Start With the Mind

What we feel, do, and ultimately become is derived from what we choose to think about. The conscious direction and control of our powers of intelligence is the largest factor in determining events in our lives. Therefore, it is of vital importance that we learn to discipline our minds if we want any sort of control over what happens to us and those we care about. Most people have absolutely horrible mental habits and very little discipline. Our minds jump from one thing to another like a drunken monkey, or a flying monkey with a limp on its way to La-La-Land. Most of us have very short attention spans and do not concentrate or focus on things for very long periods of time. I've heard it said that we generally only use one-third of our brains at one time (although I've also heard it disputed a lot based on how you define use of the brain). Whether this is accurate or not, it is certainly true that we don't use our brains very constructively or efficiently when we are using them. A lot of energy and time is wasted thinking about things of little or no relevance, or even dwelling on negative and destructive thoughts. Now that the culture we live in is so automated and the messages that we receive are quick, bright, and flashy, and since we have such easy ways to store and access information, we don't bother to concentrate very hard on things or memorize large amounts of information anymore. I believe that mental health in general has decreased significantly in recent years and is getting progressively worse.

What's on your mind?

Training and Disciplining the Mind

We are capable of far more that we think we are. Or, perhaps it would be better to say that we are only capable of what we think we are. But whichever the case, we both need to extend our belief in ourselves and improve our mental discipline in order to reach our potential. "How is this to be done?" one may ask. A second might answer, "Practice! Exercise! Proper nutrition! How else?" And, at least as far as I can tell with all of my expert opinions, he would be quite right. How can one expect to improve their efficiency and strength without consistent practice and exercise? And for that matter, how can they be expected to even be vaguely healthy and survive without proper nutrition? Eh? Eh? In order for the mind to improve, we must feed it well and make regular good use of it. We need to challenge it to stretch it. There are a few different methods for doing this.

The first and most natural ways are to ask one's self challenging questions; to apply the mind to solving specific problems. Reading and deep study are excellent ways of feeding the mind. Memorization is essentially mental weight-lifting. Deep pondering and meditation improves mental skill, endurance, and efficiency. Our imaginations are quite possibly the most powerful tools we have. Albert Einstein said that more important than knowledge is imagination. The ability to create inside our mind is what precludes and allows us to reach new heights; to progress and grow. Before we do anything beyond pure natural instinct and habit, and whenever we are in a new situation and must respond in a new way, we automatically imagine possible courses of action and outcomes before we take physical action.

Once we learn to consciously control the imagination, we have not only unlocked the possibility of imagined events actually occurring, but have created a powerful way of motivating ourselves to achieve them. Imagination is also the link between the conscious and subconscious mind. Considering that 83% of our mind is subconscious, it's pretty useful to learn how to use it to achieve specific goals. The subconscious mind works largely through images and symbols. This is why part of developing good habits involves consciously visualizing our goals. When we see a desired outcome in our mind's eye, it impacts the subconscious mind so that it begins working toward that goal, especially with consistent repetition.

The Mind Refined

Largely lost from standard Western tradition and ways of thinking is the practice of meditation. We have kind of a stereotypical view of a fat Buddha sitting around all day in a lotus position with shut eyes and a foolish grin. But this is not a practice just for certain religious groups, or even psychics, magicians, and hypnotists. It's quite true that a lot of people make very strange, even fanatical claims connected with these and other similar exercises, and I certainly don't agree with or feel comfortable with many of them. But the essentials make perfect sense and have in recent years been studied closely and embraced by scientists, especially those in medical, psychological, and therapeutic fields.

The brain generates different electromagnetic waves for different levels of consciousness. The state we spend most of our waking hours in is called the beta level, when we are fully conscious. When we sleep, we are generally in theta or delta. During several minutes after waking, and prior to falling asleep, we are in the alpha state. While we are in this state, we experience something called the "relaxation response" during which we receive several health benefits. We can induce this state by simply finding somewhere quiet, comfortable, and free of distraction, taking some good, deep breaths, and relaxing. As long as we focus our thoughts on one thing, we will not fall asleep.

Standard suggested practice seems to be spending about 45 minutes per day in this state (often broken up into three 15-minute segments throughout the day). For some people, this is a totally new and strange thing because they have not spent much of their time in this state. Many others, however, do spend a lot of time in this state without realizing it, and practicing meditation comes quite easily and naturally. These are generally more creative people who often daydream, or think in bed at night.

The exercise of meditation is is an excellent way of clearing, organizing and focusing thoughts, strengthening the mind, motivating one's self, changing habits, accelerating healing, beating stress, improving creativity, and increasing the sense of peace and joy in one's life. All this is because the mind stops performing unnecessary tasks and places all of its energy into a much more focused area — it is the most efficient state of mind we can be in, and it is also when we are most receptive to creative ideas and spiritual inspiration. It is often used along with visualization (imagining images) and positive affirmations (thinking or saying simple positive phrases and statements) in order to program attitudes and habits.

When practiced regularly, the cumulative effect it has on the subconscious mind is quite profound. It is also interesting to note that after practicing it for a while, you begin to also experience these benefits while in the fully-conscious beta state of mind. Your mind begins working far more efficiently, you are more focused on your goals, and you feel more consistently tranquil, happy, energetic and healthy. And on the other side of the coin, you can develop control of your dreams and use your sleeping hours constructively; solving specific problems and being creative. (Your brain already does considerable amounts of problem-solving when you are asleep, but by increasing the control you have over your mind, you can control which problems it works on, and be better able to remember the solutions when you wake up. However, it is not good to try to control all dreams. At least half of time spent asleep should be left to automatic processes, as the subconscious mind often knows better what we really need than the conscious.)

Faith and Belief

This is where it becomes too difficult to separate religion from science, so I'm not going to bother trying. I apologize to any religiophobes out there, but you've just got to face your fears sometime. One very interesting phenomenon that skeptics tend to be very skeptical about (as is their general practice), but that has all sorts of historical and statistical backing, and really nothing substantial against it, is that our minds seem to be magnetic. That is to say, we tend to attract things and events that we think about, believe or expect.

The fact that skeptics don't believe this is the perfect example. Since they don't believe they are personally responsible for their own happiness, that they don't have control over things or events in their lives, they lose all control over their own happiness and lives. Pessimists only accomplish a miserably mediocre existence consisting of sitting around complaining about everything, and not actually trying to do anything about the problems since they don't believe they can make a difference and therefore have no feeling of hope for change, which means they have nothing to motivate them to action.

Pessimists might argue that the reason they are skeptical is because bad things happen to them, and the reason optimists are optimists is because good things happen to them (inverting my argument by saying the cause is external rather than internal). The problem with this argument is that optimists were optimistic before the good outcomes were achieved, rather than after. It doesn't take much looking to find that optimists, although they experience their fair share of opposition and hardships, also accomplish much more and tend to get the things they want far more often. And when they don't, they don't worry about it more than they need to, so they are still happy people.

A classic example of this concept is what is often referred to as faith-healing. People believe that God will heal them, and they are healed. It happens all the time, although there are a lot of people who put on fake faith-healing performances. Whether you believe in God or some sort of divine intelligence or power or not, the overwhelming amount of evidence suggests that it actually works. You're perfectly free to believe that it's purely the power of the human mind that does it, or that it is God acting in response to the faith that we exercise in our mental exertion. I personally believe a bit of both. I think we each have infinite potential, and a spark of divinity deep down inside, since I believe that we are the sons and daughters of God; but that we, as flawed and imperfect mortals, cannot achieve that potential without His help (which I refer to as grace).

One reason that I believe this (on an intellectual level) is because faith-healings (and other faith-based pursuits) don't always work. I think that's because in that instance it must have been against God's will. God seems to have a lot of plans that we, with our weak human intellects, just can't understand. His plans involve death, not just life. We also, with our weak and wimpy wills, can't change His divine drive. What God wants to happen is far more likely to happen than what we want. So, I imagine, the trick to being happy is probably to seek to align your will with God's. Just avoid the conflict altogether. You're probably not going to win if you're up against God.

An interesting thing I've observed in my own life is that the more time and effort I give to prayer, meditation, and feeding my mind with wholesome, worthwhile material, the more my will has become aligned with God's. I am disappointed far less often because I exercise more faith in what God wants to happen, rather than in things that conflict with His will. My mind is becoming more like His (although, quite admittedly, I've still got a huge distance to go). The more that happens, the more capable I am of causing good to happen, and the more He seems to support my efforts.

Faith and Works (or Taking Action)

The next step, of course, is taking action. Although this is incredibly obvious and easy to understand, it's also the part that most people have the hardest time with. Much easier said than done. It just doesn't do much good to sit around daydreaming all day. A certain portion of each day should be devoted to deep thought, but the majority of our time should be spent in action, trying to achieve the things we've been thinking about. Believing that things will work out the way you want them is only half the battle. As James said in the Bible, "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works."

Faith, as I define it, is on the basic level a principle of action. It is the sum of hope, belief, and action. It is not merely believing in something (James goes on to say "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble," to contrast faith and mere belief.). To take a step of faith is to act with hope on the belief. The second level of faith is a principle of power, and goes along with my understanding of the religious concept of grace (essentially that through mental exertion we can qualify ourselves for help from God to accomplish things beyond our own abilities). Unfortunately, that full meaning of the word has been largely lost in recent times due to some Christian religionists who seek to excuse their personal responsibility by teaching that Christ will save people in their sins, rather than from them; that all they have to do is believe in Him; that actually following His teachings and example is unnecessary. I apologize if you're someone who believes this, but it's just not logical.

Not only is it unsound to try to cause good things to happen just by thinking about them, it's also unhealthy. In order to live very long and feel well, we need to do our best to live balanced lives. We need to balance between physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual exercises and activities. If, for example, we were to spend all of our time thinking, we wouldn't rest, eat or exercise our bodies, and we would quickly deteriorate and die. Not too pleasant a prospect. If, on the other hand, we spent all of our time eating and running around all over the place without thinking, we'd probably either explode (messy!) or fall off of something tall (or run into something sharp or flammable) and die. I bet there would be a lot more disease, too. And fewer squirrels. It would be like a bad comedy. Or a good tragedy.

If we don't spend adequate time socializing, we probably won't ever reproduce, and if the majority of people stopped reproducing, our population would die out. This is why texting, telephones, Facebook and too much entertainment are threats to humanity. I'm sorry, but It's just impossible to reproduce without the proper amount of physical sociality. Virtual friendships just don't do the trick. If we don't try to control our emotions, well, chances are we just won't be too happy. Etc. Etc. You get what I'm trying to say, right? If you want to live and be happy at the same time, you've got to try to spend significant amounts of time and effort in each area. This theoretically shouldn't be a big problem, since they are all so closely connected, and most activities require the use of multiple areas.

So, just what am I getting at with all this impassioned blabbering on the obvious? I'll tell you: get to work! Do something! Especially if it's useful and high-priority.

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