Thoughts and Communication

What’s on your mind? What are you afraid to say?

Those two questions drive me to distraction sometimes. My mind is a twisted, fucked up, dark little thing, and I don’t always want to share its activities with the real world. Also, it takes running leaps of logic and word association that anyone, myself included, would be hard-pressed to follow when it really gets going. Sometimes I explain these out loud, because just saying what I’m thinking the moment they ask, would make absolutely no sense. I backtrack to what they said and give them the line of bounces along the way until they asked the question.

You said teddy bears are cute… I went to teddy bears, teddy ruxpin, talking dolls, chucky, nightmares, fear play, scary movies. So, you were talking about teddy bears, and I’m thinking about Saw. Makes sense, right? Oh, that’s not what you wanted? Sorry. Brain went for a run.

Another blogger friend talked about sexual desires and feeling embarrassed to express them. I have blogged about that at various points over the last few years, but that’s especially one of those times I don’t want to share what’s on my mind. Then I get mad at myself for being shy, meanwhile my brain keeps running further, and I get more and more embarrassed and if anything comes across my vocal cords it’s mumbled, quiet and fast. Those closest to me, who actually want to hear these thoughts can get quite frustrated by my hesitance at speaking them, others find sadistic joy in forcing me to slow down and speak them louder.

I am also quiet a sarcastic person, so I may not want to share my thought because it could come across as rude, mean, or at the very least, smart-assed. Most people have a vision of me as a quiet, polite young woman. Other people actually hear the comments that come out of my mouth. I’ve been called a brat, but I prefer to think of myself as a SAM. I make smart-assed comments, I don’t play the “you can’t get/top/hurt me” games.

One of my biggest communication hurdles is asking for things I want and/or need. Especially, if it is something I feel like I’m not going to get. Whether that’s because I can’t have it right then, or I don’t know how I could get it, or I don’t think the person wants to give it. If I think the answer will be no, or not now, I wait. I wait until I think the answer will be yes, or until I have a plan for how/when/where to offer. Or, if I’ve already been asked and been denied. I will rarely ask again, unless it seems the answer might have changed. And even then it is hard for me to ask, because I feel like I might be pushing, and if the answer really has changed, maybe I should just wait for them to offer it.

And this is exactly how I over-think things. So many things. Fear of rejection has me second guessing every need, want and desire before I speak them. Often even before I label them. Is it REALLY a need? Is it Really even a want? Or is it just a desire? Am I being selfish? Or is it reasonable? And on and on.

Thus, the learning of meditation. To calm the constantly running brain. To let go of the clutter and the double-speak. To just find calm, where rational thought and communication become much clearer. But I’ve had to pull this meditation out of my BDSM practices. There was too much else going on with it for me to really clear my mind and find calm. I had to pull it out of those things to just focus on me, and finding my center and my calm. Because it is from that space that I can go forth and do everything I want to do.