Exciting the mind

Rewarding ourselves it always comes down to stimulating the senses, thus making the mind excited. With the mind I don’t only mean the brain, but the sum of the physical, mental and spiritual totality that being human is about. There are six senses in total: Sight, Smell, Taste, Touch, Sound and Thought. Thought is included as I also interpret it as a sense organism, by the power of our imagination we are continuously creating our reality from the inside out.

The urge to excite the mind is the driving force in modern society and keeps most of us under it’s alluring spell. It seems impossible to get out this spinning wheel of effort and reward. Really, it is not impossible at all, especially if we first start acknowledging that we are slaves of the mind’s craving for excitement, without judging ourselves for it. The next step is to observe how the mind suffers when not stimulated, from boredom or negative thoughts arising , that keeps the wheels of the mind churning in an attempt of self stimulation. In the process of finding new ways to stimulate our minds our imagination is working overtime coming up with the next “fix”. Some can’t go anywhere without their music as the music sends the mind rolling to beats and melodies and is thus kept occupied, nothing wrong with that but please understand the nature of your actions. Food is in most cultures both socially and stimulation wise a very popular form of indulgence, and understand me right also about filling other basic needs of that of a human life. Foods’ natural and basic role is keeping us nourished and healthy, to be realistic few of us are keeping it to that, we overindulge and make it something overly pleasurable. And so the list goes on, the nicotine in the cigarettes are giving the mind a rush of nicotine and keeps it exited for a while, alchohol for even longer, drugs works in a similar way. The things we do for stimulation shares the same characteristics as drug abuse as there is always a chemical reward for our actions. A jogger gets his endorphin rush or the muncher gets a sedated high after a sugar rush. If you look at today’s news or movie releases it’s all about filling it with enough drama, sex or action to keep us high in our seats, sometimes also well above our seats or on the edge. These are deliberately made so to keep exciting our minds to take part of the drama.

The only sustainable method that I have found to silence the mind never ending quest for stimulation is meditation. You could argue that this is another kind of stimulation that keeps the mind busy, but I will argue against it as meditation has the opposite effect on the mind than seeking out pleasure. It calms, gladden and makes the mind peaceful, satisfied and joyful about life itself. From my point of view this is what life is all about, enjoying what is with no judgement or attachment to the outcome of this moment. Similarily yoga can also be practiced with success for similar effects.

To master meditation, patience, dedication and practice is all required, but the initial determination is most crucial as there will be rewards along the way that will lead you along on your path. After being able to silence the mind, which alone is an incredible achievement and doesn’t really take too much of an effort, you can continue by attempting to master your feelings. Feelings may be mastered and no longer necessarily need to be at the mercy of circumstances, with other words out of our range of control. Our minds gives birth to what to feel in any given moment and mastering the mind means we can also master our feelings as it all starts with impulse and thought and from there develops into an emotion, if you let it.. This is where being mindful in everyday life plays such an important role in the quality of our existence.

Start your meditation today not too miss out on such an important practice,it will unveil to you piece by piece the ultimate truth about your human nature.