“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..”
You know what class they should have taught in school?
Mind Control.
Not mind control in the sense that you can use telepathy to control another human being, but control over one’s own mind.
Why does no one teach kids how to control their mind? Maybe because most adults—parents and teachers alike—don’t know much about controlling their own minds, let alone how to teach someone else how to control theirs.
I think that’s probably about right. (And who can blame them? We have learned more about the human brain in the last 15 years than the thousands before.)
Even still, there are many adults that don’t have control over their own mind. They float through life going from one pleasure-seeking activity to the next while trying to avoid anything difficult or uncomfortable. They are usually terrible with expressing their feelings and opinions. They feel entitled in all kinds of things in life. And they are, without realizing it, inherently discontent and unhappy.
Pffffft… who are you to be so judgmental?
I’m glad you asked. First, I’m not being judgmental; I’m being observationally objective. Second, until I grew up and started realizing these things, I lived life the same exact way: in a constant state of perpetual ignorance to who I am, what I want and what I think.
9I can speak on these things because I’ve been there. I also have to regularly find the tendencies that try to suck me back into my old ways of thinking.
You don’t have to get any of this to take a look around and see the problems that people face. The thing is, they are all rooted in the mind!
Why do so few talk about this stuff?!
Think about it: your entire life and being is nothing more than the perception that your brain interrupts for you.
Your life is exactly equal to the thoughts in your head. So if you can control the thoughts in your head, you can control your life.
Of course it sounds simpler than it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s not doable. It’s completely doable. It just takes time and awareness.
Once you are aware of your brain and thoughts, you can continually get better at controlling them. I’ve written about how to do this many times before so go check out some of my other articles if you are interested. Or, start writing down ideas you have for how you might get better. Then start taking action on those ideas. This itself will start the ball rolling.
There are no hard and fast rules for learning how to control one’s mind, you just have to get in there and iterate and learn.
Failure to control your mind is failure to control your life. It really is.
Get in there and do work: control your mind instead of letting it control you like it does for 99.99% of people on the planet.
“Our minds influence the key activity of the brain, which then influences everything; perception, cognition, thoughts and feelings, personal relationships; they’re all a projection of you.” -Deepak Chopra