First step. Realize that YOU are not your MIND.
The voice inside your head is like a roommate. Begin to observe your mind by being a witness to your thoughts. When you cultivate awareness of that voice, you create separation between “you” and “your mind”. You begin to understand that you have control over your mind. You can talk sweet to it, you can be mean, sarcastic as well as seductive, flirty and coy…but however you treat it, your mind will take direction.
One way to get some space between you and your mind is to cultivate the witness consciousness which is like a neutral observer. To be a witness of thoughts means that you are standing apart from the situation and not identifying with it.
It’s like taking a mini vacation.. a FREE mini vacation. On the plus side, being the observer helps you develop a nonjudgmental state of mind. If we witness our thoughts, our critics can be hanging out on the sidelines, having a lunch break. They are off-duty.
When a thought or emotion comes up, acknowledge it. Say hello, and then observe it. Practicing this first step will make huge leaps towards training your mind. A mindfulness teacher once told me, when you say hello to any of the many voices that pop up and want to create space, “make it small”. Do this by putting it on the floor next to you. It sounds strange, but it actually works. For example, if it’s a yucky thought, imagine that thought is a black box. Put the black box on the floor. Simple. You’ve just created space 🙂
Fake it till you make it. Your mind does not separate
reality from fantasy.
Serge King, a prolific writer on Huna, the Polynesian philosophy and practice
of effective living, refers to the subconscious mind as the Ku. The key theme
of Huna philosophy is that we create our own experience of reality through our
beliefs and actions. Like the Law of Attraction experts including Abraham
Hicks, Napoleon Hill, Wayne Dyer, Bob Proctor, and many others… Huna teaches
us how to create our reality consciously by understanding the nature of mind
and how it works.
When I recommend “faking it” I’m not talking about putting up a front of perfection all the time. By imitating confidence, competence, and an optimistic mindset, a person can realize those qualities in real life. If you want to feel more confident, act more confident. Sounds obvious, though it’s not always that easy at first. The key to “fake it till you make it” is to practice.
Another way of stating it is… “Act As If”. Thich Nhat Han has a practice called “The half-smile”. In it, he advocates the practice of the gentle half-smile, which brings a sense of openness and connectedness. While your body may be irritated at the moment, using the half-smile is very subtle, and can do wonders to lift our mood.
When you are beginning to spiral down or your saboteurs are showing up, make small changes in training your mind. You may “fake” your mind by using simple techniques. Your mind will believe you.
Realize that energy goes where attention flows.
Your attention, your focus, is aiming of energy. If you want to be the master of your mind, the first step is to invest in cultivating thoughts and reactions that stem from your inner voice; one that is deeply rooted in your values, truth, and passion.
Once you realize your core values, you focus your energy, which is thoughts, actions, words, attention, on what you want. With guidance, this positive outpouring of energy can be leveraged to help you tap into your own unmanifested potential and infinite possibilities. Your subconscious won’t only affect your behavior but it will also affect your perception of events.
Wayne Dyer wrote, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at changes”. In order to change things, we need to change the way we look at things. Start with putting your attention in the right place, and things will start falling into place.
By learning how to let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and fear, we can eliminate your limiting beliefs and destructive patterns that control your behavior and ultimately control YOU.
Awareness of where you are spending your time and with who you are spending it is an effective way to make your goals a reality.
Write it out
You have over 70,000 thoughts a day. 95% are repetitive. One method of becoming aware of those thoughts that keep repeating is to write them out. Sometimes by doing this, you can see both the absurdity and the value in some of those thoughts.
Actively develop your unique, authentic voice by journaling (aka brain dumping). This is a great way to discover if you have contradictory visions if you chasing someone else’s goals or maybe your old-selfs goals. When we are not being our authentic selves, anxiety arises. Mastering your mind begins with getting clear of the thoughts that are on your mental screen.
Writing it out is a technique I learned after reading “The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path To Higher Creativity” by Julia Cameron. I did this religiously for almost 25 years straight. It became somewhat obsessive. If I didn’t do it, my head felt cloudy. When I didn’t have my formal notebook, I found other ways to write it out, like a napkin at a cafe. Even writing out simple thoughts and lists is a great way to write it out.
Prioritizing on paper is an amazing and quick method to get clear. A simple technique I learned is to take a piece of paper and put a line down the middle. Write the words Pros/ Cons, or Want/Don’t Want or Yes/No at the top and just free-flow write to help better understand what your real self is wanting.
Getting clear is essential in mastering your mind. The purpose of putting your thoughts on paper is to find out what’s going on in your head. With the aim of acting from your core values and not from a place of fear. When you “write it out” you can more clearly see where your fears are and what is stopping you from being your true authentic self.
As a Certified Life Coach, CPCC and Master Neuro-linguistic Programming Practitioner, MNLP, I can help you create the life you know you can have. Want to talk? Schedule your free coaching session.
This article was originally published at www.jadelifecoach.com. Reprinted with permission from the author.