The Stages of the Mind
Written by Jerry on November 21, 2009 – 2:17 am -The Stages of the Mind
For our purpose here, there are three unique stages in the mind that depict how it’s functioning at any given time. Some meditation experts and psychologists may define many more levels but, I want to keep it simple, short and useful for you.
One: The Normal Mind
In the “normal” state of mind, your mind is working in many directions – which means it’s bouncing from one idea and thought to the next. In fact, this is really an abnormal activity for the mind because it needs to focus on fewer ideas if it’s to be successful in dealing with daily life.
Stimuli from all around you are constantly coming at your mind. When something new stimulates your mind, it moves from its previous thought to the new one. Although you feel like you are completely in control of yourself during this, you probably aren’t.
You have very little control over the way that you behave and think during this "mind bouncing." Not only do your thoughts move from one thing to the next thing quickly, but your body begins to speed up too. Your emotions will follow soon.
An example of this type of brain activity can be as simple as seeing a child playing. If you see the child while you are driving, your mind goes from control of the vehicle to the child. She’s cute, playing and riding her bike. Then, your mind moves to thoughts from your own childhood. You feel good and smile at the happy memories.
Of course, it doesn’t always play out so innocently. You can go through these same thought and emotional processes with negative images too.
Consider if that child was a teenager, doing something that they shouldn’t be. Now, you might start wondering about your own children and what they are doing that you don’t know about. And, your emotions are now fearful and tense.
In a negative situation, you are likely to become distracted by the thoughts bouncing through your mind, which then directly impacts the way that you drive your vehicle. Perhaps you run a red light or, you narrowly miss a car accident.
As you can see, in your "normal state" of mind, your emotions as well as your physical being are brought into play. Each plays their own role in the outcome of this "mental event."
Often, stress builds up during this process and since it’s our “normal” state of mind, they pile on over time. You can find yourself unable to concentrate on anything for more than a few seconds and, over time, you can have trouble balancing your everyday life.
For the most part, your “normal” way of thinking may be creating a quiet havoc in your life.
Two: Concentration
Concentration is the first state that leads to meditation. But, don’t confuse concentration with meditation. It’s something very different.
During this second stage of mind, you can begin to get control of your thinking. When you learn to keep yourself in this mind frame, you’ll improve the quality of your life considerably.
In concentration, your goal seems simple but its actually quite difficult to master. You need to concentrate on only one thing or object.
To be successful, you need to keep your mind focused on that one thing and not be distracted by any thoughts or external events that happen to pop up. Focus on it, without allowing your mind to wander. It’s not as easy as it seems.
During concentration, the problem is the mind’s ability to trick you back into its “normal” state of being. By moving away from the actual concentration topic and focusing on another, it pulls you back.
For example, if you need to concentrate on a report for school, you could be sitting down thinking and working. You’ll allow your mind to focus and relax on the topic at hand.
Then, you think of what your teacher had to say about the report. That leads to thoughts of what your friend said next to you while the teacher was talking. Within a matter of minutes, you are thinking about something completely different than the topic of your report.
The result is that you are distracted so much that you are back at the “normal” stage of thinking, having accomplished little in way of concentrating on your report. This is just not going to work.
Now you must use your awareness to realize what’s just happened. When you can realize that you’ve been distracted and that your mind has fooled you, then you can come back and actually concentrate.
This is part of the cycle of concentration. It looks sort of like this:
Normal State==> Concentration==> Distraction==> Normal State==> Awareness==> Concentration==> Distraction….
When you can master the art of keeping your mind focused and concentrating, you’ll experience a new level of thinking. You’ll be able to relax more and you’ll be able to actually feel better about your life. That’s an amazing feeling!
Three: Meditative State
In a meditative state, the third stage, you enter a completely different realm. Now, you are able to fully concentrate on the object or thought without falling for any type of distraction. Here, distractions seem to just disappear.
This is the stage that you are striving for because it really can offer you a new outlook on life. In many ways, you’ll be able to focus so much that you can better understand yourself. You will begin to reshape your emotions and make better decisions.
During concentration, your mind is concentrating on the object of focus in a minimal way. Distraction breaks the stream of concentrative thoughts. This means you must become aware of the problem and to go back and change it.
In a meditative state, this is no longer the case. Now, you are keeping the ongoing stream of thought moving. There’s nothing breaking it and nothing that is able to pull your mind from it. This is the ultimate experience in meditation.
Consider this. If you think about just one topic, over and over again, anything and everything connected to that topic will come to you in one form or another. Let’s say that the word that you use is that of love.
If you think of love in a meditative state, you concentrate on that one word which leads to other terms connected to love. You love something, you love someone, different types of love, and so on. Eventually, you have connected in practically every way possible to love. You physically feel it, you emotionally feel it. You have thought about it over and over. And, eventually, you have connected everything you can to love.
When you have achieved this state of meditation, you’ve elevated yourself to a whole new level. You’ve gone far beyond the simple level of concentration. Now, you have entered the important stage of meditation which is called contemplation. This part of the final stages of meditation is the very best level of consciousness that your mind and body can enter. In a sense, you "become" what you meditate upon.
Although it takes some time to achieve this level of understanding, the end result is well worth it.
Never Stop Exploring Life!
Jerry L Saunders, RM
Tags: Abnormal Activity, Amp Nbsp, Brain Activity, Control, Emotional Processes, Emotions, Happy Memories, Meditation, Mind Control, Mind Moves, Mind Your Mind, Nbsp, Negative Images, Negative Situation, Psychologists, Rsquo, Smile, Stimuli, Teenager
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Take It Easy
Written by Jerry on November 7, 2009 – 4:18 am -Take It Easy
Can you remember your childhood days? During those times, nothing yet seemed complicated – all we had to think about were crayons, cookies, or Santa Claus. We didn’t care about the things we didn’t know because we were just too oblivious of the things that might bother us.
But as we grow older, we get anxious with the things that surround us – life and death, loving and parting, success and failure, to name a few. We find that almost everyday, we are obliged to be concerned about people or events.
Nevertheless, always keep this in mind: Don’t take things as if they are responsible for the way you feel. Events or situations do not trouble you. How you look at them does.
If you miss those carefree days, you just have to look back at how you used to view things then, and you will know what to do now. Here’s a guide to make sure you won’t lose your way:
Cherish the simple things: Trust in the power of a smile or laughter, a kiss or a hug. Believe in kindness, honesty, dreams, and imagination. Living positively is the first step to becoming happy.
Loosen up. Laugh at your mistakes. You might remember the time when you were delivering your speech and your mind went completely blank right in the middle of delivering it. It’s embarrassing. But most likely, your audience will forget about it in a day or two. We all mess up occasionally. The good thing is that people tend to forget such situations.
Surround yourself with what you love. Get a pet. Retain film moments as keepsakes. Keep away from those that drag you down. If that high-paying job makes you sulk at the thought of having to go to work, find a job you like first before quitting. If some people force you to comply even if you think of doing otherwise, stay away from their company.
Don’t put off. Go on that trip. Take your Master’s. You’ll never know the extent of your life. Do something, while you can.
Don’t push yourself too hard trying to please everyone. You just can’t. And it never seems to be worth it anyway. When you want to make somebody’s day, start with your loved ones.
Keep fit. Be that attractive person you always picture yourself to be. Cherish your health. It’s the best way of showing you are putting your best face forward.
Do not assume. Don’t fret about forgetting your speech before you actually do it. Don’t worry about not getting the job you want because you might mess up at the interview. It’s good to expect the worst; but don’t end up expecting only the worst.
Alter your way of thinking. When you’re being ridiculed, criticized about your family background, or condemned for past mistakes, put on deaf ears. Don’t believe everything you hear. You know yourself better than everybody else does. Never wallow in self-pity.
Remember: Don’t get upset over things just because it’s how most people would react when faced with the same situation. When you find yourself being negative – angry, down, jealous, etc. – you also unknowingly drain your energy and enthusiasm. You just have to try keeping these negative feelings in the low, because giving in to these emotions would sometimes make you unreasonable, and you might end up making bad decisions.
Happiness is always in your grasp. You can attain it, as long as you know how.
Never Stop Exploring Life!
Jerry L Saunders, RM
Tags: Audience, Carefree Days, Childhood Days, Crayons, Delivering Your Speech, Dreams, Extent, Film Moments, High Paying Job, honesty, Imagination, Kindness, Kiss, Laugh, Laughter, Life And Death, Rsquo, Santa Claus, Smile, Success And Failure
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Finding Peace in Chaos
Written by Jerry on August 15, 2009 – 11:30 pm -Life can be truly hectic, even chaotic, if we don’t stop now and then to take a few minutes for ourselves. With the invention of computers, our work lives were supposed to get easier, but it’s gotten busier than ever before!
The original mentality was that computers would allow us to get the same amount of work done in half the time. That idea went out the window when we realized we could now get twice the work (or more) done in the same time.
Now our world has become so fast paced that it’s hard to keep up. If you don’t stop the pandemonium, you will begin to feel as if your life is descending into a chaotic jumble. Luckily, there are ways to deal with these overwhelming feelings and put some order back into your life.
Here are a few tips on how to find peace in your chaos around:
1. Take a break. Give yourself a chance to take in everything going on around you. Even if your break is a nice hot bath instead of a shower, it can help.
Find a little time here and there to get some peace and quiet while you reflect on the events of the day or on just nothing.
2. Meditate. Meditation can be very helpful in bringing you peace. Meditation doesn’t mean sitting cross legged and chanting like a monk. Instead, it’s a very comfortable and soothing way to calm your mind and bring you the serenity you desire.
With a little practice, anyone can meditate.
Picture yourself on a bridge. Imagine looking down at the water and seeing leaves floating by in the stream. The leaves represent your problems and the chaos around you. Now, without stopping to focus on the leaves, watch them just drift away in the water and disappear forever.
3. Find something positive. No matter how chaotic things get, you can always find something good and positive in your situation.
Actively look for the silver lining. It could be something as simple as a favorite song, a picture, or the smile of another person that gives you some inner peace. Look for these things and you will find them.
As a last resort, if you can’t find something good, ask yourself "If I COULD find something good, what would it be?"
4. Slow down. While we have to multitask almost constantly these days, doing so tends to wear us down even faster. Multi-tasking adds to the chaos around us.
When you can, take one thing at a time and allow yourself to focus on that task alone. While you may be able to handle three or more things at once, the quality won’t be nearly as good as if you focused on them one at a time.
5. Don’t let anyone drag you down. Be wary when considering the opinions of others.
Don’t ignore everyone, but don’t let yourself get bogged down with other people’s baggage and their issues, either.
It’s best to remove your personal chaos causers, even if one of the causes is other people.
6. Throw out the drama. Eliminate the drama in your life, especially other people’s drama. It’s not your concern, so stay out of it and don’t get caught up.
Focus on solving your challenges positively rather than enjoying pity parties. This will reduce the drama and turn your focus to something positive.
Everyone has some chaos their life. It isn’t always a bad thing. Stress can be productive as well. In fact, without stress and responsibilities, some people would never get out of bed!
Life will always have stress and problems, but how you react to them and how much you allow in your life can dictate the level of stress in your life.
The first step is realizing that you NEED to make some time for yourself. If you don’t, nothing else you do will really make that much of a difference. You can’t be there for everyone else if you aren’t taking care of yourself first.
Use these tips every day to bring order to your life, and soon you’ll find peace in your chaos.
Never Stop Exploring Life!
Jerry L Saunders, RM
Tags: Affirmations, Bridge, Chaos, Chaotic Jumble, Circumstances, Favorite Song, Few Minutes, Finding Peace, Gratitude, Half The Time, Hot Bath, Inner Peace, Invention Of Computers, Leaves, Little Time, Mentality, Monk, Overwhelming Feelings, Pandemonium, Peace Meditation, Personal Growth, personal power, self help, Serenity, Silver Lining, Smile, spirituality
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