After you have become familiar with the antics of the restless mind and https://www.julianalucky.com/post/10-awesome-birthday-party-ideas-for-4-year-old, you are at an important stage. There are several erroneous turns along the path of mindfulness meditation, where beginner meditators often turn. You will benefit from avoiding these mistakes. These errors are based on the myth that a person controls his thoughts, as stated earlier.
Mistake number 1
When you see a chaotic stream of thoughts in your head, some of which are aggressive, stupid, restless, destructive, you can decide: since this is my mind and my thoughts, and I cannot stop thinking about them, then I am bad, flawed, etc. You feel guilty about the thoughts in your mind.
How to
You need to understand that you do not choose the thoughts that appear in your mind. Thoughts appear just like the weather. It would never occur to you to blame yourself for watching a thunderstorm in your window. It is in your power only to choose the attitude towards thoughts.
Mistake number 2
Watching wild, unruly thoughts that jump around like monkeys, you can try to suppress or change them by force. By doing this, you will increase the internal conflict between different parts of your being.
You will assign one part, your “I”, with the mission to suppress another part of you, which you will begin to perceive as something separate from you. In fact, it would rather worsen the problem. Make no effort to forcefully change what arises in the monkey mind. Remember, it’s just the weather. But understand that you have the freedom to choose your attitude towards monkey thoughts.
When you simply accept these thoughts without resisting them and not letting them draw your attention, you embody the wisdom of the aikido master who, without resisting the opponent’s energy, fully accepts it and then turns it to his advantage.
Mindfulness is your inner aikido master. Over time, with this approach, you will turn thoughts to your advantage, but they cannot be changed by force.
So how exactly are you going to nurture these seeds of awareness that will serve as your “inner aikido master”. The first step is to understand the difference between the logical mind and the wise mind. The next step is to start tuning in and appreciating the “magic moments” – when the energy of awareness comes on the scene. As these moments become more frequent and the energy of awareness flows more and more continuously, you will be able to enjoy its benefits in all areas of your life.
