“What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create.”
– Fake Buddha Quotes
Our thoughts have a very, very powerful influence over our lives. Sadly, many of us don’t know how to take control of our minds and as a result fall victim to all of the places it takes us.
- The Importance of Developing Your Mind
- Unrestrained Thoughts and the Quality of Life
- How to Optimize Your Thoughts
The Importance of Developing Your Mind
To those who partake in taking care of their bodies: Why? To keep it healthy? To prevent disease? To live longer? To do things that require a certain level of fitness? All of these are valid desires in which why one would pursue physical health… but what about one’s mental health? Do we pursue developing our mind the same way we would look after our body? In my experience, no. Which is why if you pay careful attention you will see the majority of people walking around anxious, stressed, depressed, and full of worry. These are all common symptoms of failure to regulate the… in other words your thoughts.
Our thoughts have an enormous impact on our experience in life, so if we’re not conscious in directing them, we will be at the mercy of where they’ll take us. If the same people who take care of their bodies were just as much interested in taking care of their minds, the quality of their life would be on another level. But it seems to me we have more developed bodies than developed minds. This is not necessarily bad however, it just makes having a truly developed mind more of a rare commodity. Because it is. And since everything begins from the mind, your thoughts are literally the building blocks to your life. For the individual who prizes mental mastery, this is good news; you can literally have and create whatever you in want in life. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the great names in history and their achievements.
Unrestrained Thoughts and the Quality of Life
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” – Haruki Murakami
A lot of the suffering in our lives comes from the inability to keep our thoughts in check. Naturally, our mind is negative so when don’t restrain it, a number of stories start playing in our heads like bad record players. Worse yet, it plays on repeat. And when these thoughts become perpetual, they begin to interfere with your mental health. You can have poorly conceived notions of the intentions of others, you can lower your self-esteem, and depending on what you think, you can literally think yourself into neurosis.
Thoughts also have a powerful effect on our health; it has direct ties to our physiology. This is not up for speculation, it is a fact. Take a moment to think of a past event or better yet, create one, that makes you sad, upset, frustrated, happy, joyful or excited. Notice how your emotions change depending on what you thinking about. You might start to smile, which releases endorphins into your body. You might get stressed and ignite the fight or flight response. Your heart rate could go up and you can start to breathe faster. All of these can be triggered by thought alone.
The most troublesome is when we’re we’re automatically thinking certain thoughts over and over and with intensity. This becomes habitual and perpetual and spells the recipe for insanity. That’s why it’s of utmost importance that we are mindful of what’s going on in our heads otherwise we’ll have what I call a mind-full-of-a-shit.
Really take a moment to ponder this statement: the quality of our life is in direct proportion to the thoughts we choose to think about it.
Whatever happens to you, you have the power to choose what you want to think about it. If you have bad thoughts about something, it’s bad. If you have good thoughts about something, it’s good. For example, let’s say once in a lifetime opportunity (so you think) shows up but for whatever reason you missed it because of something of poor planning. You could think to yourself all of the ways you messed up and how you could’ve done things better to not have let an opportunity slip out of from your grasp. Or, you could think that since it didn’t happen, it wasn’t meant to be anyways and that more opportunities are on its way.
This power to choose what to think about it turn influences all of our feelings, actions, behavior and then beliefs about life. Therefore, the quality of our life is in direct proportion to the thoughts we choose to think about it. If you can change your thoughts, you can change your life.
How to Optimize Your Thoughts
The way one develops their mind is quite similar to the way one would develop the body. What are some things you can do to keep your body healthy? Avoid junk food, stay hydrated, train it regularly, stretch, mobilize it, and feed it well. Well for your mind you avoid negative thoughts, condition it with better thoughts, learn, meditate, appreciate things, be grateful, imagine and so on. If more energy, vitality, and physical capability is a symptom of a strong body, then peace, tranquility, and equanimity is a symptom of a strong mind.