small minded

Of course we all think that our mind is the most powerful muscle in our bodies, and it might well be, but more and more I am seeing the evidence that our minds are in actual fact (or perhaps just in my humble opinion), more like computers that anything else. Meaning it doesn't actual do a lot of thinking, it is simply running on our programming. Of course we would like to think that we all think for ourselves, have a little bit of savvy and that our brains are at least operating at about 10 % of its potential. 

But I don't really think that is the case. 

Oh, go ahead and protest, but before you do, let me give you the following information:

When we eat off small plates or with big forks, our minds can be tricked into 'letting' us eat less.
Now matter that the time might be the same, when we exercise on machines or in gyms, we burn less calories than outside. We like scenery.  Apparently.
Our mind can fill in gaps (like when we leave out certain letters of a word) i.e. it remembers patterns and instills them when it feels the need.
People are often given placebos and miraculously heal themselves.  Well, not often, but it has happened.
We tend to make assumptions and our minds bases our reaction to current events on things that happened in the past (not always wrong, but not always right either especially when your crying at Christmas due to a pony you didn't get when you were 2).

I could go on and on, but I think you get the gist here. 

Much like a muscle, I also think that most of us have let ourselves go.  Just go ahead and try to think outside the box, or outside of your comfort zone.  Just become aware of how attached your brain is to the way it works.  It doesn't even like thinking for itself.  It likes patterns and assumptions.

The conclusion that I have reached is that we are, in fact, not our minds. We are not our beliefs, our opinions or our most sacred held ideas. If someone were to come and strip all of those tings away from you, that with which you are left, the One that has been watching from behind the scenes all this time, the One that knows what life is all about and has been soaking up every experience with vigour, that is the real you.

Our minds are simply a tool that was created to help us cope in this reality where time is linear, physical bodies need to be kept and ties are made in order to learn and experience even more.

How would you exercise your mind? The single most effective way is meditation. You can read up on it on Google if you like, my blog is by no means large enough to cover all that it can do for you. There is nothing that meditation is not good for, there is no danger in meditation, no side-effects, no religious ties (despite popular western opinion) and you don't need to have or do or pay anything to do it (except perhaps a small initial cost to get you going if you don't know how, but there are people who do it for free and failing all else, there is always Google).

Meditation brings you into contact with the awareness that is you, whilst also allowing you to bring your mind under control, clear it and make it the best tool at your disposal, just as it was meant to be, instead of the auto pilot driving all your reactions based on files that should have been shredded long ago....

There are other means. This is just the speedtrain to the destination.