinity as a square like the graphic at the top of this page.

Body sits along the left side of the square.
Heart across the top.
Mind along the right side of the square.
Spirit across the bottom.

Let’s go back to my housemate’s unhelpful train of thought, shall we?

It will not surprise you to be reminded that trains run on tracks. Tracks go to particular places. If you don’t want to go to whichever place that track takes you, you have to switch trains. We put our bodies on trains to go from one place to another all the time.

But the trains of our thought can be far more insidious than the ones that transport our bodies.

There’s a reason, in my FourSquare Blessing, that Body and Mind hold the vertical positions. Verticals, energetically, are about resistance.

Bodies resist gravity in order to move.
Minds resist momentum in order to change.

My housemate’s brain/mind got on a train of thought that defeated her body utterly.

The horizontals hold the answer to how to move and change with definite uncertainty.

Horizontals, energetically, are about flow.

Hearts flow into authenticity.
Spirits flow into inspiration.

We in the West are taught that Bodies and Minds are the be-all and end-all of reality. We’re told we need to control our bodies and our minds, to conform, so that we can live in a civilized world. Hearts and Spirits are often left out in the cold, the poor second cousins once-removed to Bodies, sure, but more especially to Minds.

On the personal front, we cannot minimize the trains of thought our Minds take us on, but we can work with them.

Laura Heywood, broadwaygirlnyc, wrote on Instagram this morning, “How can I use what is in my control to combat what is out of my control?” That is my mantra going into the second week of the #broadwayshutdown.” That’s one very useful way to address what’s definitely uncertain.

Our minds cannot control what is happening right now because of what Paul Krugman named in this morning’s Times, quite accurately I thought, as the Trump Pandemic. It is his minimizing of the virus and its effects that we are suffering now.

Minimizing and deflecting have been the tools of the U. S. government for several years now. It’s what they do when they don’t want us to pay attention to their missteps. Both tactics, taken to their worst extremes, can be the tools of abusers. Just sayin’.

Our Minds are meant to be on our side. First, let’s remember that we’re in charge of only ten percent of our brains. The other ninety percent is doing things that I want nothing to do with, thank you very much. I haven’t a clue how to grow eyelashes, or make bone marrow, or heal diseases, do you?

Second, let’s attempt to get off the train of thought that’s tormenting us. This doesn’t mean we ignore what’s happening. It doesn’t mean we minimize it. It doesn’t mean we deflect our attention from it by arguing about semantics.

It means we recognize where the train is going, and we pull the brake on it.

Then, in the split second that you’ve stopped your train, you switch sides of the FourSquare Blessing, and look at the world through the eyes of your heart. Or, you call in the archangels, if you will, and come to the world from the wisdom of your spirit.

The train of thought that is hurting you, Beloved, is hurting you because of our collective addiction to time and to control. We have one thought and we extrapolate it into the future, and defeat ourselves before we’ve even started. What a silliness.

When we know, we all know, the truth and wisdom in the title of the late Ram Dass’ seminal work, Be Here Now. There’s some definite certainty in three words. Be here now. Where are you, Beloved? Here. Now.

Swap the words. Now. Here. Now put them together. When you’re not here now, you’re nowhere. No mistakes, speaking of linguistic calisthenics, not to mention semantics.

It’s the moments, always the moments, that make us spike with joy, tear up, feel touched, keep going.

When she’s really crazy stressed out, my housemate’s arm acts as an emotional barometer, and swells. Long story, but this morning, when she was telling me about her runaway train brain, I listened, and then said, “Yeah? But look at your arm.” It wasn’t swollen. “Take that as a sign, sweetie,” I added.

A moment. That’s all. She teared up. I teared up. We parted a little lighter than we’d started.

I wish you and each of yours a FourSquare Blessing today and every day.

Dr. Susan Corso is a metaphysician and medical intuitive with a private counseling practice for more than 35 years. She has written too many books to list here. Her website is www.susancorso.com