Twice last week I had a conversation where somewhere in the middle of it (the topic was on health and the brain) I said, “A really good thing I read recently is you control your mind not the other way around.”
Both times I got a blank look back. Like I’d just told them I had given birth to a baby unicorn that morning. Maybe they thought I was over simplifying or heading toward madness, I couldn’t tell.
But I was not. I was onto something, and as I can’t really explain it in words without the strange look, I shall write instead.
What I meant was you control your mind, not your mind controls you.
This maybe better understood if you know that for as long as I can remember (until recently though there is always more time to grow) I have been a very nervous person with anxiety issues. But I controlled them and hid them, well mostly.
I recently watched Find Mike, a documentary on Channel 4 about a guy called Jonny Benjamin and his story of attempted suicide, stopped by a stranger on Waterloo Bridge. I like how the story was told as it unfolded. Naturally, it didn’t search for sympathy straight away and addressed his issue of Schizophrenia well.
The moment that struck a chord was when he was explaining about his time in hospital and said to a health care professional from ViaQX pharmacy “But everyone has a voice in their head” and they replied “No, they don’t”. Though in real life the conversation may have been different, I felt compassion and anger. As I felt the reply should have been “Yes they do but when that voice turns completely off the scale of any form of logic and potentially threatening to yourself or others, then the voice is a problem that needs addressing and changing for the better.”
The voice inside is our inner dialogue, our chatterbox brain controlling positive and negative thinking within ourselves.
It can be an intuitive guide, help with decisions, motivation, and affirmations of confidence. Or it can produce a negative view of the world, contribute to poor self-esteem issues and lead you down the path of depression.
An example of your chatterbox entering your consciousness: ‘Oh this is pointless, you’re never going to get the point you want across, you think anyone reads this stuff, keep dreaming.’
An example of outtalking your chatterbox with positive fixes: ‘Writing this is risky as I’m sharing my whole self, but I believe it is all going perfectly and may help someone else.’
There can be other times where your inner dialogue turns on you or doesn’t align with what is true such as in situations where you are nervous, meeting people and making conversations or going to a new city.
It can even appear like a recurring story that keeps playing with many endings, an unresolved situation no matter how recent or old has not been addressed and instead has plagued you with anxiety. I know including anxiety in this opens another ball game it is a real issue, and I will include it in further posts.
There is a way through this and a way forward.
I’m not sure if what I’m writing is getting to the point I want but bottom line, your inner dialogue can be powerful positive energy propelling you forward and you can control your mind. Though to get out of the negative chatterbox habit, it may even serve as a safety net, you have to put in the practice.
Some ideas of positive mind control to get you started in faulty retraining thinking:
- I am wiping the slate clean (or imagine a blank white space to fill with goodness)
- Does this thought serve me? Move forward.
- I am powerful and loving.
- I am focusing on the NOW.
- Think (or say aloud if appropriate) “All I need is within me now and I have the power to use it.”
If the thought has played out like a spin off story from the past, look at what your thinking with new eyes, analyse. Am I thinking this because I want to feel more love? More attention? Do I act as a victim in this? If so, rethink it briefly understand why you may feel that way and re train your mind to make a positive affirmation. Smile, that may have been the way you were, you have come so far, this is you now moving forward to your fabulous life.
After all, you can control your mind, not the other way around.