Day 46 - Mindset - Setting up your Mind

 We've all heard about the Law of Attraction - I believe it because I consciously use it and see it in action, it doesn't matter whether anyone else believes it.

 My 10 year old daughter loves to write. I can barely drag her away from writing to get her to do the schoolwork assigned by her online teacher. She has over 21,000 likes on a story she wrote a month ago. For her, the acceptance by others proves that she is indeed a good writer. The fact that she made the effort and took the plunge to put her story out there was the action required to attract the desired result. A 10 year old does not have to believe in the Law of Attraction to make it work. The mind is already working to create the things you think about - whether you like it or not. What a 10 year old doesn't have to contend with as much as adults is negative self-talk, the complaining and focus on what is lacking. 

 The mind, like the body, is an expression of You. You are not your mind or your body - these expressions of You are instruments you use to navigate in this world. They are the most important tools that you hone and utilize to Be here. Once that is understood, you can then apply them as they are intended, with intent! The fact that most people under-utilize their brains is well known, we're like zombies stumbling around controlled by our thoughts and emotions.

 A conscious effort to hear your own thoughts without attaching yourself to their meaning requires control. This is why many ancient cultures used mantras to focus the mind and calm the body. The problem for most people is that this conscious effort seems difficult because it's just too easy - it can't be that easy or we'd all be doing it - we all are already doing it, unconsciously! Our minds try to convince us that we need to work hard, strain our brains, stress ourselves like we tell ourselves we have to do when we're trying to figure out complex math equations...  but, notice that when you are seriously trying to figure out a math equation or something, you aren't actually using words or even numbers (in your head) to calculate the problem - there is a silence, yet a focus and quiet attention towards the problem as you are figuring it out. The same relaxed effort can be applied to whatever it is you do.

 If you allow the mind to run rampant because you aren't focused on anything, it will still run and take you with it. The body will just follow along and do whatever the mind says. Meditation is a practice that helps us understand the difference between unmanaged thoughts and the silence that surrounds them. And the first lesson in meditation is to allow those unmanaged thoughts to come and go without emotionally attaching ourselves to them. Whole melodramas are created when people have a thought, emotionally attach to it and then act out on it - How many times have you thought something, got all upset and then lashed out at someone only to realize that you had thought wrong? It happens all the time, except we also do it to ourselves, we believe the thoughts we have about ourselves and so create lives that are not really what we want.

 Our suppressed emotions are also like master-manipulators because they too need attention without attachment - we should treat those like babies who haven't yet learned how to express themselves accurately. Be gentle and just be there for them. The anger, resentment, sadness, melancholy, frustration etc... needs to be acknowledged and felt wherever it shows up in the body - usually in the heart or gut. Sometimes, when I allow my negative emotions the space they need, they tingle all the way down my arms or legs. Emotions don't require reasons in order to be valid - unfortunately, our minds are very good at grabbing hold of emotions and sticking labels on them, so then we go around describing ourselves with them and making excuses to justify their existence. Notice how positive emotions don't have the same stigma. We have no problem feeling joy!

 You are your own worst critic, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! Allow yourself the space and grace, that's all it is. Setting up the mind to work for you instead of against you is the biggest gift you can give yourself. The biggest lie we tell ourselves - 'if it wasn't for ____________ (situation) or __________ (people), my life would be better.'

The truth is, those blanks ^ should be filled with 'unmanaged thoughts' and 'suppressed emotions'.

 

 

 

 



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