The Storm Was Never Outside

Audio file on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5jF9QISR8d4

I posted this a few days ago. I’ve used it in classes more times than I can count. It went like this

stress and anxiety are conditions of the mind, not the world around you
and once you recognize that truth
something shifts
you can’t go back to the old story
you can’t pretend you didn’t see it
and in that space between what was
and what is now understood
clarity begins to rise on its own

I figured I’d take it a little deeper.
Not academically.
Not clinically.
Just… honestly.

For most of my life I blamed the outside world.
The job.
The noise.
The people who seemed to wake up each day with a mission to test my patience.
I thought if the environment calmed down then I could finally breathe.

But the older I get the more I see the crack in that logic.
Because every time the environment changed
the stress didn’t leave.
It just packed a small overnight bag and followed me to the next situation.

That’s when Jung wandered into the room.
Not literally.
He’s been dead a while.
But his ideas are still floating around out there
and one of them finally landed.

The mind creates half the storm
and then blames the sky for bad weather.

That hit me.
Mostly because it was true.
And partly because it explained why nothing on the outside ever seemed to fix anything on the inside.

Once you see that
you can’t unsee it.
It’s like noticing the magician’s trick and then wondering how you ever fell for it in the first place.

Awareness doesn’t magically make you peaceful.
It just takes the drama out of it.
You stop shouting at the world for problems the mind created.
You stop fighting with shadows you thought were monsters.
You stop expecting life to behave so you can feel better.

It’s not calm that follows.
It’s something quieter.
A kind of steadiness.
A sense that you’re finally meeting life without the usual filters and stories layered on top.

Jung called it making the unconscious conscious.
I call it finally being honest with yourself.
Same thing
different century.

And the surprising part
once you drop the old story
you breathe a little easier
not because life changed
but because the weight of pretending got lighter.

Clarity shows up on its own.
Not as a revelation
just as space
as breath
as the absence of all the noise you didn’t realize you were carrying.

So yeah
stress and anxiety are conditions of the mind
but that’s not a judgment
it’s freedom

because if the mind is where it starts
the mind is also where it shifts

Always remember to JUST BREATHE.

The Unscripted Mind.

If this landed, share it.
Let it spark a question in someone else.

Just Breathe, The Unscripted Mind website.