Articles

Each day that I wake up and take my first breath, I thank God. I pray. And I find center.

These are routines that I did not use to have.

I would wake up, think about my responsibilities for the day, and then I would get busy.

I didn’t make the time… I didn’t think I ‘had’ the time… I lacked belief… practice… faith… or at least endurance with my faith.

These were my challenges.

The next step in meditation is to increase frequency or duration.

Please consider the following:

1. Would you rather get calm faster when you get upset or worked up? (frequency)
2. Is your end goal peace of mind, and the sooner you get there the better? (duration)

Whichever you choose, it’s up to you. And here’s how you go about both:

Increasing Frequency Of Meditation:

Your mind is a super computer that is capable of sending physical signals throughout your body, thereby creating physical reactions through thought.

In other words, when you think about moving your leg, you have already created electrical signals to the muscles that have caused them to partially contract. Simply thinking about movement creates movement.

Well, the same is true for thinking about feeling, thinking about thinking, and thinking about connection. In all cases, by the time we think, we have created.

Thinking and creation go hand-in-hand.

Repeat after me: “I am the one who directs my own thoughts. I am the one who chooses what I think about, and it’s through my own intention that I can demonstrate transformation.

Through transforming my thoughts to become more positive and of higher intent, I can be kinder, more loving, and more empathetic.

I seek a life of love and compassion, and therefore I will do what it takes.”

There are four main ‘life skills’ that we will begin discussing as of today. They are:

1. Meditation
2. Breath
3. Love
4. Gratitude

By practicing all four, in sequence (and not all at once), your entire reality shifts. What happens first is a sense of peace. Next, you begin to have a calm mind, one that’s capable of innovation, epiphany, and a sense of well-being.

Through this enhanced state-of-mind, you begin seeking other healthy habits, because they feel good. And this feel-good feeling becomes almost like an addiction, in that you seek it, reset to it, and find comfort in it within weeks or months.

So, in other words, you’ll automatically know to get outside for a breath of fresh air when you start to feel some anxiety. You’ll crave movement and actually want to exercise in a way that brings you joy. And you’ll choose restaurants, conversations, foods, and people that reinforce feeling great throughout your day and life.

*NOTE: Due to the popularity of recent posts related to the “mind”, I’ve decided to share something that came through while parenting my children the other day. It really helped them to make sense of how their minds work, and why their minds sometimes seek to complicate things or create challenges for them. I hope it helps you too.

Before we lived under rooftops, in air conditioning (or heat) and with beds to sleep on, we lived outside. Perhaps we found caves for nighttime to keep a bit warmer or safer from wildlife, although we lived outside.

And outside is how we were designed to live. Today’s societal infrastructure has created many luxuries and comforts, although it has also created disease, disorder, and misconduct.

Let’s take a closer look…

The mind’s primary responsibility when we lived outside was to prioritize survival. In other words, “survival” came down to:

Presence takes practice. You can build endurance, and you can increase your attention span.

When attention breaks, getting back to the present quickly is key. Observing patterns of thoughts, beliefs, circumstances, relationships, or scenarios that pull you out of this moment and into another one is an important step in the direction of staying present.

And most of all, it’s a clear mind that is the key to staying present. A ‘busy mind’ creates a lot of ‘busy-ness’ for the mind; or, in other words, more thoughts create more responsibility, energy demand, and ultimately depletion for the mind.

If you choose to be present, choose to be clear.

And this happens only through meditation, time in nature, and prayer. Exercise helps. Eating well helps. Strong social relationships help. Getting out of debt helps. Great health helps. All of these things help.

And in the end, what makes the biggest difference is: connection.

There are two conversations when we discuss re-patterning the mind. First is the re-patterning, which is a set of skills you can learn, develop, or be guided with; these will empower you to train your subconscious mind into new patterns, beliefs, or automatic thoughts.

Secondly, we must discuss ‘healing’ the mind, which is essential in order to benefit from re-patterning efforts. A mind that needs to be healed is prone to repeat the same patterns, have the same opportunities for growth, and go through the same lessons over and over again. And for this reason, we must consider what needs healing while re-patterning the mind, or it’s likely to be a vicious cycle.

There are several skills that come into play when it comes to re-patterning the mind. Let’s discuss:

• Tapping (or Touch) — a gentle touch on your heart, or a light tap can bring gentle awareness to “listen” to your heart and be guided through your heart rather than your head.
• Mantras — simple, quick, and easy-to-remember statements you can rehearse as a reminder of how wonderful you are anytime you are quick to judge yourself. Example: let’s say you’re being hard on yourself for not getting something right. You might say something like this to yourself: “I choose to do my best and let go of the outcome.” (with a smile on your face)
• Meditation & observation — clear your mind and notice what comes up. Take notes when you’re done.
• Journaling — journal in at least two voices (one that asks the questions and one that answers). Ask questions about yourself and your behaviors and listen to the responses; your self-awareness may be great when you take the time to inquire within.
• Single-tasking (conscious awareness) — by eliminating distractions, other responsibilities, and interruptions, it is much easier to stay consciously aware and therefore reduce the chances of an undesirable pattern, behavior, or thought cycle.
• Presence — be in the now.
• Reflection — take inventory of your day, a conversation, or an experience after it happens. They say hindsight is 20-20. What can you learn from what has already taken place, while giving yourself incredible grace?

You are about to embark upon a 3-post adventure into the “mind”, which is perhaps one of the most poorly understood — if not ‘the’ most poorly understood — part of a human being.

We know that there is a ‘conscious’ mind and a ‘subconscious’ mind. Therefore, we’ve divided the mind into two parts:

1. Conscious mind — we tend to think of this as our “brain”, which is able to process thoughts, ideas, circumstances, etc. and synthesize outcomes.
2. Subconscious mind — this is the part of our minds that is on ‘autopilot’ throughout the day. It’s what’s doing the work while you’re driving a car in order to get you home safely. It’s what allows me to type without thinking through each individual letter before doing so, and it’s how we do anything while consciously occupied by something else like work, home, paying a bill, or having a conversation. Without a subconscious mind, you would not be able to carry out two tasks at once.

However, simply dividing the mind into two parts leaves many questions. For starters, where is the mind located? Is it inside the body or outside?

Some people suffer from an “unsettled” mind, meaning that their minds are constantly working on overdrive. And whether they realize it, enjoy it, or feel depleted from it, an “unsettled” mind has health consequences.

Let’s discuss.

There is a vicious cycle to call out: pain leads to rapidly-paced thoughts and rapidly-paced thoughts lead to pain.

When the mind is racing, or thinking constantly and not resting — or having quiet time — it’s kind of like working out all day long for your “mind muscle”.

And while your core, as an example, is able to sustain some level of contraction throughout the day in order to prevent injury to the spine or internal organs within the abdomen, the mind is able to think throughout the day and also remain active.