Learning to Control Your Mind
It is difficult to control our mind and our thoughts. It's easier, and more popular, to believe that we don't have that power or authority. But we do.
For most of my life, I subscribed to the easier, more popular belief. I believed I couldn’t help what I was thinking, that I was powerless to change my thought patterns, and that my mind was meant to call all the shots unless I numbed and medicated it. I believed I had no real choice in the matter. But fast forward to now, I know that to be an illusion.
When we consent to the illusion and give our mind full authority to dictate our lives, it’s no surprise that we suffer. We become enmeshed in our thoughts, and how we feel, whether positive, negative, or neutral, and our overall quality of life is based upon external forces and the thoughts and actions they trigger. So when outside events happen, they’re perceived as happening “to us,” feeding into a mentality of helplessness, disempowerment, and passivity. And from that mindset, whatever is happening around us then makes or breaks the experience of what is happening within us.
We are programmed to rely on fight, flight, freeze, and we behave in alignment with that program.
Now, when we challenge the illusion, no matter how popular and widely accepted it may be, and assign ourselves the power and responsibility to control our minds, it changes things drastically. When we gather the tools and guidance to gain distance from our thoughts - like meditation, consulting with a mentor and Guide, and rituals to consistently reinforce our challenge to the illusion - we can then observe our thoughts as separate from us and separate from one another and become more conscious of how they impact and shape our lives. This changes things drastically again.
And when we then commit to employing our mind to serve us, rather than the other way around, and hold ourselves accountable to our commitment to defy the illusion and unlearn the patterns, that shifts the paradigm yet again, relieving you of auto-pilot and promoting you to sit in the driver's seat of your life.
At this point, you may be accused of being brainwashed or being influenced by a cult or something, because your mind is now operating very differently and often in opposition to the default settings of those around you. Funny and true. You’re deleting the old programs and unlearning those patterns and assumptions. And when you no longer fit neatly into the world view of those around you and who they think they know you to be or expect you to be, it’s the lowest hanging fruit. But stay the course - no one said that taking your power back would be easy!
Because the beautiful and truly life-changing thing about this process is that is benefits all those around you, too.
As you learn to control your mind and your thoughts, and gain the strength that you are due from this difficult and valiant endeavor, outside events will shift. They can't help but shift! Because you begin to realize that you are the one creating the shift. You’ve polished the mirror, and now you can see yourself more clearly. No longer are you helpless and powerless, swinging from extreme to extreme on the unpredictable pendulum of change. You are becoming the root of the pendulum in the center, from which all change emanates. Like the eye of the storm, the fulcrum of the seesaw, the keystone of the portal - you hold the power in your stillness.
In my psychological training, this phenomenon was referenced frequently. But in hindsight, regardless of the approach, almost all of them were grounded in the paradigm of the limitation and lack of being Human, which is understandable. It wasn’t until my training within the Modern Mystery School, particularly the 2-day Empower Thyself Initiation Class and the 10-month journey of Universal Hermetic Ray Kabbalah, that I experienced approaches grounded in the foundation of limitlessness and abundance, recognizing that beyond our experiences in the physical world as a Human being, we are so much more. We are not this body, and our time on Earth is just a blip in the grand scheme of Life. We are Spirit: we have never been born and therefore will never die, and there’s a much bigger picture to it all! And what sets these metaphysical and spiritual approaches apart, and why they continue to be as effective as they are over millennia, is because they address the universal, core foundation of who we truly are and what unites us rather than sets us apart. An example of one approach is Hermetics.
As within, so without.
The Hermetic Principle of Correspondence affirms that as any change takes place within, it necessarily reflects without, and vice versa. For example, if you change how you perceive something, what is being perceived changes as well. So as you recalibrate your mind and your thoughts to focusing within, resisting the distractions of your negative ego, and steering your life consistently towards the coordinates of your Highest Good and serving your Mission on Earth, life outside of you will necessarily reflect this.
So when the chaos of life is peaking and conflict and divisiveness are boiling over, as it is right now, know that you don't have to be a part of it. Know that there’s something beyond the default. Step away from the illusion and step towards the center. Focus on your own mind, your own thoughts, your own actions, and how they’re shaping your life. Find your way to the middle of stillness and memorize the pathway. And start there if you truly wish for outside events to change.
You have the power to control your mind and your thoughts and how they impact the World around us. We all do. So it’s time to unlearn and to relearn. It’s time to zoom out and remember that you’re more than your thoughts and your body. And it’s time to start using your power for the Good of All.
