Taking Charge of the Mind

We go through the day casually thinking about the past, imagining the future, dreaming up fantasies.  Sometimes we enjoy our thoughts and imagination and sometimes we may be frightened by it.  Where is all this happening? In our minds.  In this same mind we also create anxiety, depression, anger and other negative thoughts. But we never once stop and pay attention to the mind.  For most people their mind is filled with clutter of the past and anxiety about the future.

What we experience as our mind is just a heap of impressions that we gather from our five senses.  Whatever we see, hear, taste, touch always form impressions on our mind.  Most of what we think is the result of these impressions playing out on our psychological space. Most of the time, our experiences are colored by past impressions and therefore the current experience can be pleasant or unpleasant.

For example, looking at a flower can bring up past memories, let’s say of a visit to a local garden, or a bouquet seen at someone’s house.  But the flower itself has none of this memory.  It is always how we are experiencing the flower in the current moment.  If you just look at the flower without the past impressions, it is a totally different experience.  It stands out as alive, intense and exuberant. Hundreds of such impressions keep surfacing each time we hear, sense, see, taste or feel something.

Our unique individual make-up of how we think and feel makes us pleasant or unpleasant.  For many of us unpleasantness is a common way to experience our life.  If we observe nature, we find that there is no unpleasantness anywhere.  Nature is just alive and intense. We forget that we are also an integral part of nature. The unpleasantness comes from the kind of impressions we have gathered and how we are experiencing the current situation.

Our reaction of irritation, anger agitation, tension, fear, anxiety toward the current situations are all different types of unpleasantness. If we feel these negative emotions many times during the day, that means that we are not managing our mind.  If we are not able to manage our minds on a moment-to-moment basis and are in a state of reaction, then our past impressions have a hold on how we are experiencing the present situation.  Therefore, in many ways only the past is repeating itself.  If you keenly observe you will see that you have the same type of reactions to certain people or situations and that is due to the past impressions playing themselves out as reactions.  When we react we have regrets, feelings of guilt and remorse.

This begs the question – can we get out of this reactive mode? Can we be aware of these impressions and distance ourselves from them and experience the present moment for what it is.  The answer is a big “YES”.  But we have to be willing to observe our mind and reactions, which in that reactive  moment can be quite difficult.  The solution to this is daily meditation.

Meditation is the doorway to the Present Moment.  Just a few minutes of meditation can calm the mind and bring more awareness to our thoughts and emotions.  As you become more meditative, you will become the boss and your mind will become the servant and that is how it should always be. If you don’t know how to keep the mind under control, it will put you through all kinds of endless suffering. If you allow the mind to rule, it is a terrible master. But as a servant, the mind is wonderful – it is a miraculous servant.

Take charge of your mind in just 7 minutes with the Miracle Of Mind App- available for download.  Watch this video to learn more.