How To Master Your Mind

“We must deliver ourselves with the help of our minds. For one who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends. But for the one who has failed to do so, the mind will remain the greatest enemy.”

-The Bhagavad Gita

In India, they often compare the mind to an elephant. They say that an untrained elephant can destroy a whole village in the same way that an untrained mind can destroy an entire human being’s life and everybody that’s connected to it.

In the same way that a trained elephant can build a village, a trained mind can do the work of a thousand men or women.

Many people have walked this path where they’ve showed us that when you master your mind and you move through life with nobility, grace and a compassionate heart, you have the potential to affect millions of people for generations to come – just look at Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa and the list goes on.

So within you, within me, we have this potential. We have this seed.

We get to choose. Is our mind going to be our best friend or is our mind going to be our worst enemy? Is it going to help us and serve us or is it going to bring us down and diminish our power and maybe even destroy us?

We can use our mind as a powerful tool to our advantage, but we have to know how it works first.

Did you know that by the age of 35, 95% of who we are is run by the unconscious mind? What this alludes to, is that you’re only 5% in control of this instrument, of this mind, and that 95% of how your mind is being governed and run is completely out of your control.

Your present reality has everything to do with your thoughts. It all starts with your thoughts. The thoughts are the catalyst for that whole chain of events, thoughts to feelings, feelings to mood, mood to attitude, attitude to a state of being, state of being to a personality, and your personality which is 95% unconscious, is what’s creating your reality.

If you’re in a reality where you’re not happy with your career, relationships, health, spirituality, or personal development, chances are it’s because the 95% of your mind that is unconscious is negative. And this is coming from past patterns triggered by negative thoughts – it’s all coming from your past.

This is the sad truth that many of us are living in. We’re in this perpetual loop where our past becomes our future. We’re unhappy in the past, and we’re unhappy in the future because everything is cyclical in nature.

If I want to improve my reality, what do I do? You have to master your mind and build new patterns. Below are the four steps that can help you do this:

Just be aware. Many people aren’t even aware that they have thoughts moving through their mind. They become overly identified with these thoughts, they don’t know that there’s a part of them that’s beyond that. The simple act of just being aware as much as you can throughout your day of what your thought process is, what thoughts are moving through your mind, what patterns of thought you have, can we a very simple but powerful first step.
Meditate. Meditate every day even if for five minutes at a time. This helps train your mind to become more aware and fully present and recognize that you are more than your thoughts. Even on the busiest days, this has to be a part of your daily regimen and a non-negotiable in your life, if you want to master your life.
Visualize what you want at the beginning of each day. A lot of great athletes use this visualization technique. They’re using mental rehearsing as a way to fire circuits inside the brain to creative positive patterns. Mentally rehearse inside your mind excelling and being brilliant at whatever it is that you have planned for the day.
Any time you have a negative thought, add a positive thought. This doesn’t mean denying what you really feel. In particular, if you’re moving through something really challenging in your life, of course, you need to grieve. Say yes to what you’re feeling but then make sure to add in a positive thought like gratitude, forgiveness, love, connection or courage. Remember, mastering your mind is about mastering the loop of thinking and creating positive patterns.

Below are some recommended practices to help you this life-long journey of mastering your mind:

https://www.innerdimensiontv.com/classes/finding-inner-space-with-dana/

https://www.innerdimensiontv.com/classes/intention-with-travis/

https://www.innerdimensiontv.com/classes/mental-noting-meditation/

*Summarized from The Be Ultimate Podcast with Travis Eliot