EP 63 How the Mind Works

Until we understand how our minds work, we believe we are our thoughts and we also believe we have no control over our thoughts. We even identify with our beliefs so deeply that we can become defensive when someone enters our world and challenges them.  This is the reason I believe that in order for us to awaken, we need to understand how the mind works. And this episode is all about that.  I was lucky enough that I trained in clinical hypnotherapy in 2007 and it rocked my world. Both in the literal sense, as in created tremendous change. One of these changes is that it helped me overcome a ten-year writer's block without even trying. And in a metaphorical sense because it opened the door to a way of living I had no idea even existed.  I had had years of therapy before that, but the therapy, although useful to reflect on things and to connect the dots, never took me beyond my thoughts. I was limited to explore a room that contained past experiences and beliefs but with no real awareness of the vast world that existed outside that room. And not only outside that room, but in other realms.  It is estimated that we have an average of 70,000 thoughts per day. If we don't realise that we are not our thoughts, we stay prisoner of these thoughts which most of the time go into many contradicting directions and distract us constantly from what is happening in the now.  Once your realise you are not your thoughts, you can also become more aware of the beliefs that are thrown at you constantly by the media. And mostly, these are negative beliefs because it is what sells. But our minds becomes the repository of those beliefs and we might want to curate our space with more helpful beliefs.  We have a choice.  Although a belief is a thought that we think is true and usually we have ample evidence to support it, it might be worth us deciding if that belief is supporting us and then reverse engineer what we want to create in our lives and then choose the beliefs that support that version of reality we want to create. Once you do that, you will be amazed how you can find evidence to support this new belief, because the truth is, our beliefs act as filters. If you don't believe in aliens (and I am not suggesting you do or don't) then you will deny any evidence of them when you come across it. If you do, you might actually interpret facts around as evidence regardless of whether they are. It all starts with the belief.  In this episode I also talk about the different parts of the brain that you need to know about so you understand how every thought that crosses your mind can take you down two paths: the negative path or the positive path. This, of course, is not to indulge in toxic positivity, but my experience has taught me that with anything that happens to us, our beliefs can increase or decrease the suffering we experience depending on what thought we think about the situation.  I hope you enjoy this episode and if you do, please share it with someone who needs or needs to listen to it.