March/April 2001
Articles on the theme "Controlling the Mind"
Good Servant, Bad Master
by Patrick Plaskett
Recognizing how little we control the
mind. How to gain control.
Choosing Love
by Edward Abel
Releasing ourselves from fear and other
negative energies.
The Greatest Discovery
by Betty Perry
The Silva Method approach to controlling
the mind.
Past Life Alert
by June G. Bletzer
How productively to use our mental
and physical links with past-lives.
Calming the Unruly Mind
by George J. Felos
A lawyer's account of how meditation
can help control the mind.
Moving Into Mindfulness
by Jeanne Fortunato
Of creative visualization, yoga and
meditation.
Thoughtful Use of Reason
by Dolores T. Puterbaugh
Impulse; the traps of the Ostrich,
the Foolish Optimist and the Hopeful Christian; reason and principal.
Your Mind... A Control Issue
by Ernesto J. Fernandez
What is the mind? Is it ours? How can
we control it?
Battle For The Mind
by Charles Larsen
External vs. internal mind control.
Hypnosis and psychotherapy.
Human Vs. Divine Mind
by Rev. Pat Cross
Choosing to use the mind consciously
rather than trying to control the mind. Becoming at-one with the Divine
Mind.
A Wild Horse
by Steve Shealy, PhD
Taming the mind to experience mindfulness.
Informal and formal meditation.
Other Feature Articles
Natural Health Q & A
by Maria Moraca
Of blood sugar levels and chelation
therapy.
What is... Natural Progesterone?
by Vanessa Lee Hurst
The differences between natural and
synthetic progesterone. The relationship to estrogen. How natural progesterone
can help both women and men.
PeopleTalk
Readers' Open Forum
Minerals from Mother Earth
by Judy Power
Features stones for March & April.
Agate and Elestial.
NEW SECTION!
COMMON-SENSE SOLUTIONS
David Findlay
Good Servant, Bad Master
Patrick Plaskett
People generally believe that their minds are under their control. However, although it is possible to control one's mind, this is most often not the case. In fact controlling the mind is more of an exception than the rule - the mind generally does whatever it wants!
Does this sound radical? Our attention wanders from one thought to another or from one outside stimulus to another with no intent or control at all. We can drive our automobiles down the road, fall into road hypnosis and pass our intended turn by several miles. We can walk ten feet into the next room and completely forget why we bothered to make the trip. We can try to read the page of a book three times before we realize that our attention is not there and we're getting nothing out of it. We can allow someone's casual remarks or foolish actions cause us to experience an automatic reaction of anger or embarrassment or some other unplanned emotion. We may even ask ourselves, "Why did I say that or act that way?" All of us have experienced this lack of mental control. Yet people generally prefer to believe that they have control since the alternative is scary.
So how does one control the mind?
First, you must realize that you are not your thoughts. Thoughts happen: they have a beginning and an end that is associated with, yet is not the same as, your existence. Your real self is more real than any thought. Thoughts are mere phenomena. If you believe that you and your thoughts are one, control of the mind is impossible. Who would be controlling the thoughts? It would be like trying to pick yourself up off the ground by taking your hands and establishing a good grip on your head!
Next, you must be aware that you don't really have control of your mind. You don't go looking for something that you believe you already possess. You don't go out for a morning paper if you believe that one has been delivered to your door. Some people have contrasted times that they had more control over their minds to times that they had less. This might compel them to imagine a state of having even more control. Or some people might experience a bad mental or emotional reaction and want to control it. They might have one part of their mind telling them to quit smoking and another part of their mind pulls the car into a convenience store for a pack of smokes. They might be depressed or anxious. Most of us at one time or another want the control over our minds that we imagine we have.
Next, you must come to realize that most of your mental activity is habit and associative thinking. Mental habit often passes for true thinking. Mental habits can save us from the need of heavy, intricate thoughts all day long. You may habitually respond to social issues according to the attitudes of your favorite political party. You may habitually practice optimism or pessimism. You may habitually prefer a certain style of music. You will also quite reasonably associate new information with whatever else is already in your mind. Your conscious mind is witnessing all of this, and it's just along for the ride. All of this is habit. Habits are okay, as long as they give us the results that we want.
Perhaps true control of the mind starts with the smallest most immediate feature of the mind: our attention. Attention is a feature of the conscious mind as it is projected outward to make sense of the sensory world or as it is turned inward as we remember events or examine beliefs. Our attention can only be focused on one thing or group of related things at a time. If you don't like what you're thinking or feeling, you may be able to put your attention elsewhere. For some people this is very difficult, for where we put our attention is habitual as well. This is most troublesome for people with obsessive-compulsive or depressing thoughts. What do you do if your thoughts produce excessive grieving or pining for a lost love? Can you not think about something if someone commands you not to? What if I command you to not think about a polar bear? What happens? This is not control of the mind.
There are many ways to control the mind - once you realize how little control you regularly have. Like everything else in life, all the techniques get stronger with practice. You can put your attention where it will do you good. If your attention is on something that is not giving you the results that you want, you can put your attention somewhere else. Can you imagine a better situation? Can you imagine the results that you want? You can substitute ineffective thoughts for effective ones. You can use positive affirmations. You can pray. You can read something that inspires you. If you could custom-design your mind, what thoughts would you choose?
Self-help books have proliferated as people have sought the control of their minds that could not be found in drugs. This is a step in the right direction for, while pharmaceuticals have their proper application, they cannot change defective assumptions about the nature of life or one's own predicament in it. Therapists, hypnotists and spiritual people are ready to offer people a fresh look at the mind and provide some new tools, but the ultimate responsibility lies in one's own self. It's up to each and every one of us to stand back from our mind, and make it our servant and not our master.
Patrick Plaskett is a member of the Florida Association
of Professional Hypnotists and holds a bachelor's degree from USF. He can
be reached at the Center for Healing in St. Petersburg, FL. (727) 381-9101.
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