Tame the Mind: Part-3

Hi Friends, In continuation to my earlier articles on Tame the Mind, here is the next one which I have titled as "Get your mind Disciplined".

As mentioned earlier, the mind is like a Monkey, it is very active and will keep on getting engaged into some or the other activity. It will keep you on your toes in terms of feeding itself with never ending thoughts and will leave you wandering, even to the extent of instigating you to take actions basis the thoughts that are flashing in it.

Throughout the day there will be multiple moments where your mind will keep you diverting to various things just like a kid in a mall who will just keep on going from shop to shop and place to place whenever and wherever it finds something interesting. The same thing happens to the mind, the moment there is a comparison or emotional incident that happens or you just think of it will take you to the past memories and leave you there and the very next moment, as you were relishing being there in those memories, it will switch and the next moment you will find yourself thinking about your future, your financial planning, your dreams, the next car or the first car you want to buy, the meeting with your friend who was away for a very long time and is just returning and many more such instances.

The very energy that this mind possesses does not let you be still at any given time and as a result there is a lack of focus on what you are doing at present and it impacts the outcome. Once you have completed the task and it is then reviewed by someone and when the errors or the gaps are pointed out, the thought comes "Gosh!, Why I could not see it", the only reason for it is that our mind does not let us do so. Since it is active and keeps on wandering in past and future, it does not let you live in present and hence the deliverable is also not exactly you wanted it to be or the one which you are capable of delivering.

The only way to address this is "Getting your mind to discipline". All you need to do is fix up a time for having a chat with your mind. You can fix it early morning, post lunch or may be evening. You may do it once a day or twice or even thrice, depending on how active you think your mind is. This means setting up a separate time window for the discussion with the mind. This time window can be anywhere between 15 to 30 mins per session. Once this is done, then during the day anytime when you get the thoughts which divert your mind then tell it to hold on, you will have the dialogue with it at that fixed time and not now. If at any time you see your mind screeching and trying to take your attention, tell him that today's time or slot is over, wait for the next meeting time. Soon, your monkey mind will realise that it’s completely futile to make a fuss at any time other than during your fixed time sessions and it will start getting into discipline.

The more this is practiced the more your mind will start getting into discipline and will be under your control and will help you perform better. So go ahead practice this way of journalising your mind and get the Best out of it.

Cheers!