The Mind as the Gateway
"Knowing yourself is to be rooted in Being, instead of lost in your mind".
~Eckhart Tolle
The subject of working with the mind is vast and incredibly important. I want to recognize here that there is no way that I could possibly do this practice complete justice in one blog/newsletter. Please consider this an opening, an invitation, and an avenue to bring in some awareness of working with oneself in perhaps a new way.
The greatest stance that we can begin to take with ourselves right now is to become aware of our thoughts, our habitual ways of thinking and to begin to shift the ways in which we are engaging with our minds.
Every day we are being inundated with images, numbers, statistics, predictions, stories, and other fear-based information. It is challenging to not fall into the cycle of grasping onto this information and taking it on as the ultimate truth, in turn inhibiting our capacity to live our lives with peace and perspective.
As life continues to swirl, twist, turn, shift moment-by-moment, and unfold in unpredictable ways, taking the reigns of our minds workings is an incredibly potent choice to make.
Our minds are powerful.
They can carry us forward in life through the gateway of possibility or they can take us down a rabbit hold of despair. If we allow the mind to carry us down into the rabbit hole of despair our lives will follow.
Conversely, if we make the choice to bring mindfulness into our lives and work with the patterns of our individual biographies, we can bring incredible freedom, love, and compassion into our existence.
Working with the mind and shifting our brain chemistry is life-changing in immeasurable ways.
Bringing awareness to our consistent patterns of thinking and to the wild trip that our minds take us on through practice and inner dialogue is essential and especially potent during this time of being alive.
The longer we are on the planet the deeper the ridges of our beingness become. We must consciously make the choice to shift our pathways, beginning within our minds.
These days are not easy, there is no doubt, yet are rich with opportunity in creating a depth of self-awareness. Shifting in our own ways of operating, beginning with working consciously and intentionally with the mind is the absolute greatest gift you can give yourselves.
By consciously working with the mind through mindfulness and meditation practices we have the opportunity to literally change our neural pathways. The concept of neuroplasticity shows that we have control over our patterns in the pathways of our brain and can shift them in any given moment.
Neuroplasticity is empowering! It is an incredible concept to wrap ourselves around that we actually can change our brain chemistry.
With practice and over time we have the opportunity to create new ridges in our neuropathways, shifting the ways in which we think, see, operate, and engage with the world.
Meditation and mindfulness practices work to support us throughout our days in staying steady, in finding equilibrium and that balance in our minds which, in turn, lands in our bodies.
We practice, moment-by-moment, noticing when the mind starts to carry us away down into the rabbit hole of negativity, fear, overwhelm, anxiety and we consciously bring it back. We choose to shift our minds focus and give it something more life-giving to focus on.
We can focus on love, gratitude, awe, beauty, possibility, connection....anything that offers the opportunity to land in a place of peace and hope.
The mind can catastrophize everything instantaneously. It can convince one of our dysfunction or brilliance. The mind thrives on attention – needs and wants something to cling to and will run away with anything it is given.
Through working with our “monkey minds” (yes, everyone has them!), we enrich ourselves. We become curious and kind with ourselves and can choose to feed our minds with a positive and life-enhancing direction.
Our self-awareness becomes heightened through working with the mind. As we become more self-aware we gain the capacity to meet our lives from a grounded and integral place. Our ability to remain steady and peaceful in the wake of the storms of life are developed.
Mindfulness practices provide a landing pad for our bodies, our minds, and our hearts. A place to come home to.
We can witness our habitual spins and come back inside, come back to our bodies, to our breath, and to the present moment with all of its wild uncertainty and find peace and ground.
And, everyone finds themselves in the swirl at one point or another…lost in their own story and stream of thought. That is when we find that gentleness, that softness in our hearts for ourselves, and we can shift gears.
We can bring mindfulness into every moment.
There are so many outlets and possibilities for working with our thoughts by dropping down into our bodies.
Find an outlet that resonates with you to move the energy and shift your thoughts.
Even if we do not choose to do a formal practice such as a sitting meditation we can still cultivate breath, body, and mind awareness into our day-to-day lives. Bringing mindfulness and breath to the most mundane of moments goes a long way.
It is a gradual process of re-patterning our systems and ways of responding to life.
As we move forward with this wild and uncertain time, with so much pain and anxiety present, can we choose to work with our minds diligently so that we orient towards love rather than fear?
Can we find some semblance of peace, ease, and calm in midst of these unpredictable and tumultuous times?
Can we take a moment and remember, remember who we are, remember the bigger picture, remember the choice that we have every day to work with ourselves and show up to the best of our ability?
We are all in this together.