We have power over our minds - if we choose

If your thoughts bother you,
try losing your mind for a change.
Jeff Saunders

Gautama the Buddha is reported to have claimed that "Life is Suffering". However, keen to be practical and give his followers the skills to transcend that suffering, he taught the Four Noble Truths. Broadly, these four truths are:
1.Suffering is a part of the human condition, because it is a part of reality.

2. The cause of suffering is having to have this but not that, the desire to escape uncertainty or discomfort, or other unwise thinking.

3. Release from suffering involves the cessation of desire, of the mind's constant focus on having more, or having less, fearing this, or hating that.

4. Elimination of desire is achieved by following the Noble Eightfold Path. This path encourages the 'middle way', with the downgrading of desire to an acceptance of 'what is', and an acceptance of 'a little bit of this, and a little bit of that'. In particular, it requires giving up cravings and aversions, the 'must have this' and 'must not have that,' and fixed mindsets about 'good' and 'bad,' 'right' and 'wrong.'

We are in control of our bodies and our minds - if we choose to be. We can't blame anyone else for what we choose to allow the mind to focus on. When thoughts arise, we have the option of leaving them there, removing them, or replacing them with others. Most of us were trained in the 'blame someone else' model, or even the 'I can't get that thought out of my mind' model. Usually, a mindset that seems to have 'a mind of its own' and is difficult to shake is being kept in place by associated emotions.
If we react nervously when we are in a crowd, for instance, that emotion may immediately trigger unhelpful, and habitual, mindsets. Be aware, though, that thoughts we repeat over and over, and the emotions that drive them, can be stopped. Only when the mind is extremely stressed will it generate irrational thoughts that seem out of control. At its most extreme, this is a state called psychosis. The truth is, though, we can all be a bit this way if we allow our mind to run our life.5

If unhelpful thoughts are besetting you,
change your mind and keep the change.

If you are at all aware of the effect of your thoughts, you will be aware that negative thinking has the capacity to generate negative emotions. The electromagnetic energy of thought is believed to be the causal agent of emotional disturbance. Recent research has show that this is indeed true. We know, for example, that high blood pressure can be caused simply by thinking stressfully, and that if left untreated it can cut your life short by twenty years. If you have hypertension (high blood pressure), you are at twice the risk of dying in the next year, at three times the risk of dying of a heart attack, at four times the risk of having heart failure, and seven times the risk of having a stroke.7 Does that convince you that what you think matters?

But there's more. We now know that whenever we have a particular thought, amino acids called neuropeptides communicate to the cells the message generated by the thought. We experience this movement of molecules throughout our body as e-motion, energy-in-motion. Specifically, chemical energy in motion. Negative or stressful thoughts are translated into chemical processes, whereby cells throughout our body are bombarded with these messenger molecules. Candace Pert, a neuroscientist who has researched the chemical interaction between mind and body, has demonstrated that what we think leaves a chemical residue in cells throughout our body. If we think toxically, our cells finish up wearing the toxicity. Even if we don't die of high blood pressure, there are many other harmful effects we can inflict on our bodies by choosing to allow ourselves to think in negative and unhelpful ways.

When you indulge in toxic thoughts,
your body will be forced to keep the score.
Your mind won't thank you for it either.


(Excerpt from The 12 Choices of Winners, Book 1 in The Spiritual Life Mastery Series, by Jeffery Saunders. The associated cartoons cannot be displayed.)