Mindful Monday: The Powerful Mind

Mindful Mondays - ideas inspired by spiritual learnings and personal reflections. 

 

Nothing kills you faster than your own mind.

Don't stress over things that are out of your control.

Because you will sit there and replay every. conversation, every decision, every moment you can't go back and change.

And none of it will fix anything.

The only thing it will do is steal the time you have right now.

The situation is what it is.

The only thing still in your hands is how you carry it from here.  

- The Fallen Poet

The human mind is incredibly powerful.  It controls your thoughts, emotions and psychological responses, directly shaping how you perceive and interact with the world, and ultimately how you feel within yourself. 

The brain continuously changes, reorganises and forms new neural pathways in response to experiences, learnings and behaviours.  Your mind interprets reality and dictates your responses.  You can consciously direct your focus and energy to help overcome obstacles and experiences.  

 

Directing and Focusing the Mind

The mind has immense capacity, and directing the mind positively or negatively can significantly alter your life's trajectory.  The challenge however, is that sometimes you might be aware that your mind is in a negative space, and you want to shift the energy into a positive space.  This is an extremely dominant position - being present and in the moment about where your mind currently is. Despite being aware and in control of you mind, you may also find that it is extremely difficult to redirect you mind, focus and energy. 

Of course this position is completely okay to be in, as sometimes it's not so simple, and you feel helpless, because at a given moment our mind might be in such a dominant place, that no matter what you do, nothing works. 

 

Mindfulness to help your mind

Here are a few suggestions I would like to share with you, which are independently my own that I practise to help myself at times when I feel low.

These help me to take my mind off things, encourage a positive mindset, and create some ease when I'm feeling that my mind is overwhelmed or negative. 

Praying or meditating

If you follow a faith, you may find it spiritually healing to pray and spend time alone with God.  In other cases, taking time to yourself, emptying your mind and disconnecting from your thoughts can feel comforting. 

 

Going for a walk

I find this to be very therapeutic. Taking an 'in the moment' walk in nature is powerful.  Its like charging your phone, where you are charging yourself. Being out in nature is healing - step out and try it! 

 

Talk to someone

Talking to a family member or a friend that you trust. Offloading your feelings is important, but not to just any friend or family, but to someone that you trust will listen and help you see things in a different light, and encourage you to a positive space. 

 

Change the scene

Changing the scene for that moment to distract you for a while as that change of scenery can sometimes ease the mind.  This can sometimes be tricky, but if you you can take control of your physical self and remove yourself from a place to do something spontaneously different, for example watching something light-hearted, or doing that task that you've been putting off for so long. 

 

Reflection

Reflecting on something positive, a blessing that you didn't anticipate, or an achievement in life.  For example, bring yourself back to a different moment in your life where you might have been going through some hardship, and then seeing where you are now in comparison to that time to see how far you have come. 

 

Of course, these thoughts and suggestions are my own.  We are all different and we navigate through life in different ways.  I am passionate about sharing ideas and conversations around mindfulness with our community.  I want to encourage us all to approach life with a positive mindset.  

 

I will leave you with another poem from The Fallen Poet:

The greatest skill you can learn is to stay in a good mood,
when there are a hundred reasons not to.

Because anyone can be at peace when life is easy.

The real work is choosing your state of mind 
when everything around you is giving you permission to fall apart.

 

 

Positive vibes from Waqaas :)