B L Razdan
Mind power is one of the strongest and most useful powers. This power, together with one’s imagination, can create success or failure, happiness or unhappiness, opportunities or obstacles. This depends on one’s mindset.
Your thoughts are the main ingredient of this power, and when you add to them focus and emotions, they become powerful and can affect your reality.The thoughts that pass through your mind are responsible for almost everything that happens in your life.Not all thoughts are equal. Stray ones that you think once or twice cannot do much; but your predominant thoughts, the ones you repeat often, influence your behaviour and attitude, affect your actions and reactions, and shape your reality.
In the famous Upanishadic allegory of the chariot, ‘the soul is the owner of the chariot, the intellect the charioteer, the mind the reins, the sense organs the horses and the body the chariot.’ The Upanishadic mind is not spiritual as claimed by Descartes and other dualist thinkers. Here the mind is a subtle organ of the physical type and is taken as a part of the subtle body. Over the years since the foundation of Psychology in 1894, ‘Mind’ has significantly lost its space to Neuro Sciences which have been scientifically establishing the functions of the brain and its neurological systems to explain human capabilities to process, store and recall information; to see, hear and respond; to express emotions and to communicate using languages etc.
With the evolution of the scientific explanations, a large part of ‘Mind’ today can be co-related to the functions of the Brain and its neurological network. Neuroscience research has made progress along a multilevel hierarchy from behaviour and emotions to molecular interactions and genetic expressions. Experiments have clearly established that the human brain has specific areas identified for each trigger like emotions, memory, intelligence, knowledge, senses etc. and the impulses to and from these earmarked spaces are carried by the intricate network of neurons, which continue to grow upto a certain age. These studies have reflected the increase in activities of specific parts of the brain that are activated by each trigger.
The question, however, still remains as to how do we control these triggers? How do we prioritise an impulse or an activity over the others? We have often heard our well-wishers advising us to stay focused. Focus on what? How? Despite the evolution in the journey of Mind, from being a whole and sole virtual entity driving our thoughts, feelings, emotions to a more defined brain with its neurological system, there is a “mysterious something” or Mind, that still needs to focus, in order to trigger stimulus to the desired section of the brain.
Usually, we pay scant attention to our thoughts. They emerge, pass through our minds and are hardly to be seen again. Thoughts are also immaterial, which is why we often forget that they are even there. As a result, we underestimate the powerful impact thoughts can have on our lives. However, the human mind holds a great potency. It holds one of the strongest powers accessible to it. Unfortunately, its powers are largely unknown and get ignored, which is why many of its abilities have become dormant. Still, the power of the mind is one of the greatest powers one can tap into.
Ninety percent of thought-force is wasted by the ordinary human being, and therefore he is constantly committing blunders; the trained man or mind never makes a mistake. To control the mind, you must go deep down into the subconscious mind, classify and arrange in order all the different impressions, thoughts, etc. stored up there, and control them. This is the first step. By the control of subconscious mind, you get control over the conscious.If the mind is not under control, it is no use living in a cave because the same mind will bring all disturbances there. If the mind is under control, we can have the cave anywhere, wherever we may be.
The power of the mind is largely dependent on your thoughts. What you think you become. The thoughts you choose to entertain influence heavily what happens to you in life. Your beliefs, mindsets and attitudes influence how you behave and how you respond to certain events. Even more so, your thought patterns largely decide how you interpret certain situations. And this can make quite a difference.You can use your thoughts to affect changes in the world around you. However, this process takes patience and continuous practice. It is quite similar to the way a gardener plants seed. Just as seeds can be planted in the soil, thoughts can be planted in the mind. But it takes the same diligence and care necessary to grow a plant. Similarly,like a gardener, you have to continuously water and fertilize the thoughts you wish to manifest.”The man who has control over his own mind assuredly will have control over every other mind. That is why purity and morality have been always the object of religion; a pure moral man has control over himself. He who knows and controls his own mind knows the secret of every mind and has power over every mind.” (Vivekananda)
The subconscious mind, as is accepted by modern psychologists is a great source of inspiration, intuition and creativity. It is assumed to make up approximately 92% of the entire brain. This means that the conscious mind only takes up 8% of the human brain. As you can see from these relations, it is only natural to be curious about the power of the subconscious mind. It’s the part of your brain that is always active, even at night when you may be fast asleep. The subconscious mind controls all your body functions. But it can also play a great role in your daily life. Author Sidney Madwed says, “Our subconscious minds have no sense of humour, play no jokes, and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives.”
We all know that it takes practice and a lot of repetition to master a certain skill. By means of repetition we start to strengthen the specific neural networks that are performing a certain action. While most people are aware of this, only a small proportion of them knows that the same can also be accomplished by simply visualizing an action. The same underlying principles are at work here. That’s because the brain cannot differentiate between an action that is actually performed and something you’ve simply visualized. No matter if you perform an action or if you simply visualize it, the same processes happen in the brain.
Various studies found evidence for a phenomenon called ‘confirmation bias’, an interesting facet of the human brain that we can easily fall prey to. Put simply, the mindtends to interpret information in a way that confirms your existing beliefs. The brain tends to use the biased interpretation of information not to trick or fool you, but simply to save energy. It’s far easier for the brain to link information with already existing beliefs than it is to expend large amounts of energy for the continuous analysis and interpretation of new information. In the case of a person with a negative outlook the confirmation bias will increase their tendency to interpret the events according to their existing negative mindsets. In fact, any kind of new information they are confronted with is quickly connected to their negative beliefs. This in turn does only provide even further “proof” of the person’s worldview. If you believe you live in a hellish world, you will definitely find evidence for that all over the place.It, therefore, goes without saying that it’s tremendously important to overcome the confirmation bias if you want to make use of the power of your mind.
When the mind is in a stage of dullness, stimulate and awaken it. When the awakened mind thus becomes turbulent, calm it down. In the process, recognize the dirt that surfaced. When the mind reaches a state of equanimity, do not disturb it further. (Mandukya Upanishad) It is important to be consciously aware of the thoughts you entertain. All too often, we spend the day without taking much notice of our thoughts. It’s understandable, as we are confronted with a great number of challenges in the outside world. However, it can prove to be beneficial to pay close attention to your thought processes. Observe how random thoughts enter and leave your mind. Watch what the mind fears and what it is excited about. By paying attention to how you think, you can get in touch with one of the most powerful forces accessible to you: your thinking processes.
Stop the mind from wandering around and learn to control it. A focused mind helps you to direct all your actions towards a given outcome. But if there’s little to no focus as a result of uncontrolled thinking patterns, then it is less likely that you will ever accomplish the desired result. By focusing the power of your mind, you can direct your thoughts and actions on your aims. Everything you intensely focus onyou will attract in one way or the other.If a person’s attention is heavily concentrated on their fears and anxieties, they will attract these things into their life. Similarly, the person who is focusing on abundance, success, joy and happiness will be more likely to attract these things into their life. Or rather, they will be more likely to find joy and happiness in the situations they are confronted with.
The very best strategy of removing negative thoughts from your mind is to replace them with positive ones. Positive beliefs are those that support you and challenge you to live to your full potential. Usually, these beneficial beliefs do not simply appear out of nowhere. We must intentionally plant and nurture them.That’s why it’s important to identify unhelpful beliefs in the first place. It helps you to understand which negative beliefs need to be addressed and replaced with positive ones. Challenge each and every belief that you find not helpful. If necessary, challenge your entire belief system!As you continue to plant positive thoughts, you slowly start to restructure your mind. By getting rid of all the toxic thoughts that limit you, you can gradually build a better life. This restructuring process may be difficult at times and it is definitely time intensive. But in the end, it is well worth it as it helps you to increase the quality of your life. It also helps you to live more to your true potential.
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