The Mind is...

There used to be a commercial that said “the mind is a terrible thing to waste.” My late husband and his punny (Punny, not funny, with pun intended.) friends used to shorten that and say, “the mind is a terrible thing!”

How correct and true that statement can be. If the owner of the mind does not control the mind's musings, the mind can be prohibitive to personal success. On the other hand, if controlled and guided properly the mind is a fertile place for success to take root, produce and thrive.

Surprisingly enough, the direction of one's mind is a choice that is made within the mind. Once the choice is made, the mind must be continually checked and encouraged to continue on the path of the choice.

The mind truly is a terrible thing if you do not take full control of it and direct it in the right direction which is the best for you and what you desire from life. Without encouragement to seek the right thoughts, the mind is detrimental to personal hope, personal happiness and personal success. When one is separated from hope, happiness, and success, it is natural to allow the mind to find ways to ensure that others are not able to be happy, hopeful or successful.

When you host a toxic mind, bet on it: You will become a toxic person. The purpose of this article is to help myself avoid that and to help others to avoid spreading the poison of negative mind activities.

I guess I was nearly thirty years old before I realized that I had the ability to take control of my mind and to direct it toward what I wanted to spend my time considering.

Unfortunately, my early years...my formative years...were not spent developing positive ideas, goals and dreams for myself. I learned a more negative way of seeing life at first. That's not to say I blame my parents for anything, as they were not privy to the positive way of looking at things when they were children so they only passed on what they knew. With so much negative in life, it is easy to flow down the dark course of negativity and to avoid swimming upstream toward enlightenment, better goals, ideals and hope.

My parents were not readers, either, so they did not know that a huge world existed outside of our little spot on the earth. They did not comprehend that what they had learned was not the end all way of things and that outside their small place of life there was possibility, hope and that things could be different, exciting and full of paths that could be beneficial to them if they were to consider them.

They were afraid to deviate from what they knew and they kept their children on the same path with them as much as possible. But, having the love of reading that I did gave me a route to the outside...a route to a better way of looking at life than I was taught.

And, a voracious reader I was. I read books every day which gave me ideas that perhaps life was not exactly contained by the view of my parents. Later, after I was grown and a mother, at some point I ran upon a book by Napoleon Hill called “Think and Grow Rich.” I read “Think and Grow Rich,” and realized that the mind was a tool that could be developed into a success seeking device, and that it was not required to allow the mind's ramblings to be in charge. About that same time, I began to seriously read the Bible and to realize that life as we know it is often limited by human perceptions and what we “see” when the truth is that with a little faith in something greater than ourselves we are able to develop the hope of things we desire but which we can only glimpse in thought. Thoughts that come from where? From the mind.

The negative mind is unable to generate the kind of thoughts that will bring fruit to positive results. A negative mind left unto itself will not produce the next breakthrough in science, it will not produce leadership that will be good for humankind. A negative mind produces losers. We can and shall see that one can change the course of what we think. Else, we are caught in the snare of negative outcomes and the rotting fruit of the darker side of things.

Before discovering the realization that I could choose the path my mind would seek, my mind was, in many ways, a terrible thing for me to have guiding me. This is the not the place for me to explore the dark side of negativity or why it was my natural course. This is the time to celebrate that fact that we do not have to accept this course. We shall explore how we can develop a better means for the mind to serve.

First we must identify where our destiny will be. What path will we push our mind to think upon? Where will we meander in thought as we relax? Where will we run and power walk our thoughts so that we will arrive at the destiny we want for ourselves?

Secondly, once the mind has its arrival place fixed, in order to expand its sense of travel along good paths, we need to introduce the paths to it. What the mind does not know it cannot utilize. So, the next stop is to develop fuel for successful thinking. Listen to things of “good report” is the advice of the Bible. Read books which are positive. Watch television programming which encourages possibility thinking. Negative thinking is easy. Thinking positive thoughts is not. Pile good stuff into your mind so that there is little room for the negative.

Thirdly, just like the body needs good exercise so does the mind. Read books which enlighten and exercise the mind into becoming more supple and graceful at stretching outside of our comfort zone. Consider taking classes in religion or philosophy. These thinking-related subjects can be helpful to stretch the mind's capability to think.

Fourth, develop an outlet for the product of your mind so that you can monitor what your progress. One way I pay homage to the better way of service of my mind is to write the good and positive things that come to me. The more I cultivate this activity, the more positive information my mind receives and the more ideas, ways to make money, better goals, and so forth come to me. That is what I am doing right now with this article. While you letting your mind have an outlet for the results and ideas it develops you can do two things...One, you reinforce the positive in your mind. Two, you share the good and positive thinking with others and that can only enhance the possibilities in the loops through life that you affect and impact.

Fifth, develop a way to share the best of your mind. If you write, then write. If you can encourage others by talking to others in encouraging ways, do this. If you blog, write a blog. If you can serve with talents such as cooking, building or through some types of enjoyable art that you do, then do so. Whatever you can do, do it so that you sprinkle around the positive results of who and what you are.

No matter how long a mind has been diverted from the negative way of seeing life, it is so easy to go back to negative pathways. “Woe is me.” thinking is an enemy which must be identified and we must flee from it by counter-acting the woe-thoughts with “Wow is me!” thinking.
The mind is a terrible thing to waste! Do not waste it and do not let it become a terrible thing...don't let your mind be a “stinker.” Take control of your thoughts and direct yourself to a more positive path.