Stress, rush, restlessness and flooded mind is what most of us face every day. From morning till evening we are at the mercy of our surroundings, work and expectations that force us to do everything as fast and efficient as possible. But what is the outcome of all this? Our mind is full of thoughts and flashbacks from the day that are so strong that we are unable to make it stop working. To calm the mind even for one second seems totally impossible. Sometimes we succeed in having “empty mind” after 10 hours of stress and unending flow of thoughts, but that is more likely due to mental fatigue rather than conscious work with the mind. Like this we are constantly dragged behind our thoughts that influence our perception of the world as well as our reactions and opinions.
How to end this dominion of thoughts? The basis for success is motivation and desire to achieve peace of mind. The motivation can be overall calmness, simplicity in our daily life, improvement of cognitive functions, stronger concentration, improved working efficiency, ability to make decisions with clarity, or inner progress on its own. Once we succeed in making our mind calm for at least couple of minutes and make it quiet, we discover a whole new world within ourselves. And there we find the source of individual development of each of us.
So how to begin? For a beginner it is almost impossible to get rid of the thoughts. That’s why it’s good to focus on positive thoughts first. On those thoughts that bring us inspiration, joy and enthusiasm. It can be simple things such as: “I want to be a better, more spiritual person.” “I want to have only pure thoughts.” And so on. We can choose one or two good thoughts and let them grow within us. Our consciousness and perception will keep improving. Later, we can start training to make our mind calm. There are plenty of different methods how to do that, and to learn them you can visit our free meditation classes. One of the exercises is described at the end of this article.
These classes provide an opportunity to start with meditation through simple breathing exercises, concentration techniques training us to make the mind quiet.
EXERCISE – BECOMING THE SOUL
From the Meditation book by Sri Chinmoy.
In order to purify your mind, the best thing to do is to feel every day for a few minutes during your meditation that you have no mind. Say to yourself, „I have no mind, I have no mind. What I have is the heart.” Then after some time feel, „I don’t have a heart. What I have is the soul.” When you say, „I have the soul,” at that time you will be flooded with purity. But again you have to go deeper and farther by saying not only, „I have the soul,” but also „I am the soul.” At that time, imagine the most beautiful child you have ever seen, and feel that your soul is infinitely more beautiful than that child.
The moment you can say and feel, „I am the soul,” and meditate on this truth, your soul’s infinite purity will enter into your heart. Then, from the heart, the infinite purity will enter into your mind. When you can truly feel that you are only the soul, the soul will purify your mind.
