What we are not taught very well in school is to learn to understand our own mind.
Many parents/Adults don’t teach us to have confidence in individual thinking or going against the flow, instead we are taught to conform and to give up imagination and vision so that we will be accepted and be conformers blind to our own true capabilities.
They give us lots of thoughts to put in our minds and they encourage us to recall those thoughts at exam time, but they don’t tell us how to effectively use our minds in real life situations. Situations that happen outside of the protection of the classroom.
We need to understand that we can think many different things at once.
We can argue with ourselves.
We can debate like we are debating with lots of people.
We can come up with all sorts of thoughts and discussions about situations and in the end they all mean nothing.
Our mind listens to questions and then thinks about our opinions, our prejudices, our current mood, our fears, our likes and dislikes, and our feelings and judgements about the people involved and then tries to look at different angles to try to come up with an answer that will satisfy all of the above items.
When something comes up in your life your mind becomes very busy, although that may not be obvious to you.
In order to know “you” , you need to learn how you think, and discover why you think what you do.
For example a prejudice person may hate Chinese people.
But does that person know why they think like that. I have met many people who do not know why they have made certain judgments and claims about a person or people, or even why they think as they do about a situation.
There are the voters who accept the political party because their parents always voted for that political party.
They don’t even challenge their parents views, they just vote for the same political party their parents did.
Even if that political party changes policies, these people will unthinkingly vote for them “because they always have and their parents did”.
People, please understand that you are not your parents, so think for your own selves. And please don’t do as your parents did because they did it, do your own thing. Be yourself.
Many people have thoughts and accept those thoughts because at school we are told that everything we hear in our mind is ours. That is not exactly true. But if we try to go against common thinking we are then regarded as a nut by the “experts”.
Your thinking process is very complex. We all have many thoughts. Even when we sleep our mind is active.
To know our own mind we need to think about what we are thinking and to question our own thoughts, and final decisions etc.
If we train ourselves to listen to the conversations that we are having in our minds we can become familiar with what we are always thinking.
We can learn to recognise the negative comments and thoughts that come through – and if we do that then we will be able to stop them and refuse to accept their put downs and talk of constant defeat.
We can even give these “voices” names.
There is the voice of fear that is always trying to stop us succeeding.
The “voice of worry” tries to keep us anxious and frightened when there is nothing to be frightened of.
We need to learn to think about what it is that we are thinking.
And if it is negative and self defeating not to roll with it.
We need to learn to stop the negative flood of thoughts coming into our minds immediately.
We are supposed to be in control of our own mind.
It is the allowing and acceptance of the negative thoughts that allows them free roaming in our minds.
Part of the reasons that the Bible has it that we have strong strict rules in our lives is to stop negative thoughts gaining control of our life.
Another reason is that if we know the damage that a sin can do to our life then it is much easier to not even consider it when it comes to us as a temptation.
Knowledge is a wonderful thing and can be very healthy in our lives.
You can gain control of your mind.
Another point is that we can listen to our hearts.
Often when we follow our hearts wonders and miracles happen. We need to know the difference between what our mind (and it’s committee are saying) and the feelings coming from our spiritual heart.
An example is the man who wanted to travel by ship through pirate waters a hundred or so years ago.
He was warned by all that to go was foolishness and he would become a slave or he would die a horrible death when the pirates caught him.
His logical mind said, “No, don’t go. It is too dangerous.”
But his heart and intuition told him to take the chance because everything will be alright.
He wanted to pay a visit to loved ones that he had not seen in a long time, and due to his and their age he may not see again alive on earth. The final result was that he went and followed his heart and had a wonderful safe journey to see his relations. And much happiness was to be had by all on the journey. And he never saw one pirate at all.
When we have strong restrictions we will not be tempted to go do foolish things.
Strong values and strong boundaries protect us from accidentally harming ourselves by aimless thinking, and aimlessly following the crowds.
Please take the time to think about how you think. Consider your thoughts. Consider whether you entertain negative thoughts and scenes in your mind often.
Does the Voice of Fear control your thinking and what you do?
Does the Voice of Worry have lots of time in your mind?
Take control of your own life by taking control of your mind.
All the best from
James M Sandbrook.
5th of July, 2014.