“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” – Lao Tzu
One early morning many years ago, I was staring directly at my own pair of eyes in the mirror of the bathroom cabinet.
Then I tried to looked at myself from another person’s view. And asked questions like: “Who are you?”, “Why are you still doing things which you don’t like? and “What is stopping you?”
Difference Between Mind And Thoughts
That morning as I stood there gazing and talking to myself, I discovered there is a difference between our mind and our thought, even the two are related. And the topic about our subconscious or unconscious mind.
The brain (physical) is part of our body. The mind (mental) is the one controlling our thoughts.
If you feel any physical pain, it is from the brain. But if you are in agony or suffering, it is from our mind.
According to author Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz of ” The Mind And The Brain“, the human mind is an independent entity that can shape and control the functioning of the physical brain.
Subconscious Mind controls Our Life
I realized my mind or my sub-conscious mind is the master of my thoughts. If I leave it to take over my thoughts, it can get me to believe things that are not actually true.
As a result, many of my actions could be self-destructive. For instance, causing me to worry about things which I could not even control, keeping me away from getting things done, or continuously reminding me of the irreversible past events of my life.
Our unconscious mind cannot distinguish whether our action is beneficial or destructive.
Our mind does not care what our brain think. It will react to any request or instruction you give it.
Any thought (via visualizations, affirmations and repeated images) that is repeated over time will be embedded within the subconscious. It doesn’t matter the thoughts are real or imagined.
Then it triggers our impulses, thoughts, desires and cravings that force us to continue doing whatever we have been doing all this time. That’s is how we form our habits.
The unconscious mind just follows religiously to whatever thoughts you feed into it. We can overcome and rewire our mind to work for us according to our terms.
So if we want to improve our life for better, we have to feed our brain with better or positive thoughts. It all depends on us.
We decide what we want our mind to tell us all the time. We can get rid of those negative, unpleasant and deceptive brain messages.
Instead, we fill it with healthy and motivational thoughts to enable us to live a vibrant and fulfilling life. If we can do that, we can really see who we truly are. And not who our mind has been telling us that we are.
One thing I realize is when we are being pressured or down in the dumps, all those false thoughts and unhealthy messages embedded in our sub-conscious mind will easily sneak into our mind and cause us trouble.
These negative and destructive thoughts are powerful and they can undermine our confidence, get us to run away from reality.
Thus some of us could end up involved in drug or alcohol abuse, become angry or anti-social, fall into grief or regret. To the extent of sinking into depression.
As they say how our life turns out, greatly depending on how we use our mind.
There are countless self-help books basically saying the same thing. The two popular classic books about the power of the thought are: “As a Man Thinketh” by James Allen and Napoleon Hill’s “Think And Grow Rich“.
The teaching of Buddhism, basically it says that everything depends upon the mind. The world we experience is the result of our karma, or actions. As all our actions of body, speech, and mind come from the mind.
According to the followers of Buddhism, if we want to change our world we have to start by changing our mind.
So, be reminded. Always think before you put thoughts into your mind.
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