Thought Steers Your Mind

Keywords

Monkey mind, restlessness, zoning out, catastrophizing, oversharing, rambling, indecision, compulsive, insomnia

Endless Thinking

When your mind is steered by thought, you can’t seem to get that voice out of your head that continuously prattles on about anything and everything. It sometimes goes on about the same thing over and over. At other times, it flits from one topic to another. This voice disrupts your peace and may cause sleepless nights filled with worries and self-criticism. Continuous mental churn fuels anxiety. Fixation on past and future events triggers self-doubt, diverting your attention from the present moment.

Trapped in a Daydream

Steered by thought, you generate a lot of ideas but resist taking action on them. You procrastinate or put off making difficult decisions. To cope with boredom or even challenges, you zone out or daydream.

Think Before You Speak

In conversations, you think about what you are going to say next while others are speaking. You may ramble, overshare, or talk over others. You feel compelled to share your opinions no matter if asked for them or not.

Busy Bee Mind

A mind steered by thinking is a busy mind. With thought continually creating inner experiences, there is little room for quiet. You feel anxious and exhausted from the constant internal pressure to get things done, yet prioritizing actions is a struggle.

Lost in Time

Always thinking about the future or past brings anxiety and regret that distract you from the life you’re living in the present moment. You doubt yourself based on what you think you should be, do, or have. You feel you aren’t living up to your potential or purpose, even though you don’t know what that is. You lie awake trying to think your way through solutions to your problems, but you feel you are going nowhere.

Relationships Improve with Space

Most relationships benefit from a bit of space. The same is true between thought and your mind. The practice of watching your thoughts puts them at a bit of distance. It reminds you that you are not your thoughts. Thinking is something you do. Watching your thoughts without identifying allows the mind to become present without constraint.

Mind Movie Theater Practice

For a few minutes right now try closing your eyes and imagining your thoughts floating by like clouds in a blue sky or like a movie projected on your eyelids. When you notice you are drawn into thought, acknowledge it by saying to yourself “thinking” then go back to imagining your thoughts as clouds or a movie. This is a simple practice though it is certainly not easy.

Why Understanding Your Senses Is Valuable

As part of the animal self, the senses are driven by pleasure and pain, appetite and distaste, craving and revulsion. They move toward what they desire and away from what they dislike.

One sense may dominate or a few may conspire to rule your mind.  This can lead to feelings that your life is out of your control and your senses drag you hither and fro.  May you numbly aimlessly wander through your day as the senses seek to satisfy their appetites.  Anxiety, depression, hopelessness, restlessness, insecurity, and sensitivity are symptoms of your senses steering your mind.

The results of this quiz can help you improve your relationship with your senses.  Like a horse-whisperer subtly communicates with a horse to steer them, you can learn to guide your senses through self-empathy.  As your senses relax and trust your conscious guidance, they operate as a powerful team that you rein in the direction of your choosing.

I logged my experiences and shared the practices that taught me how to improve the relationship between my senses, mind and will in my new book, Rein: Harness the Wild Power of Your Senses.