Managing Your Mind

Our minds, if left to their own devices, will cause us to live unhappy, unfulfilling lives. This is because they've been conditioned over the years to accept certain beliefs that limit our spiritual growth - things like "not changing is safe", "don't take risks", and "being sure is better than going into the unknown".

This is probably due to our primal instinct for survival. Certainly for a Neanderthal scampering among prehistoric flesh-eating giants, it's probably smarter not to take a different route back to your cave every day. But in today's context, where our daily preoccupation is not hunting for food and avoiding being food, we need more intellectual stimulation to keep our minds and spirits in optimum condition. When we "play it safe" or get into comfortable routines, we grow dull and listless.

The mind is like a child. Its intelligence will always include some primal remnants that equate change to death, discomfort to death, and discipline to death. It must be trained and given guidance by a loving but firm spirit in order to fulfill its true purpose.

For our greater good, we have to let the spirit control the mind. Every week, try adopting one life-enhancing practice consistently. You'll find that when the spirit takes control in these instances that the mind will protest - it will try to persuade you that it's too difficult, that it's better to have things status quo, that you need your fixes to soothe the frustrations of life.

Try out these exercises to train your spirit to control your mind for greater self-enhancement.

1. Take on a small project that requires some level of discipline that you would normally not bring to the table. Complete the project successfully.

2. Eliminate a counter-productive habit that you are addicted to, such as drinking coffee, hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock, not drinking sufficient quantities of water, etc.

3. Read about the true nature of addiction and discover your own and how it is ruining your life then decide, fully aware of the consequences, if you will continue done that path and every time you indulge remind yourself of the consequences you are choosing.

4. Observe other people living chaotic, problematic lives and then own up to where you are also doing the same thing.