Correcting internal (psychological) imbalances... slowing down & finding contentment within
A few days ago I wrote a post about "Being Joyfully Alone... the ultimate test".
- Click here to see the post
In summary, the post said:
The ultimate test is to see if you can sit quietly alone in a room by yourself. No phone, no entertainment and nothing you must do. Food, shelter and clothing are all available.
- How long can you simply sit and be content?
- How long can you sit without becoming agitated or going off and making up something to be busy with?
- What kind of mind are you carrying with you?
- How much attention do you give it?
- How out of control is it?
- What is it about being quiet by yourself that is so agitating?
We do this as a way to determine to what degree we are out of balance (psychologically speaking).
Once, we have determined how serious our imbalance has become, we can then approach it in a way to "correct it".
How to correct it? (my fast and imbalanced mind)
The first thing to work on and establish is a "space" beween what is being observed in the mind, and the one who is observing.
The primary reason many of us are seriously "out of balance" psychologically, is because we over identify with our mind stuff. There is no distance between what is being thought, and the one who is witnessing the thought. And, because of this, we see our thoughts as our primary source of reality. When you over-identify with your thinking mind, you will drive yourself mad simply because the nature of the thinking mind does not know true peace, love or bliss.
You must take time to understand the naure of your mind. In the west, and through the development of western thought, we have come to over-identify with our thinking mind - we, in essence, have come to see our thoughts as us and therefore the most important thing in our experience. This is a great misunderstanding.
If you stop and pay attention, you will notice that there is something that is observing the thoughts occurring. And, if you keep looking at it, the something that is witnessing is vast, spacious and potentially unending.
Meditation helps us to establish a distance between mind noise and this ability to be a witness to it. The more you meditate and develop this ability of observation, the greater the distance will become between the mind, and "you". When there is distance, you will notice more time, space and relaxation naturally come into your experience.
Therefore, the first and most fundamental way to begin correcting psychological imbalances is to cultivate a healthy space between the mind and its psychological noise and yourself, the silent observer.
An important point I also want to make is that meditation is best started, and practiced when you don't need it! Meaning, meditation is best practiced and cultivated in times when you are not highly agitated, stressed out or wound up. You don't want to find yourself in a highly agitated state before you try and meditate for the first time - you can try of course, but it makes it incredibly hard!
Instead, especially if you're still new to it, practice meditation and mindfulness when it's easy to practice. Practice it when you are on a relaxing holiday, when your house is quiet and nobody is at home, or when you feel calm and peaceful.
If you practice meditation when you don't need it, you will be cultivating a healthy space in your awareness so that when you do face highly stressful times and situations, you will already have a resource of space within you that you can work with.
"Dig a well before you are thirsty." ~ Chinese saying
A sure sign you have space in your awareness is that when you need to make big or quick decisions, is that you are able to slow your experience of time down, and your body will remain relaxed and quick to laugh...
Thre are many other methods and tools you can use to help "correct" psychological imbalances, however, I don't want to overwhelm people with more "to-do's" on their already bulging list.
I will talk more about other methods soon, but for now, be sure to test yourself first, then allow yourself to become increasingly aware of the minds noise, and the one who is observing it... This alone, will begin to change and shift the way you experience life...
More soon :)
If you have any questions or comments, please post them below! :)
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Michael Hetherington
BHlthSci, Chinese medicine & yoga
Author & Teacher
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Can I ask, do you upvote your posts with bots after day one or later? Or do you have a backer as all your posts hit too high for me to curate soon after I would curate them? You do great work but we try to curate posts under $3. I only ask as I was about to curate this one but am afraid it will be too high once I post the curation post , I would post this in about 14 hours. so let me know and I will consider using your posts in the future. Cheers, @insideoutlet
@insideoutlet ---> from what I can see, he doesn't use bots at all. @tribesteemup, which represents by far the largest upvote on this post, is a group that supports his work just as @thesteemengine supports yours -- only their upvote is really, really nice. We rather hope ours will be, too -- again -- someday. For now, @thesteemengine also supports his work -- and he's about to get an upvote from us in a few hours. So finding posts from him that are under $3 may be a challenge. Such is the price of excellence. (Smile)
Thanks @enchantedspirit for answering me. Another Steemian and @tribesteemup member helped me out and explained a bit about them. I also did some further research myself. I should have come back to this comment and let him know I figured it out. When I looked into it more I found I actually know quite a few members already. They are all excellent writers, there seems to be a vibe about the writing style/themes too.
I have meditated a lot in the past, but recently I've found it difficult to find the time and space to meditate. Part of the reason is that I'm staying with my mum, and we have my nephew staying with us too. There's a lot of activity in the house, small dramas and noise.
The questions you raise make me realise how rushed off my feet I am these days, with my mind full of things I need to do. Though that's mostly my own fault for packing so many activities into my life! I did meditate a couple of weeks ago, in my car. I drove to a quiet country lane and parked there for 20 mins.
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Excellent!