The Blue Ridge Mountains and Endless Possibilities

I once took a motorcycle ride through the Blue Ridge Mountains and into Tennessee. The scenery was amazing. At points over 5,000 feet above sea level the view reminded me of many aspects about life. Life and Its complexity, of course was one thought, while its beauty was another and how often we take things for granted. My thoughts furthered to wonder in a direction of the endless possibilities prompted by the amazing view, unchartered waters sort of speak, and how much about the world we live in I really know nothing about. As humbling as it may sound, the view of the forest was so thick it made me think about endless possibilities in life. Thinking about the trees that are made up of every branch and the green mountains and dark blue sky contrast gave me a sense of peace. I thought that there has to be something governing our creation. The water below really appeared uninhibited. It all seemed to be virgin area to civilization. The beauty of the dark blue sky made it a site to remember as I thought this is great and it doesn’t get any better than this. And yes, I meditate and for me it was a spiritual moment as I knew in my heart that such beauty must be divine. My meditation was then broken as I saw what looked like power lines hovering threw this valley of paradise. It didn’t ruin my experience but it led my thoughts down another avenue. One thought that I had was how much we, meaning the human race, have affected nature. Even in such wilderness of the Blue Ridge Mountains we have managed to manipulate life. Although this was something that made me think that nothing is sacred I realized that it was symbolic of life. We are given endless possibilities and we then focus in on what we believe to be real. Even though the mountain ranges and valleys seem endless we carve out a piece of it to create our own niche or reality. The problem is that we forget about the rest of it and never open our minds to what is out there. To some degree it remains a mystery, the unknown, the feared domain and we shut down our minds discounting our own existence. This may all sound absurd until we realize how connected we really are to things. From every cell in our body to every atom in the universe we have a relationship with. Thought processes are relationships as we build our lives with the power of it all.

One may wonder what all this has to do with mental health. I see “life” as connections and these connections are formed to complete microscopic relationships. World views that make up this planet we call home provide has more energy than any power we can imagine. Develop your thoughts and you have created more possibilities for yourself. Distorted thoughts case wars while productive ones create happiness. If we look at life from such a perspective it is easy to adopt this concept of endless possibilities. Think for a moment about all the different kinds of life that make up the habitat of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Various species surviving or coexisting, and an ecosystem that is dependent each other, mimic the relationships of existence. If we can harness a fraction of this then we open up corners of our mind that we have never used before. Knowledge, ideas or concepts, are developed to include things about life that we never considered. Some of it remains a mystery but we become comfortable with that as we learn to live in the mystery. Isn’t that what mental health is about? We must learn to live with unknowns such as who we are, why we are here and where are we going. My practice is consistent with such theory and it is opening the door for patient’s to explore themselves as if they were viewing their own possibilities such as life in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

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