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If you are currently active on social media, I’m pretty sure you’ve read a number of posts that talk about controlling our own minds and the unlimited possibilities that will open for us once we master that little task. (And yes, you should read those last six words with a very sarcastic tone.) Thousands of people talk about this subject as if controlling our minds is as easy as drinking water. Maybe it is for them, but for the rest of us it’s about as easy as drinking water in the middle of a desert while trapped in a cage with our hands and feet tied!
I have read many great books that tell the real life stories of people who have totally mastered mind control. They are amazingly successful, and nothing about their lives looks like anything less than pure greatness. I think that reading or listening to stories like that push us to start thinking “would that be possible for me?” Of course, those hugely successful people all went through some kind of struggle before they mastered greatness, and that makes us feel even more curious and open to the possibility of us mastering it too.
I’ve been working on convincing myself that self-control of the mind is actually possible. However, merely convincing myself that it’s a possibility takes a lot of dedication because our minds don’t stop … ever! We never stop thinking, not even while we’re resting, because even when we go to sleep we start dreaming. What?? So how can we control something that simply doesn’t ever stop? Why isn’t it as easy as saying something like, “Ok you little mind, you’re under my control now” and then, boom!? We are in total control. The reality is that as soon as we say, ‘I’m in control’ our minds start laughing at us, and two seconds later we catch ourselves thinking or doing something that we didn’t want to think or do.
I want to share my own experience, and please keep in mind that my mind goes at 100,000 miles per second. I totally consider myself an over-thinker. I can go from one little thought to a 500-page novel in one nanosecond. I think that if, on average, human beings think more than 6,000 thoughts a day my mind can easily do 18,000. And that would be under normal circumstances, because if someone started a competition to see who thinks the highest sheer volume of thoughts, I would go into competitive mode and take first place. Hopefully by now you have a good idea about how uncontrollable my mind can be.
There are lots of ways to practice mind control. The techniques we use depend on what we want to control. For instance, if we want to control our minds from pushing us to eat unhealthy food, then we would start by working on hardcore discipline to force ourselves to make better choices until those choices become habits.
Let me give you my own example. My healthy eating journey started when I was desperately hoping for a baby. I wanted to do everything possible to help me get pregnant. When I started reading about what to eat (or what not to eat) in order to get pregnant faster, the first thing every single book I read suggested was to stop eating processed sugars. Well, I was an extreme sweets lover. It wasn’t easy, but I was so focused on my goal to become pregnant that I literally took myself from 10 to 0 on a sweets-consumption scale. In that case, I mastered mind control by completely focusing on my goal. It was such a strong discipline that it became a habit—even though I’m not in the baby hunt anymore, I don’t eat sweets.
My other great example of mind mastery happened today. I started practicing yoga a few years ago, but I have to confess that I didn’t start for the amazing health benefits. I did it because my super-competitive mind wanted to master the headstand. I went to yoga classes for about three months, and then I kept doing it from time to time by watching YouTube videos at home. I am not sure how many times I tried to do the headstand. All I know is that I fell and hurt myself more times than I would have wanted. Even though I kept trying, it never happened. I kind of pushed that desire to the back of my mind when I started working out in the gym. I was doing yoga once a week, but I was not trying the headstand anymore.
My training plan changes every month, and my latest one listed the headstand as one of my challenges. I was happy and fearful at the same time—happy because I love to challenge myself, but scared of disappointing myself again. The first time I attempted to do it, of course I fell. I was extremely frustrated. Actually, my whole workout that day was horrible because my mind was completely out of control. When I sat in meditation the next day, I became aware of what was happening. I needed to focus and take control over my mind. I realized that the only way to master the headstand was to have a light head. When I say ‘light head,’ I mean that my mind had to be totally under my control so I could ask my body to keep the balance. After 20 days of continuous practice, I was finally able to master the headstand today! 🙂
The only difference between today and a few years ago is that I have slowly learned how to control my mind. I can tell you that it doesn’t happen overnight. The way it has been working for me is to focus on one thing at a time. The moment I realized I had totally mastered the way I eat, I started playing around with other aspects of my mind that I wanted to control. Please be clear that your mind won’t stop going at 100,000 miles per second. Mind control doesn’t mean you’ll remove your thoughts. Mind control means you’ll be able to notice what you’re thinking so you can redirect those thoughts if they’re not serving you.
Control your mind, and you’ll be able to conquer EVERYTHING you want in life!
Love,
Irene.
