Tag Archives: use your mind

22

Let Go Of Everything

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 Let YOUR Attachments GO!

Buddhism contends that all suffering comes from clinging to a specific outcome or experience that leads to problems. We use our minds to create scenarios and methods, which is fine unless you have one particular scene in mind and something different happens. No matter how positive the outcome, it causes us to suffer because it isn’t how we imagined it. Today avoid clinging tightly to situations we are going to experience, possessions we have accumulated, or any outcomes we encounter.

Enjoy the Day

The present moment always has the potential for enjoyment and peace. But too often, we look at a moment and lament the missing things. It is too human to look at something great and complain about missing things. Big days, weddings, graduations, or other milestone moments have this potential. If you build them up so big in your mind, you become attached to this perfect image. One slight variance will cause pain because our attachment is being destroyed.

Let the situation be; the present moment is what it is. There may be rain on your wedding day. Your choice is to embrace it or reject it. To deny reality is delusional, and experiencing pain when happiness is correct is also unsound. Each day has the same challenge rolled up in it. Be angry and upset about what is not happening, or be happy and grateful for what is happening. Let go of the attachment you have built up in your mind.

Things are Things

People make a lot of money to create brainwashing advertisements that make you feel bad about yourself, so you will seek solace in purchasing a product you don’t need. Our attachment builds that we need things to be popular, happy, and essential. Things are just things, and they do not lead to long-lasting happiness. Our attachment to accumulating possessions to build up our feelings of self-worth is one of the main culprits of suffering because buying something to make you feel good about yourself is an unsound equation.

Buying things is not bad; it is the attachment to them and what they mean to your self-esteem that is unhealthy. Your worth is based on what is inside you, never what is outside. Look for your honesty, integrity, kindness, generosity, and love carried around on the inside, and that is where your worth comes from. Stop being manipulated into thinking a new car, house, or bike will solve all your problems. Building attachments to things outside of yourself cause pain and suffering because they are never enough in the end. Let go of the idea that things are what life is all about. Life is about experiences.

Be Open to How Things Work Out

All things in life are going to move down a path. We set intentions for what we want to accomplish, experience, and do. Then we become attached to the method to achieve these things. Even though we may need to learn something to become what we want or have other experiences to make us successful at what we want to be. We often get in our way because we can’t imagine making something we want to come into reality. That causes suffering. But the world has been working just fine for thousands and thousands of years. Life will put you where you need to go.

Then, the choice is to let go of your attachments to the method and achieve the goal. Take action in front of you today and enjoy doing it. Each yard you move down the field will lead to a touchdown, but enjoy the trip and do the work you need to do along the journey of life. It makes no sense to set a goal for something you would like to accomplish and then eliminate the experiences that will get you there. The good stuff makes life enjoyable—learning to experience joy in the daily moments we all have available to us. Let go of the attachment to how you think things should go and allow them to happen as they do. To fight against reality is a definition of crazy.

Take a moment today and look at the things you are doing. Are they for a bigger purpose? A new job? A race you will run? A wedding? Accumulation of wealth? Regardless, look at how you feel about it and honestly look at the attachments you have built up about the outcome. Are they rigid? What if you got what you wanted, but it came differently? Would you be OK with that? Or would you be angry? Look at what you are attached to today and practice letting them go. All we are guaranteed in life is this very moment. Learn to find joy in it.

 “Attachment is the source of all suffering.” Buddha

 “Attachment is another name of disappointment and pain. Vishal”

“Things are as they are; we suffer because we imagined different.” Anonymous

 “Accept what comes and allow it to leave when it’s time.” Anonymous

 

21

Positive Vibes

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How might you change your life and the lives of others by being more positive?

Give yourself a little positive boost today.  These things will help us to develop ourselves as productive beings. There are certain areas of life we need to cultivate and others we need to leave behind us.  As you look at the activities and conversations you have throughout your day, take a little time to evaluate how these things I am going to talk about work into your life.  If they are not something you are currently developing, consider taking some time to build these things in your relationships, inside yourself, and life in general.

Generosity is something you can practice every day. You can give things to others, but giving yourself, your time, and caring is much more valuable. Giving will provide you with a path to find growth and learning. Being generous is also the path to receiving as well. Look at your life and see where you can be more generous with your time and give others the attention they need.  Give time, give notice, give love to all areas of your life. The person who will be receiving it is you.

Discipline is another trait you can work on building into your daily life. Be in control of what you say and how you treat other people. All people are capable of causing harm to others with very little thought. Try not to be one of these.  Your growth as a positive person should not, in any way, cause damage to others.  Develop a sense of consistent learning and appropriate behavior as life gives you the lessons you need to become better than you were yesterday. Every day is an opportunity to stick to the good and let go of the negative, and to be able to do this consistently takes discipline in life, thought, and action. Work to develop this in your everyday life. My definition of discipline is doing what needs to happen to the best of your ability every time it needs to happen.  Practice this in all areas of your life.

Patience is a different sort of learning experience. It’s human nature to want it all and want it now, but that experience may overwhelm you and not allow for an appreciation of any part of an experience. Let all things evolve at their speed and in their own time.  By enabling each item to grow and develop as it needs, we allow an opportunity to appreciate that thing and a chance to grow from experiencing it.  Growth is the opposite of forcing things, allow the moments to be the moments they are, enjoy the process. Let things develop as they should. Pushing your agenda in life always leaves you empty-handed.  Set a goal, ask for what you want, then let it grow as it should.

Acceptance of ourselves, others, and life’s situations is another key area we can develop. We all must give away our thoughts of perfectionism, which is always a lie someone else has told you. Instead, focus on the truth of who you are and the quality that exists in every moment. What is perfection but a created thought of the desired outcome?  In other words, how we perceive a situation should play out. But who is to say what is best for us? What is the learning we need? Let go of the need for perfection and embrace the quality that naturally exists in every moment. There is a beauty in the imperfection and power there too.  Allow all things to be perfectly imperfect. In this imperfection, we can find ourselves and appreciate the matrix that is life.

Use your mind rather than letting your brain use you. Or worse yet, letting someone else do your thinking for you.  Control is gained by learning to relax and allowing your thoughts to flow. You are not identifying with any of them in particular but noticing each as they pass you by on their way. To think this way is meditation, and with practice, it can calm you physically and improve your mental capacity.

Most importantly, control of your mind will allow you to exist in this moment, which is the only thing you have.  Thoughts of the past and future are all fantasy, created in our minds. The present moment is the only one we can live in and learn to embrace and enjoy it. Connect with the things in your life right now.

Cultivate your most powerful asset, your thoughts. This growth occurs just like tending a garden. The activities you participate in, the ideas you think, and the actions you willingly participate in will allow for the appearance of the backyard of your mind. Most people never realize how they are creating their existence and experience, primarily based on the tenor of their thoughts. Keep your mind open to experiencing new paths of positive experience. All of our feelings will result in an emotional response, and those responses will be charged with positive or negative energy.  Positive energy will pick you up, and the negative will take you in the other direction.

These are all things you can add to your life today if you need a little positive boost.  Who wouldn’t want that?

“Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe.”

“When you can’t find the sunshine, be the sunshine.”

“So, what if, instead of thinking about solving your whole life, you think about adding new good things. One at a time. Just let your pile of good things grow.”

“A great attitude becomes a great day, which becomes a great month, which becomes a great year, which becomes a great life.”

 

21

Mindless Thought

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It is amazing to me how much time we spend thinking. Thinking about this and that all day long, a constant barrage of thought flowing through our minds.  Yet all of this thought production can be distracting and counterproductive if you never choose to look closely at them and see what these thoughts are or what they mean.  The funny part is that we all think our minds, and our thoughts define us. But they don’t. They are just something we produce, not who we are.  The goal for me is to disidentify with the mind and the wild swirling eddy of thought and focus on the person looking at them.  A lot is going on in your head and to become the watcher of the thoughts you are producing is quite an achievement.

Use the Tool

A mind is a tool. It has great power to remember, create, problem solve and even run our bodies. But it isn’t who we are, any more than a helpful garden tool is us. It is a valuable tool we can use to create things, to make decisions, and the mind is the biggest factor determining what we accomplish in this life.  Learning to use the tool we have and not identify with who we are is the trick.  Our educational system does not guide how to do this, and most information we are exposed to makes no differentiation between yourself and your mind.  But they are definitely two different entities.

Take a moment and look at your thoughts without judgment. Take five minutes and type whatever you are thinking without any filter or judgment. Then analyze what you are thinking about. If you are the mind, how can you sit back and listen? Something is creating these thoughts, but it isn’t you.  Our thoughts come from a combination of our experiences and new stimuli that enter our lives.  Most often, our mind tells stories based on faulty programming and half-truths based on manipulations of others. If you write your honest thoughts down for five minutes, you will know where your thoughts are coming from.  And with real evaluation, you can trace them to their origin.  Then you can choose if this is a thought you really want to entertain or not. That is becoming conscious, and the choice very few people have made.  Rather than use this tool, the tool uses us and moves our lives along the conveyer belt of life as if we are on autopilot.

Think Where it Matters

Lots of thoughts we have about ourselves are extremely negative. We speak to ourselves in a manner we wouldn’t tolerate from anyone else. Our perceived shortcomings, failures, or personal lack are magnified, and if you listen, there will be words spoken in your mind that are unhealthy and mean.  Thoughts about our physical appearance or personal worth on the negative need to be identified and released. The person who most needs your kindness and understanding is you.  I have known people who go out of their way to be kind and give to everyone else, but they are overly critical and mean when it comes to them. This is obviously a problem with self-esteem and personal achievement. If you deep down think you aren’t as smart, talented, or deserving as everyone else, how can you ever become successful?  You can’t.  You are defeating yourself.

We too often let our imaginations negatively run our lives.  We spend time lost in the past, full of pleasant victories or devastating defeats. We color the past how we want and time spent there takes you away from spending time in the only place that matters.  The same can be said of the future. The future will happen whether we think of it or not. There is nothing wrong with planning. That is responsible, but worrying about everything that might happen is a fool’s errand. It is paying money for a debt that most likely will never exist. And if it does enter your life, it won’t be any easier to deal with.  Time spent thinking in the future takes you away from spending time in the only place that matters.  Where is this place?  Where does it matter?  That is the now. This moment. That is all we are ever promised and all we ever have.

Living in the Moment

Becoming intensely conscious of the moment is a difficult practice. Even the most diligent person is going to find their mind drifting off into other places.  The goal is to develop the instrument of the mind so that it can still be used for thinking of practical purposes, using it for discovering the best way to do things or create new things or become the best at something that you can. But to eliminate the involuntary deluge of negative dialogue that is unnecessary, unhealthy, and a waste of time.

Spend an entire day noticing your thoughts. When they inevitably drift out of the moment, and you notice it, you are back in the moment automatically.  This will allow you to look at how often you spend your time thinking about this moment and how much you spend in the traps of the past and the future.  Returning to the now continually allows you to live in the moment, which is the only reality there is. If you are at work, be there. If you are at the beach, be there. If you are at the gym, be there.  Developing this skill will allow you to become a watcher of your mind and put you in charge of the tool. This is a power that will allow you to get out of the way of your thought stream and use your mind to create, solve problems and enjoy your life. What more could you want?

“Life is like a game of chess. To win, you have to make a move. Knowing which move to make comes with IN-SIGHT and knowledge and learning the lessons accumulated along the way. We become every piece within the game called life!”

“Much more surprising things can happen to anyone who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable, determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place.”

“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” ― Socrates

“Never underestimate the power of thought; it is the greatest path to discovery.” ― Idowu Koyenikan