If you’re tuning into your spiritual side, then it’s important to make sure that you have a strong mind. A truly capable spiritual person will have balanced their mind, their will, and their intuition.
Strengthening and balancing the mind is important because the mind creates so much of our lives. First, our mind creates thoughts, which eventually develop into beliefs. Our beliefs then guide our actions, which create our life’s circumstance.
Unfortunately, a lot of us aren’t aware of what’s going on in our mind most of the time. Many people are surprised to learn about the background chatter operating in their subconscious. Even if we’re not aware of it, this background chatter is happening all the time.
Once we learn to tune into it, we can figure out what it’s actually saying. This helps us learn about our behaviors and actions, and can be a great way to improve all areas of your life.
Here are a few exercises that you can practice to strengthen your mind.
Meditation
The most obvious thing that you can do to strengthen your mind is meditate. There are lots of different ways to meditate.
For someone new to the practice, it’s enough to simply start with a breathing practice. Try to follow your breath, counting to 5 on the inhalation and then to 5 on the exhalation. Most people are surprised to find out how difficult this is. Take that as a challenge.
Guided meditations are also a good option for beginners, though they should only be used to help you develop the skills to meditate on your own.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is similar, yet very different from meditation. Mindfulness encourages the active awareness of everything going on around you: sights, smells, touches, thoughts.
With a regular mindful practice, you begin to identify sensory input and recognize it for what it is: sensory input. Then you can strengthen your mind by separating your thoughts from the external world.
Mindfulness helps us to stop judging the world as either ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ which frees up a lot of space for us to think clearly and objectively.
Writing
Writing is one of the best ways to strengthen your mind. If you’re writing exclusively for this purpose, one of the best exercises is outlined in Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way.
First thing in the morning, whip out a journal (preferably while you’re still in bed) and start writing. Engage with your writing, but don’t stop for a second to think about what you’re writing about.
This has a number of benefits. First, it helps us sort out a lot of that ‘background chatter’ that’s constantly rolling around in our subconscious mind. Getting it out on to paper frees up more space to think clearly.
Secondly, this is a great way to tap into your intuition. By trusting yourself to freely express whatever ideas come to mind, without judgment or hesitation, you become much better at honing into your intuitive skills.
Conclusion
The human mind is our most important component, and it’s a good idea to keep it in shape. Like our muscles, the mind needs to be toned – and these exercises can help you do that.
Written by Nigel Ford
