Is it truly possible to be the master of every thought that you chose to enter your mind or not, as the case may be? To be able to filter out all unwanted and unproductive thoughts automatically without too much conscious thought so they pop in and pop right out again in the blink of an eye? Sounds like a tall order doesn’t it.
The mind seems to act like some restless creature that won’t lie still and be tamed sometimes, constantly on the go, flitting from one notion to the next at random. In fact most of our bodies functions are done without any real conscious thought from breathing and walking to heartbeat and blood flow around the body. So it is with the involutary nature of our thoughts. They are sometimes like unwanted guests, just coming in sitting down for a bit, making a mess, then waltzing off again.
Our minds cannot help but think about what ever it sees, analyzes,questions and reasons it, before it “rates” its importance. Your mind processes this information almost instantaneously and decides on this importance rating by using a “filtering” system. Everyone’s filters are different and account for why some people will attach such significance to one subject, while for someone else, that same subject will hold none whatsoever.
Our filter settings began to be set in, you’ve probably guessed it, our childhood years-and have been undergoing a process of fine-tuning ever since. Every thought, word, occurence or experience has an effect on our minds and conditions our thoughts. These thoughts are thus produced non-stop and we seemingly bath in a sea of them. This incessant flow of thought requires a lot of energy and can occupy a lot a time.
Unfortunately the thoughts produced are mostly fairly unuseful or negative thoughts, and in this scenario too many of them can feel like we are being overwhelmed by too much of this kind of thinking, and a sense that we are “drowning” in this sea of negative thoughts. This can lead to a sense of helplessness, that feeling of having little or no control over what thoughts enter our minds.
Being constantly dogged by unwanted and negative thoughts is a form of enslavement. These obsessional notions and mental mind games can begin to affect our health and lead to forms of mental illness such as anxiety and depression.
But this should not be. Why let our thoughts rule us when our minds should be their master? Why not be at liberty to enjoy only beneficial and desirable thoughts that will bestow inner peace rather than your mind bossing you with relentless and mostly futile work? The state whereby you can chose which thoughts enter your mind and which don’t is true freedom.
Using the untamed animal analagy, you can train your mind using concentration exercises and meditation techniques to attain the self discipline and obedience required to “bring your mind to heel”, and make it stop the flow of unecessary and negative thoughts from entering it. If you put in the effort to achieve this you can realise true mental mastery.
