A New Kind of Partnership

Because May is mental health awareness month, I feel that it is essential to share this poem about the overthinking mind with you. My poem, A New Kind of Partnership, speaks to the importance of building and strengthening a new and healthier relationship with your mind. It has been proven that a trained mind can quiet an overthinking mind. 

 

 It greets me first every morning  

And also tucks me into bed 

It’s my constant companion 

The voice within my head 

 

I set every intention to lose it  

To give it wings—to set it free 

Yet it always chooses to stay 

And to inhabit ALL of me  

 

My overthinking mind is very much like yours 

I’m at its beck and call 

It orders, commands, and loves to take charge 

It’s not a program I would ever choose to install 

 

But evolution deemed this necessary  

To help me to survive  

Yet my wants are so much greater 

So now I’m choosing also to thrive  

 

I’ve had enough of my unhealthy stories 

I’ve had enough of “mind-made” me 

There is a greater vision  

That my future self can see  

 

Beyond the overthinking 

And all of my false truths 

Beyond the limiting beliefs 

That still remain with me from my youth  

 

Yes, I’ve suffered because I’ve been bullied 

Yet it is I who am to blame 

It is my self-created “stories of struggle” 

That constrict me time and again  

 

By the way, this realization  

Took years to unfold 

And I can promise you, without question 

That it is worth its weight in gold 

 

There is nothing more valuable 

Than a peaceful mind and an open heart 

Mind training is immeasurable 

And it’s the only place to start 

 

But it has to become a daily practice 

To rewrite your script and to rewire 

For you are teaching your miraculous brain 

A completely new way to fire  

 

Remember, you’ve been using specific words 

Thinking specific thoughts, and behaving one way 

You’ve developed habits, good and bad 

That you’ve been living and supporting each day 

 

It’s the inner work that will lead you  

To overall ease and well-being 

There is nothing more transformative 

And ultimately freeing  

 

Than rewriting your most important stories 

And creating new versions of self 

And learning just how to prioritize  

Your state of mental health  

 

I’ve stopped needing to fix every part of me 

And everything I deem wrong in another 

I spend less time wanting for life to be different 

And so I’m a much better person and mother 

 

And so whatever life may throw my way 

I now have a tremendous toolkit with a golden key 

One that I can choose to open  

As needed—just for me 

 

So yes, it still greets me first every morning,  

And also tucks me into bed 

It remains my constant companion 

But it’s a new and improved voice within my head  

 

Because I have learned how to manage it 

And I continue to train it well  

My mind and I have developed a new partnership 

With a new and enriched life story to tell  

 

You too, can learn how to do this 

Your trained mind can be at your beck and call 

It will be kinder, gentler, and more mindful 

A program you would gladly choose to install! 

 

We have a duty to evolve the brain  

And a very real obligation 

To change collective consciousness 

For every future generation  

 

Essential? Absolutely 

Possible and doable? Oh yes 

The alternative…it’s not pretty 

Underlying unhappiness and chronic stress  

 

So let’s make this happen—  

One person at a time 

The responsibility needs to be shared 

For it is both yours and mine 

 

Sincerely, 

Terri Klein 

Author, Speaker, Coach 

 www.newlife-chapterone.com