Can you tell the difference between thoughts and reality?

First, a story. 

Long time ago, circa 1999, way out in the woods somewhere in the Wisconsin wilderness. 

I was attending an environmentalist protest gathering with my girlfriend Janie. 

The event was mostly just a glorified camp out for weirdos who wanted to protest against destroying the wilderness, cutting down national forests, and urban sprawl, among other things. 

We had great food, long, tedious meetings, and beautiful campfires and acoustic music all night. 

At some point, a couple feminists were complaining that I was being too pushy, as I was asking everyone at one of the meetings to speak up and share their point of view. 

Some overly sensitive of the bunch took offense to that, and said I was being a male chauvinist and trying to control people. 

Keep in mind this was a few years before I found the Radical Undoing training. 

So I did the absolutely wrong thing to do, which was to defend myself against their inane accusations. 

This of course fed the fire, and really made me look pushy, as I was upset and trying to convince them I wasn’t being pushy by insisting that I wasn’t. 

Then, I got it into my head that Janie was hanging out with my accusers, and that she agreed with them and wanted to break up with me because of it. 

So I got all needy and desperate, pulled her aside for a long walk and talk, and proceeded to defend myself more, even though she hadn’t actually accused me of anything or acted weird. 

I was the one acting weird. 

Upon witnessing my desperate pleas, she got frustrated and upset, and I got more needy and desperate. 

This went on for awhile, and got worse and worse, until I fell into a ditch full of poison ivy. 

(I didn’t know it was poison ivy until two days later, when a horrible itchy rash emerged on almost every square inch of my body.)

After that, I spent the rest of the weekend crying and complaining to any friends who would listen, and didn’t see Janie at all. 

We met up back at home a week later, and stayed together for awhile longer, but the damage had been done, and the relationship eventually unraveled. 

The question here is: can you tell the difference between what’s in your head and what’s really going on?

Obviously I couldn’t tell the difference way back then with Janie. 

I was unaware the thoughts and emotions I experienced had nothing to do with the reality of the situation. 

Had I known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have even tried to defend myself. 

I would have mostly ignored the claims and avoided those people.

And I would’ve spent the weekend at peace with Janie and just laughed off the accusations, knowing they had nothing to do with me. 

I wouldn’t have completely pushed her away with my desperation and fears and begging to be understood. 

I would have noticed the thoughts and emotions swirling around, and not reacted to them at all. 

Instead, I’d have remained aware of my body, kept myself aware of the observer (what I’ve also called the “Celebrationist” or the “inner spy”) and just carried on doing whatever I wanted to do. 

Long story a bit shorter: when you don’t know the difference between the contents of your mind and emotions versus what’s really going on around you, you’ll inevitably create problems for yourself. 

And the only way out of those fake problems will be to become aware and present, instead of lost in mind/emotions and overreactions. 

The Eyes and Face Radical Undoing exercises and sessions taught me how to tell the difference, and how to stop overreacting to things. 

What I didn’t have back then when I started doing the training was the secret key to accelerate the process and smooth everything out in record time. 

That secret key is the Silent Presence exercise I’ve included in the training, with instructions on how to combine it with your Undoing exercises. 

If you’re ready to start seeing reality more clearly, and stop messing up your life with overreactions, you just might get there by diving into the training yourself. 

Here’s how you do it:

https://summerland.acadle.com

(Go to that page, select the button to get access to the academy, and follow the instructions from there. If you’re having trouble, I made a quick vid to show exactly how to get access.)

You’ve got until Friday, July 14, 2023 to get the training for half-off. At the point, the rate doubles up to the normal rate.

Tomorrow, I’ll post a video of everything included in the course, plus everything else I’ll be adding to it over time.

You also get a full private session with me, which is unavailable except as part of larger trainings or very expensive monthly training options.

Anyway, that’s all for today. 

Enjoy,

-Garrett