Your mental afflictions, more commonly known as your personality, want to keep you small, petty and useless.

Each time a negative mental state descends upon you, its sole mission is to destroy you. Each one is a demon, bent on destruction. Each one is a disease of the mind. Each one must be fought off the same way you would fight off a disease of the body.

When you get sick, you marshal all of your resources, turn to face the enemy and fire away. You throw everything you've got, doctors, pills, chemo, acupuncture, positive visualizations, aromatherapy, you name it. Why not deploy a parallel arsenal for the demons in your mind?

When a demon of irritation lands on the green field of our mind, why do we just sit there, letting the demon fatten himself on our goodness, growing stronger with every bite, from irritation, to anger, to rage, to... We would never accept a physical illness so passively.

Worse, we encourage the demon, allowing friends to egg us on ("Yeah, he really is a jerk. I can't believe you allow him to talk to you that way...aren't you MAD?") and permitting ourselves to recall the injustice in ever more vibrant and graphic detail: the condescending tone of his voice, the malevolent look on his face, the curve of his sneer.

When you are sick, do you strip naked, pour water on yourself and step into a meat-locker for an hour? Do you walk around a hospital and actively breath in every tuberculosis case you can find, thinking "Let's get SICKER!!!!! YEAH!!! As sick as I can get, this is so great!"

When any state of mind approaches that imperils your joy, turn on it immediately and go to war. Such a state of mind is not your friend, it isn't the 'real you', it isn't showing you how things 'really are'. It is your sworn enemy. It is a demon, intent on destroying you.

Deploy your angelic troops of generosity, morality, patience, compassion and kindness. Win the battle.

Turn yourself into the Buddha.

Slaying the demons everyday,
Kelly