Changing the Mind

People who are experiencing emotional suffering can choose to free themselves from the bondage of negative thought. It’s as easy as changing the mind.

A common misconception among people who experience a great deal of emotional turmoil is that they are powerless to change their state of mind. When people believe that they are a slave to their emotions then they behave as though they are. They will find themselves caught up in a cycle of negative experiences that manifest as a result of their thoughts and emotions. So how do we know it’s possible to change the mind? We know it is possible based on two very sound principles.

People can be uncomfortable with change at times. Depending on what aspect of our lives is changing, emotions can be very powerful regarding the change we’re experiencing. Take death for example. We as people are born into this world, we live for a certain period of time, and then we pass away. It’s a truth that is self-evident, yet this aspect of our lives creates one of the most difficult changes we face. Change takes place within us and around us constantly. Just as the world changes, our thoughts change as well. If we know it is possible to change the chemical makeup of the air we breathe just by breathing it than we know we can effect change on any aspect of our lives because it is impermanent. Deciding the type of change you desire is based mostly off of what you truly want to create for yourself. This can be tricky you look at the reality of how we arrived in that particular situation, we can see it came about as a result of our thoughts and the choices we made based on those thoughts. We may think that all we want is happiness, but the thoughts of how to achieve that can sometimes include poor choices, immediate gratification that is also impermanent, or clinging to something without being mindful of its transitory nature. Having a grasp of the impermanence of our destructive thinking empowers us to then create the motivation that will compel us to generate constructive thought. The effect that generating constructive thought has on destructive thought is that it diminishes from the frequency and effect of the destructive thought.

The second principle contributing to the possibility that our minds can be changed are the physical laws of how the Universe functions. The physical world is full of opposing forces. Just like good is in conflict with bad, positive is in conflict with negative. The forces are in direct opposition to one another and the more one is enhanced, the other is diminished. Imagine lighting a fire in a dark forest. Before the fire was lit, nothing was visible and dark prevailed, but with the fire the light penetrated the darkness andilluminates the forest. The brighter and more powerful the light is, the less the dark can exist. Thoughts are effected in the same way. The more a person is inclined towards positive and constructive thought, the more it diminishes from the destructive thought’s influence on the mind. Getting in the habit of generating constructive thought helps the mind to focus less on destructive thought. The result is that experience.

• Unconditional love
• Kindness
• Compassion
• Equanimity
• Impermanence
• Patience
• Tolerance

In order for a person to change the way they think, they need to know it’s possible. There are two principles that validate this belief. The first is the fact that everything changes. The transient nature of our thoughts gives us the opportunity to generate enough constructive and positive motivation in our minds to actively suppress the negative thoughts that cause us suffering. Finding the proper motivation means relying on constructive ideas and the willingness to put them into practice.