Mind matters

Most of us speak with words and listen to them, but what are words? They are sounds that convey ideas, right? For example, when someone says elephant, it may immediately conjure up in our mind an image of the animal that we have come to know as an elephant.

However, to someone who does not speak English, the word will fail to bring any image to his/her mind. Hence while either speaking or listening, it is of no use to get lost in words themselves; instead, we need to focus on the meanings behind them and on the ideas they are conveying.

Psychologists and behavioural experts say that our mind is like a parachute and it works best when it’s open. If our mind is closed, then it means we are holding on to something or we are wrapped around and busy with some thought, image, idea, concept, memory of belief that is on our mind. On the other hand, an open mind is like a window with the curtains drawn back as a result of which light can get in and light can go out.

Remember! you have a mind but you are not your mind. The most common mistake is to lose yourself in what is on your mind, sometimes consciously or more often unconsciously, and develop a false sense of ‘I’ which in simple words is described as Ego.

The feelings which then arise from this mental state, will always be uncomfortable and unnatural because you are acting against your true nature, which is free of attachment to anything on the mind. If you contemplate and reflect a little more, if you meditate with some regularity then you will start to see this as the root of all your emotional discomforts, the source of all your suffering the origin of all your stress, which is in fact quite good though because it would give you a chance to do something and better yourself. But this doing is not between you and the world out there, not between you and other people, it’s actually between you and your mind.

Thus it must be truly realized that our freedom and our happiness is impossible until we stop living in our mind and losing ourselves in what is on our mind.