Can our mind control us?
There are 2 types of people; One who control their minds to achieve their goals while the other gets controlled by their minds. Human mind has been responsible for all the inventions and comforts that we see around us. Anything that the human mind has conceived it has achieved. We hear examples about people who have mastered their mind and situations to excel in whatever they were doing. But if you observe, the percentage of people who have done so has been very less. The majority of the people are slaves of their minds. It seemed like many people had great desires and goals to achieve in life but their mind had a plan contrary to their desires. It’s like their mind had a mind of its own. After careful observation, I have come up with the below 8 deadly ways in which our minds control us. We can have all the desires in this world but if our mind falls prey to the below 8 traps, then we can say that our mind is controlling us instead of the other way around. Being aware is the first step towards making sure that our mind doesn’t fall prey to the below 8 deadly traps.
1. Indecisiveness – Inability to take decisions
Most commonly known as Paralysis/Analysis. When the mind gets infected with indecisiveness, it stops the person from taking action altogether. A person who is indecisive spends their time researching to find the best solution to their problem but it never translates to action. They are so addicted to the research stage that the last thing they want is to take action. After talking to them, you will walk away with the assumption that the person knows too much about a topic and hence they must be a master at it. But the opposite is true. It’s their personal secret that they don’t tell anyone. Now every person faces situations when they are unable to take decisions. But after some research, most people jump into action mode however an indecisive person just stagnates with more research. If you take the analogy of a car on a highway, this type of a person waits for all the traffic signals to turn green and then only get their car on the road.
Mind Control Solution
- Take action on the first plan that comes to your mind.
- It doesn’t have to be perfect but just start.
- Keep 70 % focused on action and 30% focused on research.
2. Comparison – Comparing one with others and judging one’s progress
Comparison is the thief of Joy. Many people who actively pursue their goals suddenly loose interest when they compare their progress with somebody else’s achievements. Such type of person is always comparing themselves with others to measure if they have achieved anything worthwhile. Ideally, they should be comparing themselves with their own past version but their mind becomes obsessed with other’s achievement and feels unhappy. The comparison addict doesn’t see any value in themselves. Due to the constant habit of comparison, the person eventually looses hope to do anything. Nobody has achieved anything great by comparing themselves with others. The only way to get out of this mess is to remind ourselves of our own strengths at regular intervals.
Mind Control Solution
- Compare your progress with your past performance as it will give you a realistic picture of your growth.
3. Regret – Regretting about lost time and opportunities
Regret is like a poison that kills you from within. This type of person spends his/her time in the past thinking about all the ways he/she could have done something but didn’t do. Their thoughts are predominantly stuck in the past. An entire day goes by after analyzing past failures and regrets. Such a person doesn’t realize that being stuck in the past takes away our power from us. They forget to identify that if they don’t focus on their present moment, they will create more regrets for themselves in the future. Chronic regret about the past just eats away the enthusiasm to change our lives.
Mind Control Solution
- Just when you identify that your mind is going in the past, stop immediately and focus completely on the present task.
- Practice Bhastrika Pranayama.
4. Fear/Anxiety – Worrying about future scenarios
This person loves to image fake scenarios that never happen. They imagine all possible ways that a situation can go wrong. Their mind is so obsessed with controlling the future that they forget to focus on the present. They are excellent in directing horror movies in their mind. Their mind has been trained to come up with as many negative situations one can encounter. This results in crippling anxiety and a fear of failure. They can visualize scenarious that are negative in nature and create the corresponding negative emotions. They can do this for an entire day and feel bad about themselves. If unchecked, this can result is a habit formation of negative future prediction. A mind stuck in the anxieties about the future looses it’s ability to take action in the present moment where possibilities exist.
Mind Control Solution
- Practice meditation to train your brain to be in the present moment.
- Meditation is the best antidote for a brain that loves to oscillate between the past and the future.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Neuro Linguistic Programming have been proven to reduce Fear and Anxiety.
5. Lust – Constant thoughts about sex
This is an emotion that many people are not comfortable with. People try suppressing thoughts about lust but then it backfires on them. The more they try to control lust, the more it overpowers them. People fail to realize that it’s a natural emotion hard coded into us by mother nature for the propagation of the species. The problem arises when the mind gets addicted to the thoughts about sex. Many religions use prohibition of sex as a method to ascend spiritually but this rarely works. On the contrary, over indulgence in lust also is detrimental to one’s physical and mental health. The key is knowing when our mind gets triggered by lustful thoughts. Banning them from our minds rarely results in defeating them.
Mind Control Solution
- Take cold showers.
- Wash your face with cold water every time you feel that lust is overpowering you.
- Join a creative hobby course like singing, drawing, acting, dancing and martial arts.
- When you do something creative, mind channels the lust energy into creativity.
6. Comfort – Addicted to the daily comforts of live and losing interest in putting efforts towards one’s goals
Who doesn’t like a life of comfort? Everyone does. The goal of every person who is working hard today is to reach a position in the future where they can fill their life with all the comforts the world has to offer. But the person whose mind is addicted to comfort is at the mercy of their mind. Comfort affects the physical body the most. A person infected with comfort doesn’t feel like stepping out of their house. If possible, they would prefer to sleep all day. Comfort makes you not take action towards your goals. This person lives by the motto ‘Enjoy everything today’. Comfort makes us complacent. Comfort makes us comfortable with accepting mediocrity in our lives. It’s very difficult to detect comfort at the early stages. It appears when we have fallen prey to it completely. How to get out of our comfort zone?
Mind Control Solution
- Challenge yourself to join a gym.
- Learn something physical as comfort makes the physical body lazy.
- Learn Yoga or Martial arts.
- Get plenty of sunlight in the morning time by going for a walk.
- Drink water.
7. Distraction – Social media addiction
A very modern problem with the advent of social media is distraction. Distraction due to social media is on the rise globally. With organizations trying to gamify apps, it has become even more difficult to say no to these time wasters. If you check your screen tine on your mobile phones, you will be amazed to know that on an average, you must have spent 3 to 4 hours daily on social media apps. That’s 21 to 28 hours per week. The content that we watch online is the same information that has been recycled and presented im a new format. But the engineers who work in these companies get paid to make these apps addictive. This addiction is what causes distraction and makes people unproductive. Loss of attention span is a direct result due to constantly getting distracted by the notification that these apps keep sending.
Mind Control Solution
- Have an accountability partner who keeps a check on your social media usage.
- Make the colour of your phone into grey scale mode.
- This reduces the desire to pick up the phone.
- Take a 30 day vow that you won’t use the phone unless necessary.
8. Boredom – A general disinterest in everything
We all go through this. Boredom can pop up randomly at any time of the day. Boredom has the power to stop us from making changes to our lives. Most people think that if Boredom attacks their mind, it’s the end. Many relationships end due to boredom. Many ambitious plans are dropped due to boredom in the mind. Boredom is seen as a villain but it’s a trick played by our mind. I consider Boredom a gateway for exploration. Boredom will make you ask a lot of relevant questions which will give you clarity.
Mind Control Solution
- Boredom is a gateway towards something bigger.
- Observe the mind while under the control of boredom.
- Meditation is the best solution for tackling boredom.
- Journaling your thoughts while boredom pops up will help you achieve clarity.
Conclusion
The above 8 deadly ways are the most basic emotions our mind uses to control us. Don’t underestimate their power. They can literally make you give up your life goals and exist like a vegetable. The solution to conquer the above 8 emotions are multi fold. Try everything that I have mentioned in the Mind Control Solution list and find what works for you.
If you ask me, I would recommend you to first learn the below two techniques as they help you understand how your mind operates. This helps you deal with your emotions in an intelligent way.
Learn Sahaj samadhi meditation
Regards
