A Beautiful Mind

The mind is very useful and wonderful when used correctly. We use it for logical reasoning and making computations, however, in general the mind is usually not our friend. It can be equated to the ego. In fact, that’s all it is when left undeveloped.

The mind loves to chatter. If left unobserved, the mind will run amuck. The more emotional or unstable a person is the more chatter he or she will have in the mind.

The mind loves to cause problems.  It creates drama, paranoia, and makes up all kinds of stories to keep a person in conflict.  As stated, the function of the mind is to solve problems. If there are no real problems to solve, the mind will create problems for the sake of having a problem to solve.

Usually, the conflicts that the mind gets us into have lots of emotional charge attached to them.  So the two people have emotions invested into the conflict. The charge on the emotions potentially creates hurts, upsets, or blockages within the persons or something more serious.  The key is to reel in our thinking (i.e. direct the mind to a rational idea or helpful conclusion) and allow our emotions to cool down and dissipate. Once you get the emotions out of a situation, there is no problem.
 

Some people love the drama because they feed on the energy and excitement, albeit negative excitement, of the conflicts.  This is what people tend to do especially if they have no big goals or projects which fully capture their attention.  A big goal towards which a person is working can take up lots of time and thinking energy.  There is no time for trite conflicts or emotional rollercoaster rides. Big goals of interest supersede petty conflicts.

For example, a person may become upset over the shade of paint that the painter painted a room in her home.  The color has an undesirable peach tint. The next day she talks about her dissatisfaction and possible solutions to many of her friends and coworkers; should she pay the painter or not; should she request that he redo the job or not, etc. It is a really big deal until mid-morning.

Mid-morning she gets news that she was passed over for a highly anticipated promotion. At this point details of the painted room are irrelevant. She is onto a new conflict of higher concern. Two days of yakking and emotional upset ensues. She is gearing up for a potentially long battle. There are lots of conversations and discussions with friends and coworkers.

Two days later, her husband of 30 years informs her that he wants a divorce.  Now she is devastated. Since this issue is of a higher magnitude of importance, other conflicts, including the fact that she was looked over for a promotion, become displaced with full attention shifting to this latest incident.

The point is that when we have big things that capture our attention, those things of lesser importance to us will fall away. With that in mind, it is important that we

1.  Take on big lofty, worthy projects to keep our interest focused, the mind chatter minimized, and the mind focused on doing what it does best; solving real problems

2.  Do releasing exercises when we come into emotions upsets and conflicts. This will allow us to greatly reduce chatter and conflicts being created by the mind over time.

Know that we can never fully eliminate mind chatter or control the mind. We can only do what we would do to with a two year old who is trying to get into something… redirect him (it) to a more useful task. More on releasing exercises later.

Much love...