CONTROLLING THE MIND AND DEVELOPING A HEALTHY MENTAL STATE

The mind is everything because all our perceptions of good or bad, pleasure or pain, happiness, and sorrow are experienced in the mind. Hence the below quote by a famous   English poet 

The mind is its place own place

and in itself can make a hell

of heaven or a heaven of hell

------ John Milton

In the above quote, the poet clearly states that our mental state is solely dependent on the mind itself. Through our minds, we create or reshape our reality. Our mind feeds the information to the brain which will rewire it to create reality. Thus, the reality experienced by an individual is a product of the creation or projection of the mind and interpreted by the brain irrespective of the actual world that is out there. If a person constantly complains or gossips or finds excuses for not wanting to do the assigned task, that will make it easier for him to find things even with the smallest reason to get upset about, regardless of the actual happenings. These are negative mental attributes. Conversely, if a person constantly looks for opportunities, abundance, and love to be grateful for, that would make it easier to find a reflection of those things in the surroundings. These are positive attributes. All these may be more easily said than done. Practicing and implementing positive attributes over time becomes a powerful way to change reality. These would lead to positivity and thus would be conducive to maintaining a healthy mental state.   But the point remains is, how not to slide down back into the mental trap of developing negative attributes. This is possible by trying to maintain a sustained positivity that would enable the development of a constant positive mental state. The following are some of the factors that can help develop this.

1.     Awareness of factors that are not under human control and those that are under human control.

2.     Positive self-image.

3.     Acceptance of all change whether pleasant or unpleasant as part of a natural process.

4.     Social acceptability should not be considered a criterion for judging self-credibility. 

5.     Reinforce the factors that are under human control.

6.     Consider life as a journey and not the destination to be reached in competition with others.

            Now, let's go deeper into each of the above factors to elaborate on the ways to achieve  a healthy mental state.

 

1.     Awareness of factors under human control and those that are not under human control.

This has been very succinctly put into perspective by Buddha and are best depicted in a video, the link for which is given below.

Things that can't be  controlled and those that can be controlled

A)       FACTORS UNDER HUMAN CONTROL

                 “We have control over three things in our lives and those are; our thoughts

                   that comes from the way we think, the images that we visualize in our mind’s eye, 

                  and the actions that we take and the way we react to any situation”.

      On the other side, things that are not in our control are as under

 B)    FACTORS NOT UNDER HUMAN CONTROL

Ø           How people treat you, their actions and reactions, thoughts, feelings,    likes, dislikes, and opinions.

Ø        Time is the eternal flowing parameter of nature that drives all our senses of pleasure and pain; good and bad times, joy and suffering, birth and death, etc.

Ø        Nature and its reality. All the phenomenon of nature like the cycle of seasons change, on the one hand, brings benefit to human beings but on the other hand, the unpredictable events of nature which include calamities like floods, earthquakes, cyclones, and epidemics that cause much suffering, loss of life, and properties.

 

2.     POSITIVE SELF-IMAGE.

The self-image of a person is a very important aspect that navigates his attitude and behavior in every situation and very much depends on the belief in himself. And a sense of positivity in the own self is very important because that induces a motivating drive and confidence to move forward with the situation  which he faces, at any given moment. When in a positive mental state, the nature of the situation whether good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant does not adversely affect the motivational spirit of the person. Hence it is a major factor in developing a healthy mental state.

 3.     ACCEPTANCE OF CHANGE PLEASANT OR UNPLEASANT

Any change that occurs in the surroundings is in the very nature of everything around us and so it will change whether we like or want it or not,  that’s immaterial. And so it is not in human control. Everything in nature is inherently impermanent or transient and so has to change with time. Change is a nature’s process through which the manifestation of time becomes visible and events occur throughout our life. With the flow of time, the present becomes the past the next moment, and the future becomes the present and gradually slips into the past to become memories. By readily accepting this process a person can align a sense of positivity to life’s process and hence a healthy mental state.

 

4.     Social acceptability should not be considered a criterion for judging self-credibility

A conscientious, honest, and right-thinking person does not need to depend on social acceptability as an assessment of his credibility. For such a person self-assessment of his attitude and behavior for his coarse correction whenever and wherever necessary,  is sufficient to establish his credibility. The other major reason why social

acceptability should not be considered is, that different persons have different types of bias for a person based on their liking or disliking of that person. And so this is liable to be fraught with an erroneous judgment.  A person going by this judgment may be led wrongly in a direction that could prove harmful for him in the long run. This realization at some later stage of his life could bring in concomitant mental unrest leading to an unhealthy mental state.

 

5.     Reinforce the factors that are under human control

The above-stated factors stated by Buddha ( refer above in 1A and 1B) are the tools that human beings need to accept and adapt to prevent themselves from sliding into negativity and despair. This in turn could lead him to a mentally unhealthy state. And so, even in adversity or unpleasant situations in life what matters is how we react and respond without affecting the inner peace.

6. Consider life as a journey and not the destination to be reached  in competition  

      with others

Why should life be considered a journey and not a destination to be reached in competition with others?

The life of every individual is different in every respect whether personal, social, or professional. It depends on innumerable factors, like the family in which a person takes birth, his family upbringing, education, professional world, social stature, the outlook a person develops towards life, etc. The situations and circumstances that a person faces in different spheres of his activities are different.   And hence why the life of one person cannot be compared with another person. So there cannot a competition of one person with another person on any matter, whatsoever it may be. Also, there is no destination to reach. Life is a continuous process of journey that every individual passes through right from birth to the end of life which eventually happens with death. So life, as can be seen from the above details, is a continuous process involving a myriad of activities in innumerable fields and there is no destination because that would mean the cessation of activities since he has reached the end of life. But this is obviously not true,  because all throughout there is a provision for continuous self-development to improve the quality of life till the very end.