Sometimes truth is deceptively simple, but before you discount its power to help you, one must consider that the only responses to life’s challenges that any of us ride are those we think can carry us to safety. Leaping onto the back of these reactions, according to our old habits, is like entering a runaway carriage being pulled along by runaway thoughts and pounding feelings. It is not necessary to continue being defeated by our own mechanical responses. We can learn to recognize a dark-horse reaction before we are carried away by it. We already know what many of these runaway reactions are, and so the battle is half won.

Fear is dark. Anger is dark. So is anxiety, dread, self-pity, and feeling the whole weight on the world upon our shoulders. Add to this list the dark horses of hatred, revenge, insistence on being right, impatience, and depression and you have most of those negative states which, if not outright trampling us under their heartless hooves, are certainly sources of unconscious torment.  It is as simple as recognizing the wrong horse hurts because its real purpose is to tab you on a punishing, pounding ride. You can be sure you have taken the wrong horse and carriage whenever your inner state makes you feel any of the following:

1. Like you have lost control.
2. Frightened by what you see.
3. Get angry with yourself or another.
4. Confused or anxious about where you are you going.
5. Feel pain in your present position.
6. You feel hatred or resentment for someone else.
7. Feel sorry you were ever born.
8. Feel envious of anyone.
9. Get desperate for a solution.
10. Feel certain that nothing else counts besides fixing how you feel.

You will be amazed to know that in spite of these rides that wreck everything from our health to our relationships, we still take them. Surely, if we were aware of what we were doing, nothing on earth could convince us to hop on what is hurting us. So, let’s see what's happening to cause us to continue making the painful mistake. An event occurs. We are not sure how to react so we naturally look for help. We know that before we release ourselves into the hands of any automatically appearing rescuing agent we must first take it into the light in order to see who sent it. This royal power to discern dark horses from right ones is already yours, but to wield it, there is a key, a secret step that must be taken. Momentarily anchoring ourselves in the fully present moment, we bring our own thoughts and feelings into the light of consciousness to see them for what they are. In that moment, it is not so much going with what feels right as it is basing your choice in seeing what is truly for you; it’s knowing without thinking about it that no negative state wants what is right for you.