Training Your Mind

"Change of diet will not help a person who will not change his thoughts. When a person makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food."
- As a Man Thinketh

Earlier, we learned how powerful the mind is, includingboth the positive and negative way of thinking. We have found out their similarity - that they both have the ability to construct reality in our lives - and their differences - that positive thinking creates positive reality, while negative thinking creates negative reality. These ways of thinking are continuously fighting over a significant position in the mind, in which the one who will succeed will be taken into action by the individual. Therefore, positive thinkers deal with life's challenges confidently and are more likely to attain success than negative thinkers since they look at everything unconstructively.

Comparing the two kinds of thinking, obviously, what we would prefer more is to possess the positive power of thinking so that we may create a certain and stable destiny. Of course, nobody wishes for life's bitterness. We all want our happy endings, don't we? But whether we like it or not, our minds keep on generating all sorts of thoughts, even those that may cause our failure in the end. We can never stop nor avoid these unhealthy thinking. But don't worry. It is not yet a hopeless case. What we can do is to train our minds to focus on the good things rather than the bad, the happy moments rather than the sad, on what we have rather than what we don't have.

Life is full of surprises and exciting moments that by simply looking at them, we miss ourselves. We are so busy doing unremarkable stuffs out there - in the mirror, on the phone, on the PC, in front of the TV and radio, overtaking, adventuring, and endlessly seeking power and status. This is when car racers feel alive and excited - when they are in a near death opportunity! Imagine that. Actually, that is when we also feel enthusiastic - with adrenalin-pumping, hair-raising, goosebumps-appearing incidents or when one is over excited, can show off, and risks fearful flights - that we cannot see what's real in our lives. We make mistakes. We miss turnings. We lose or forget things. And this is all because we lose reign of our senses. Only when there are accidents, car crash, a thump on the head, a slap in the face, a comment, a synchronized moment, a glance from a beautiful person, song of a sweet bird, the rising or setting of the sun, a shooting star, or the rhythm of the waves do we stop for a second and appreciate and reflect these things with our minds. Time seems to slow down in moments of awe, devotion, speechlessness, and high spirits. We become aware of beautiful, fresh, sweet, shining, and glowing moments that only at these times are we awake, truly alive, and with a calm and serene mind.

They say that we will never really know what we have until it's gone. So, shall we wait for some things to disappear before we appreciate them? Not exactly. In fact, the mind can and should be trained to focus on the brighter things in life, no matter how little or uninteresting they are, so that negative thoughts shall not succeed in creating an undesirable future for us. Nothing is really late for changes. Here are some ways of training the mind on positive thinking: