In a world that is so concerned with outward appearances, nurturing the human mind may seem like a very odd thing to do. Many people never consider the possibility or power of nurturing their minds. There is so much effort made to build the body and so little effort made to nurture the mind. However, one of the best things anyone can ever do for themselves is nurture their own mind. There are countless number of programs and so much information on the media teaching and encouraging people to have a great body that is build and developed to function properly. However, when people succeed or fail, it does not happen from their bodies but from their minds. When a person begins to fail in their endeavors and commitments in life, it is hardly because they have a faulty body structure or lack physical fitness. It is first a matter of what is going on in the mind.
The human mind is certainly one of the most powerful assets every human possesses. Those who loose their minds cannot relate with the world or make any impact in it. No matter how big your dreams and aspirations may be, you can achieve them if you learn to nurture your mind and harness the positive power it possesses so that you can channel it to the right direction and make impact where you desire.
According to recent scientific findings, what we know as physical reality is a combination of vibrations of energy. Our thoughts are the result of vibrations of energy. While this may seem unreasonable to you, it is actually a reality we can take advantage of and use to improve the way we live. It is difficult to actually explain the impact our thoughts have in our lives but you must understand that your thought are very powerful. The thoughts that prevail in the mind will rule the man’s attitude and actions and these will definitely increase mind power and the quality of life one lives.
Right thinking, for right living
Thinking right is one way to attract the right motivations, put in the right efforts and make the right impact in your world and life. Your entire life and every experience you have is very much dependent on the quality of your thoughts. This implies that there are right and wrong thoughts. Thinking right thoughts is a powerful way of preparing to make impact on the world because whatever actions you take begin from what you thought about it. Most people go through life taking little notice of their thoughts: what they fear, what their minds pay attention to, what it says to self or what simply lingers there. For the most part, people go about their lives with minimal attention paid to how they think. People go through life neglecting one of it’s most potential forces, thoughts.
Nurturing your mind through mind development exercises is predominantly about focusing your thought energy on the right thing in order to increase mind power. You see, the mind is so powerful that it could create an entire world or a situation that does not really exist and compel the body to act in accordance to that fantasy. Let’s take fear for example; if someone walks into a dark room and is afraid, he or she could run out of the room. It may be a room they have been in a thousand times before. What causes a negative reaction is the thoughts that dominate the person’s mind at that point in time. Generally, what you think concerning anything may not be how it is but your thoughts or what goes on in the mind concerning a situation will determine how you react to it and whether or not is is beneficial to you.
Get into the process of reshaping your thoughts
An example may throw more light. If you are given a job and you allow your mind to be dominated with thoughts that make the entire thing seem very difficult, you may either give up the opportunity to do it or fail at it because you thought it was difficult. A third alternative however is that you may find out that the job is not even half as difficult as you thought it will be. Alternatively, allowing positive thoughts towards an opportunity like the one just mentioned to dominate your mind is about 50% guarantee that you will succeed at it. By now you should see how important it is for you to nurture your thought. Your thoughts are the primary creative forces in your life and engaging thoughts rightly is part of the mind development exercises you need to take seriously. Use them intentionally and you will awaken to a life of possibilities and abilities.
At every point in time, you are either thinking negative or positive thoughts and these either decrease or increase mind power. One will always dominate the other and the one which dominates determines your reality. The thoughts that prevail in the mind determine your reality and influence perceptions and actions.
Learn to detox your thought. There are thoughts which are detrimental to your progress in every area of life. So poisonous that nothing good can actually come from them. For the most part, I think people really know which thoughts are right, which thoughts are wrong, and especially which of them are toxic (those of them with a terrible effects on ones life). It is imperative that we learn to prevent and eliminate toxic thoughts if we must nurture the mind and take advantage of the power it possesses. In order to uproot toxic thoughts and increase mind power, you must detach from thoughts that defraud you of progress and purpose. Get rid of thoughts of defeat, failure and impossibilities.
These are thoughts that weigh you down by causing your mind to propagate negative emotions. It is funny to sometimes notice what kind of thoughts we allow to linger in our minds at just the wrong time. Choosing the thoughts you dwell upon is an important part of mind development exercise. You may be faced with a problem and the first thing that comes to mind is who to blame, rather than how to solve the problem. Ironically, the thought of blaming someone drives you to point fingers when you should be taking responsibility. Before you know it you’ve spent hours, days or even weeks, unable to figure out the solution to your problem because you are preoccupied with playing the blame game. How did this happen? By allowing the wrong thoughts to dominate your mind.
Consciously choose to dwell on the right thoughts
Detoxing your thoughts may not be the easiest thing in the world but it is something you definitely have to do if you must increase mind power and live better. The simple truth is, your thoughts can be controlled. You can actually decide what to think about and what not to think about. The powerful thing about the mind is that thoughts first come to us as suggestions, passively you could say. So actually no thought has the power to be planted In your mind without your permission. The human mind is the product of the thoughts you have permitted to stay in it. Toxic thoughts make the mind a battlefield.
There are some negative or toxic thoughts which are the mind’s default way of reacting to certain problems or perceived problems. For example, someone who fears going to the hospital may always think; there must be something very serious going on with me when he or she is told to go see the doctor. You have to challenge every negative thoughts that has become a default reaction to certain issues in life. This means making active effort to eliminate such thoughts from the mind. Toxic thoughts keep us in a war between what is truly possible and what we perceive as impossible.
Actively keep your mind processing positive thoughts. Positive thoughts are sometimes inspired by positive circumstances. However, we could also initiate positive thoughts by directing our thinking to the right things. Consider positive things and discipline the mind to continually think on those things. Such thoughts most times have to be planted in the mind intentionally. In order to plant positive thoughts you have to intentionally and continuously think on positive things. Things that inspire courage rather than fear. Things that assure you of the ability and potential rather than bring discouragement. The only way to reprogram the mind is to get to the root of toxic thoughts that are robbing you of a greater quality of life and replace them with positive thoughts.
Reprogramming the mind is a tedious process but it is the only way to reach your true potential. One way to successfully plant positive thoughts is by challenging your belief system. Your belief system is the key to your success or failure in life. You can challenge your belief system and break through the barriers separating you and the life of your dreams. The possibilities of creating new opportunities and overcoming challenges become clear. We have to challenge habits which are of course always thought driven. A place from which we gain more power and control of what we think and how we think about certain issues in life.
Make nurturing your mind a daily commitment. Nurturing the mind for a better living must be considered a daily thing if one is to get any benefits from it. It is like cleaning the body to keep it healthy. You must bathe every day to keep bacteria in check and you must apply lotions and sprays to keep the body looking and smelling good. We are good at maintenance when it comes to the body, cars and houses. However, we fail miserably when it comes to the maintenance of our minds. Whatever is not properly maintain is bound to inevitably malfunction. The mind that is neglected will produce a defeated life.
You cannot afford to make mind maintenance something you do once in a while. If you let your mind go wild with the wrong thoughts for just a day, you will be surprised how challenging it could be to detox from those wrong thoughts and bring things back in perspective in your mind again. People are always doing and saying things around us and life is happening by the second. Sometimes the things that people say to us and the things that happen around us try to define our thoughts, either negatively or positively.
A wasted mind is one of life’s greatest regrets. You must renew your mind regularly. Renewing your mind is scrutinizing and carefully selecting what you think and how you think. Your thought process is what you think. Your thought pattern is how you think. You should let the kinds of thoughts that encourage positive attitudes in life. Inconsistent results are the product of unintentional thinking. If you are not pleased with what grows out of your life, you need to change what you are planting. Your mind will either make a victim or victor out of you. The power to transform your life begins with maintaining a consistent positive thought pattern.
Learn the art of Discipline
When it comes to mustering the forces of life and making impact or bettering one’s living, there is no going ahead or making progress without conscious discipline of the human mind. Discipline is the bedrock upon which anything worth achieving is attained. All what has been said will not work without a decision and effort to be disciplined. Nurturing the mind is hard work but it is also very rewarding. There is no way a person can really nurture his or her mind and not see a change in their life. You must muster the will power to go on everyday. To discipline your mind everyday will sometimes feel like the most difficult thing in the world. But it actually feels easier as you commit to it daily. After a few months, you will find it very easy to keep wrong thought out of your mind and nurture the right thought.
Watch what you are saying
There is a very close correlation between what you say and the way you think. Usually, people speak out of their thoughts. But there are also times when we speak before thinking. Now even when you think before talking, you must remember that when you say anything, you think about it. Whatever you say, you are going to think about it, no matter how briefly you think. In addition to this, talking, especially when you talk to yourself is a very important part of meditation (which we will talk about later herein). If you keep talking to yourself about something, the possibility that you are going to keep it in mind is very high. That’s why hanging around people who gossip, chit chat or engage in different negative talks is one of the worse things for someone who wants to nurture their minds to engage in. Whether you are talking to yourself or talking to people, you have to watch what you say in order to nurture your mind for better living. Learn to hang around people who help you think positively by talking positively.
Now Meditate
Meditation is one of the most important ways to develop the right thoughts and nurture your mind for a better living. There are different stages or levels of meditation. The first thing you have to do as far as meditation is concerned is learn to have a quite mind. A moment alone, when you can simply get your mind to be quite as you eliminate wrong thoughts and fill it with the right thoughts.
Watch what you believe Your belief system is determined by things that you have held on to for a long time. Things that have always shaped the way you analyze the events and situations of life. You need to change some core beliefs that nurture wrong thinking and make it difficult for you to hold the right thoughts consistently. It is up to you to do the work of changing your beliefs. And when you do, you will be opening up new worlds—literally!
Take life easy: A hectic lifestyle can leave us rushing past our deep longings, and ultimately diminish our satisfaction from life itself. It is very easy to get caught up in the stressful and challenging situations and circumstances of life. Too many things to do and think about. All these makes it even more challenging to fix one’s thoughts on the right things or the bright side of life. It is important to sometimes just slow down in order to put things back in perspective.
So now how do you slow down? first of all write down a list of your priorities. Set aside time to discern where you truly feel fulfilled in order to place your attention and energy. Also learn how to let go of other forms of busyness that do not serve you well. If there are things you worry about which do not really make any meaning or add value to your life in any way, you need to push them aside. Things that are really important to you cannot be solved by worry if there is a problem. Consequently, as much as you want to effect a change and make things better, you need to ensure that your emotions and thoughts are under control.
Create goals
Creating goals is like the meal planning part of getting your body in shape. Goals feed the mind, so you want to make sure your feeding it what it needs. Exclusive to each person, your goals are the sustenance that your mind needs to survive. It gives purpose and objective and when achieved, goals create self-gratification. Simply knowing what you want allows you to find the resources to accomplish your goals rather than aimlessly stumbling upon it. By recognizing your goals and what you want, you are more inclined to find the means to achieve them.
However, aside from nurturing the mind, you can also strife to achieve overall wellness by nurturing your whole body, soul and mind.
Read and learn often. Education shouldn’t stop once you’re out of school. Open your mind to new possibilities, beliefs, and interests by reading, taking on-line classes, watching documentaries, and attending workshops.
The human mind, as powerful as it is, can be used for or against your advancement and improvement in life. If you will simply use the mind development exercises or tips above and put in the effort required to nurture your mind, in no distant time, you will realize a tremendous change in the quality of life you live.
Exercise Regularly
As you seek to develop or nurture you mind for better living, you must realize that there are few things as important for mind development like regular physical exercise. Normally, people get into physical exercises to develop their bodies. As a result of ignorance about the importance of exercises for mind development, the kind of exercises chosen do not really help in mind development. There are some simple exercises that help for mind development. Things like simply jogging or running help develop mind power. They help you detox and clear off some stress and thoughts that may be clouding your mind and keeping you from thinking right.
You should also learn games like chess and checkers which demand strategic thinking and help in mind development. You may not have to the time for such leisure very often but if you make it a routine, you will definitely experience some level of development in the way you think and the functioning of your brain.
Challenge yourself and stretch your limits
The potentials of human mind are simply limitless. Looking at the development and changes that have happened on this planet from ages past, we will realize that what we see up to now is simply a part of what our minds can conceive. Thousands of books have been written and yet original ideas and discoveries keep surfacing on a daily basis.All it takes is commitment to developing your mind by using the steps explained above.