A discussion with my 12-year son, while driving back from his school, about food, play, and learning turned a little philosophical. 🙂 This blog is inspired by that conversation.
You are not your mind. You may have heard yourself saying, my mind…my brain… Similarly, we also say my body…This implies that my mind and body are mine. Then the question arises who am I? Honestly, I’m yet to find out.
Nevertheless, one concept is straightforward: You own your mind, not the other way around. This implies that our mind should be in our control and do what we want it to do. But don’t you think we are somehow always finding ourselves doing or at least thinking that our mind drives us? I have felt this way almost always…until I realized there is a way out of it.
Many brilliant brains from different walks of life have put being conscious to own our mind as a fundamental to living a joyful and successful life by reaching our true potential. However, not many people realize the true potential of becoming conscious and taking control of their minds.
The key to owning your mind is to do what is right and needed to be done — conscious choices not compulsive. Most of our everyday behavior is a reaction, not a response to life situations. Most of our decisions and what we do is compulsive, not conscious. For example, we talked about my son’s compulsive nature to order more than he can eat at a restaurant that serves good seafood even when he knows that it would be difficult to finish the entire plate. Similarly, did it ever happen to you that you went to buy a piece of apparel and because there was a good discount on the next purchase, you bought the second one as well, even though you did not need it? It happens to all of us. Our mind wants us to walk the least difficult path.
We need to become conscious of what we need and what is right for us and then challenge the mind to do the right things. Our mind will always trigger us to follow the easy way out but consciously challenging it repeatedly will condition it for a NEWER YOU.
The key to training the mind is to set challenging yet realizable goals. For example, my son and I talked about his need to start practicing running to become fit. Like many other kids, he doesn’t like it at all. My advice, start with a minute and challenge yourself to do an extra five seconds. The mind will somehow want you to break down at one minute mark but those five seconds and an increase every time you increase the time will train the brain that he is not going to give up and demand more, so better get in sync and adapt to his new conscious self.
Another very important faculty of being human is creativity. All of what we have achieved as the human tribe is because of creative imagination and desire for the growth of oneself and humanity. We have heard that need is the basis of the invention. But look around you, do we need all the things being created now?
Human creativity and the power of imagination have helped us stretch the boundaries of our yearning — made possible by a positive and elevated mindset. We once thought of traveling from one place to another. The cartwheel was a huge invention and probably helped humanity leapfrog into a new era of mobility. We did not stop there. Now we wanted to move fast. We then decided to fly and now our desire to make space our second home. I do not doubt our capabilities and I’m sure that it will soon become common to travel to space.
This is the power of synergy created by a conscious, creative, and growth mindset. When this mindset combines with a planned action, it stretches human possibilities beyond imagination and not only prepares us for difficult life situations but has the potential to favorably change them.
It is never too late. Are you ready to take the first step in your journey of evolution?
