MIND
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” – Marcus Aurelius
When it comes to a happy, healthy, fulfilling life – mastering the mind is 1/3 of the puzzle. The mind shapes our reality and can effortlessly turn the good into bad or the bad into good.
The good news is that the mind is like a muscle: it can be trained, strengthened, and developed through “mental exercises” the same way our bodies can be trained, strengthened, and developed through physical exercises.
We can create joy, peace, and ease with the mind, or we can create anguish, discomfort, and turmoil with the mind.
The choice is yours!
I don’t believe anyone truly wants to choose conflict, hardship, anxiety, or unrest but in choosing not to exercise your mind – we often choose the hard path.
If you’re not consciously choosing the thoughts in your mind and working your “mind muscle” – your thoughts will be chosen for you. What we subconsciously learn from friends, family, society, culture, social media, the news, stereotypes, or our experiences is never-ending. If you don’t program your mind to work the way you want it to work – it will be programmed for you to work in the favor of others.
Tending to the mind sounds daunting but I promise the practices are simple and with time become second nature! Some of my favorite mindfulness practices are: affirmations, self-reflection through journaling and gratitude practices (check out my Things I Loved series!).
Many practices to tend to our mind can also tend to our Body and Soul – the other 2/3 of our puzzle. Practices such as engaging in regular physical activity and meditation are multi-purpose – serving our Mind, Body, and Soul and can lead to a happy, healthy, fulfilling life.
Under the MIND category you will find articles about practices such as affirmations (sometimes I recite them out loud and other times I write them down), my morning routine, meditating, gratitude (I channel gratitude here through my “Things I Loved” series). There are some of my favorite practices that I have used to program my own mind to work with me instead of against me.
