IS OUR MIND OUR BIGGEST ENEMY?

Our mind is overpowered with multiple thoughts. Thoughts that are present in our subconscious & conscious mind, which we may believe we don’t have any control over. According to a research on the human mind, it was found that an average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day, yet unsurprisingly more than the positive thoughts, it is the negative thoughts we are commonly surrounded by.

HOW TO CHANGE THIS?

How do we train our minds? Let’s follow some simple steps to restructure our cognition into the right path. What is it all about?

It is important to take notice of the kind of thoughts that arise in our mind - are they positive or negative; until we become aware of our thoughts, we will find it difficult to help ourselves. If perhaps we are surrounded by a negative thought, we would actively need to recognize its existence in our mind and eventually make a conscious effort to stop it.

How do we do that?

A way to do away with uneasy thoughts is by literally visualizing a big ‘S-T-O-P’ sign in your mind or physically bringing your hand in front of your face (similar to how a policeman stops and controls road traffic) to make yourself more aware, whichever method is more comfortable. This process will eventually stimulate the rewiring of your mind.

And now how do we rewire our thoughts?

1) Try to rethink about that particular (negative) thought or situation using a different perspective, a more positive one, for example, currently, the world is facing a global crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic: people are facing salary cuts, stuck in adverse situations, businesses may be going down, and a lot other issues… BUT if you rewire and think about the crisis with a more positive perceptive- that as long as you are healthy, you are good to go. Every day we hear about a new number of people testing positive with Covid-19, with many even being hospitalized and visiting doctors. Keeping that in mind, we should realize how blessed we are for being safe, then does anything really matter anymore? This time that we have got with our families, have we ever got before? Today it may be frustrating, but when we look back at these moments in a few years- perhaps a year, 2 years, or even 5 years from now, we will surely feel or see the positive part of it. Spending so much time at home doing ‘out of the box’ activities, cooking good dishes, spending time with family, doing a few courses, or even personal projects for which we never ever had time, are the little blessings in disguise which we tend to overlook. Even having clean air to breath with clear skies, is refreshing in contrast to the pollution we earlier encountered daily.

2) Has a friend or a relative ever come to you for advice or when they’re feeling low? Have you noticed the advice you give them may uplift them and motivate them to get back up on their feet? If your answer to both the questions is yes, then ask yourself - why can’t you be that friend for yourself and listen to your advice! Treat all your hurdles and issues not as problems but as situations for which you have to come up with solutions. Whenever you are faced with a rather difficult situation (remember, not a problem), sit and think about it through the lens of finding a solution for your dear friend, your own mind. Who knows us better than our own selves? This really works, try it!

3) Our elders say, keep giving GRATITUDE; yes, it is the most powerful way of turning negative thoughts into positive. How? When we are in a constant state of gratitude, our bodies give a boost to our feel-good hormone called ‘Dopamine’, a neurotransmitter. It plays an important role in a range of brain and body functions that are critical for our success including memory, motivation, focus, creativity, and mood. It works like magic. It’s an antidote to negative emotions.

One of the most effective ways to grow gratitude is by simply thinking about a situation you are already in and imagining a worse possible situation that you could have been in instead. But you are NOT!! This helps us to be more grateful. Constantly realizing good things in one’s life and giving gratitude strengthens our mind to deal with rough patches in our daily life and makes our life more blissful. When we start giving Gratitude, it becomes a subconscious habit, an abundance of good energy starts to flow, and miracles start to happen in our life!