It’s all in your head

One of the best feelings ever is waking up from a nightmare and realizing that it was all fake. So many times I have had dreams where I have been through something bad and though that my life is ruined. But then as soon as I wake up, the feeling of relief during the first few moments is something else.

We don’t find it hard to believe that our mind makes up all these stories when we are sleeping. We acknowledge it’s all just a dream and move on. What many of us don’t consider is that often, our mind is making up stories when we are awake as well. And just like in a dream, we assume all of these stories are real, and that is a cause of a lot of stress.

Say your friend was supposed to call you at a certain time about something important, but they didn’t. As you waited for the call, your mind would come up with all sorts of explanations as to why your friend didn’t call. And since you are beginning to get annoyed at the situation, you are bound to pick up the negative explanations.

“They would just have forgotten about the call, as they don’t care about me at all”, you would think. You would then come up with examples from the past to support this thought. As time passes you would grow angrier and angrier.

Then suddenly you receive a call, and your friend apologizes and tells you that they couldn’t call as they got stuck in a work meeting. You would feel that same relief again. You are out of the dream, and you realize that it was all in your head.