Designing the mind

There are of course various modalities for reaching a more balanced, peaceful, empowering and functional state/life. What most of them have in common is a process of widening our view out of the narrow (ego driven) to a wider map. 'The map is not the territory' is a common phrase in NLP. We zoom out of our very personal and tiny experience. 

Our experiences, especially as children when we were utterly dependent, shaped our belief systems and although our responses were there to protect us in the moment they don't necessarily serve us later in life. This applies to millions of experiences and we essentially get stuck in patterns, mental algorithms. Neural pathways are carved out so when similar occurrences happen we respond in the same way. For example...a bite from a scared dog that we poked as a toddler makes us scared of ALL dogs for the rest of our lives..

UNLESS

We exercise CHOICE. Become conscious. Not just driven by unconscious patterns. Then act to carve out new algorithms. How empowering is that?! That you can be your own Psychitect! Not a victim and slave to an outside world without any control in how you respond (and this externally locused mindset alone is often encouraged in these times which really doesn't serve us and makes us feel powerless).

Mindfulness teaches us to step away and observe our inner workings without judgment. Not identify with our thoughts and emotions. Instead of believing the 'inner critic' when it calls you a twat you can just observe, say 'hmm', smile and wonder where that pattern might have arisen and consciously change it. We can take it further and analyse and modify these patterns to better serve us. There is more here of course but this is powerful stuff and it is one BIG part of how we get to a better, less anxious place, in control of our lives.

Beliefs are not always the same as truth. Unless we are conscious we all think our beliefs are true, and since we all have such different beliefs we know they can't be the ultimate TRUTH. But we get closer to it the more we widen our perspective and our levels of consciousness. Connecting, extending love and understanding. Not the desire to just be RIGHT. 'My aim is true' as Costello said. We must make that our main value and understand and utilise the tools for getting there.

Have you read about Game B?

Raising our consciousness and taking responsibility is needed (response-ability.....we always have the ability to respond)

The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly - you usually don't use it at all. It uses you. This is the disease. You believe that you are the mind. This is the delusion. the instrument has taken you over.