Is Your Mind the Problem or Solution?

Did you know that every time your heart beats, your arteries carry 20 to 25 percent of your blood to the brain(Piedmont Brain Tumor Center). The harder you think, the more oxygen and fuel your brain will use from your blood – up to 50 percent. This insightful fact confirms how how amazing our brain is. Psychologically speaking, the average number of thoughts a person has each day is 70,000. The majority of them the same couple of thoughts, repeated. Create this visual:  There are 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the brain. The distance around the world at the equator is 24,900 miles – amazing. 

We have gently discovered that our brain is an amazing part of the human body. Accounting for the way we see, feel, and experience the world. However, it seems that this main headquarters for our life is the center of many of our problems. The brain[and body] aslo has the ability to adhere to habit forms and substance addiction. In this sense, we struggle day in and day out with the right decisions for our life. Must of this battle is waged in the thinking mind. Even though psychiatry and philosophy works to come up with answers concerning the thinking mind, the results are still very inconclusive. Each philosopher claims to have answers. But upon closer inspection, we find their rhetoric just as flimsy as those that came before them. Even though many of these outstanding academics fail to come to solid conclusive results, there are constants that remain throughout many of these streams of exploration. I will showcase this four characteristics that are subtle parts of our lives. These characteristics shape our lives, they are key. If you wish to change your life for the better, implementing change in these areas will do that for you.

• Habits: Habits first arise in the mind as, simply put, thoughts repeated. Think of a bad habit. Got it? Now, what if I told you that you had the power to change this habit(exchange)out for one that will serve you? This may seem crazy or outside of your view of current thought, but it’s not only possibile, its a necessity. Each habit can be changed, but only if it is replaced by another habit. This shift is a good time to become clear about what you want. Once you make that decision, you will be able to replace a habit with a habit that serves your goals and dreams. For some reason, along the way somewhere, we developed this idea that habits are bad. Habits aren’t bad, bad habits are bad. If I commit to setting a habit of getting up early every day for the purpose of seeing the sunset, that habit is a really good habit. This habit allows me to see every sunset in my lifetime – pretty good if you ask me. So the key here is to find what you want to replace, than, get clear and commit to repeating it in your mind. This may seem like insanity at first, but just think of all the things you’ve done this with yielding no results.
• Actions: Actions are the direct result of your habits. When you realize this, you fully understand that habits literally form our lives. From how we walk to how we talk, habits shape every aspect of our lives. This brings to light the issues in our lives and how we can turn them around by simple not enlisting in our habitual reactions. The argument here is that we can’t control the events that happen to us. This is a cop-out. Yes, we can’t control what happens to us, but we can control how we react to those situations that come into our field of experience. This is the second key to turning around your habits to habits that server you versus destroy you. The core mindset here is to become present during an experience where you would normally react a certain way. Once you become aware of how you are acting, you can take action to change the way you react.
• Environmental Change: As soon as your habits are aligned with your goals and dreams, and your actions have taken hold the new patterns. You are now ready to watch your environment change to support your goals. Once you start to take action on the new habit forms developed in your mind, your environment will change(sometimes rapidly)to support the actions you are taking. Do you remember the sunset analogy? Once I have made the committed habit to get up early for the purpose to see the sunset, taking action to rise out of bed early, I will see the curtains open by my hands, the tea being made, and the yoga mat laid out. My environment will experience even further changes as I continue this each day. My environment will literally change to support what I have envisioned in my mind.
• Purpose: I decided to place this last as a form of deconstruction of the steps. Once you have understood these steps, you now need to focus on the purpose for the change in lifestyle. Your answer shouldn’t be “for a better life”, we all want that. Dig deep and really understand your goal and purpose for changing a habit, and therein your life. Why am I honestly changing this habit. Get clear, focused, and lasered in on your goals and dreams. Align your habits with your goals that you’ve now discovered. Once you have aligned your habits towards your goals and dreams the actions will take hold, enabling your environment to support your efforts. Take the risk, take the change. Whats the worst that could happen? Your life remains the same…?