We have come to the threshold of the Mind. The Mindscape is a daring place where many wish to walk but only so far as their inhibitions allow. Here there are palaces to tend and vistas to be explored. Dungeons and caverns lead into unknown depths. Monsters and heroes create scenes of war or camaraderie pending your chosen actions. How will the adventure unfold as you explore your world of the Mind?
Too much? Nah! It may have been a colorful introduction to the Mind, but many of the elements I spoke of are no less real when you start working with the Mind in spiritual practices.
The Mind is your processing unit. When I was talking about the Body, I said that the Body is constantly receiving signals from the world around it. Those signals are sent to the Mind and processed. They are examined, refuted, or adopted. Once the processing is done the signals are stored
If we just look at this from the scientific side, it doesn’t take much thought to agree on any of that. The real question becomes, “What is the role the Mind plays in spirituality?” The answer is several. It is a filter, a sponge, a garbage can, an oven…just look at your kitchen and every tool in there can be a symbol of what the Mind does in spiritual practices.
Since this series is about Foundations though, I want to give a solid understanding of a few key concepts that surround the Mind. These things that you can begin working on as early as possible because the sooner you start:
The easier they become
The more proactive you become
The quicker you move from a state of healing to a state of living
What do I mean by a state of healing to a state of living? Something I see regularly occurring is people getting caught up with healing. Yes, we can all do a little healing work for ourselves, but I want to again stress that it takes time. Not only does it take time for the healing to be effective, but it also takes time and attention to do the work needed. And I am seeing so many people getting wrapped up in the healing process that they forget to live and enjoy life.
Something like taking a vacation is thought of as a healing exercise. “I’ve worked and saved up money to take this trip, now I can finally have a respite from the daily grind.” Few people take trips for the fun of them anymore. We use them as a temporary escape. And that’s because the Mind is overworked, overstimulated, and over-utilized. We put more pressure on the Mind than we do the Body or Spirit, and that’s why I didn’t want to start with the Mind. I wanted to start this series with the Body to shift our focus a little.
Each part, Body, Mind, and Spirit, is important and should be utilized equally. When we find that balance between the three we can actualize our true selves. And that actualization propels us into a life of fulfillment.
The Mind, foundationally, can be broken into a few sub-categories. Of course, there is the Conscious and the Subconscious. The Conscious Mind is what we are awake to such as our thoughts, emotions, reactions, etc in the present moment. The Subconscious is our instinctual behaviors, Ego, memories, etc. But the Mind is so much more than just those rough classifications.
What I want to focus on from a Foundational stance are:
Intentions
Emotions
Values
Forces
Once I have gone through those and any related sub-topics, I will touch on Protection and Ego. But those four I mentioned are critical to a healthy and stable lifestyle, not just a spiritual lifestyle. Understanding and taking control of those areas is what gives us power in our uniqueness.
I also want to go over some of the symbology in the opening of this post. That will be a bit more in-depth than I want to do in an introductory post. But I worded and chose each of those symbols for a specific purpose. This means there is a reason I wanted to create a mental image of the Mind.
Stay tuned for the following posts. Things are going to start ramping up a little on the “esoteric” side of things going forward.
Thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day!!
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