I don’t know about you but there are many times during the day I notice my mind acting like an errant tourist on vacation wandering up and down the streets of fantasy gazing into the shop windows of the future and the past, pulling me out of the focus of what I need to do in the present moment.
Sometimes the tourist becomes a terrorist torturing me with old thoughts of uncompleted conversations, ancient regrets or future worries that keep re-cycling over and over in my head.
They can seriously impact my peace of mind. Sometimes it feels like I am spinning my wheels and getting stuck in a rut that gets deeper and deeper making it even more impossible to escape.
In fact modern brain science has confirmed this. Dr Amen in his book The Brain Warrior’s Way says: “The neurons that fire together wire together.”
So every time one thinks of an incident in the past or a future concern, the same cyclical thought pattern is automatically engaged.
Ancient meditation practice refers to this phenomena as “Monkey Mind” and has offered solutions to this problem by distracting the mind’s undisciplined focus on the past or future with concentration on something in the present such as a mantra, a picture of the guru or attention on the breath.
In my own research one thing that I have discovered is that the brain really likes music. Given an option to focus on a thought or a musical selection it will choose music every time. Being a musician I gravitate to this.
A song that has engaging, uplifting or even funny lyrics has a double whammy: it is musical and has a thought that replaces the re-cycling thought of the terrorist mind.
Not only that but the music combined with the message of the song positively alters my mood.
I have found that singing the chorus of a song over and over almost instantly gets me out of these mind loops and gets me back into present time focus.
Find your own songs but if you like, here are a couple of the favorites I use. Just click on the title:
(Warning: You may bust your gut on this one)
I’ll be writing a few more blogs on this subject in the future so stay tuned.
Russell Scott
If mind mastery is of interest to you, check out this upcoming retreat. It is one the important trainings you will receive.