Quieten Your Mind to Increase Peace in Life
>> Thursday, May 13, 2010 –
Peace
Yoga is the cessation of mind. ~ Patanjali
Our mind is a constant activity zone. We constantly keep on thinking about one subject or other. Our happiness or dejection are both dictated by our state of the mind and that depends on what our mind is currently occupied with. Usually many people have greater share of negative experiences as compared to positive experiences.
One of the reasons of agitation is information bombardment. We are constantly receiving information and it is increasing by the day. The information originates from various mediums like television, internet, cellphone and newspapers etc. Mind gets fed with these information most of which is totally useless.
These information agitates the mind and we keep on looking for more information to feed the insatiable mind. Recently I read about a woman who is addicted to Facebook and a game called Farmville and went into labor thinking of Farmville.
Just think of how life may have been some decades back, may be 50 or so years back. There was no internet, telephone, television and few people read newspapers. It was really simple. People had more time to themselves. All the stories of stress and depression was also extremely less reported. There were less divorces and social fabric was stronger.
Most of the diseases like stress or depression are mainly caused by problems in the mind. In fact many physical diseases are also linked to mental problems. We should not expect to keep one portion fit while the other portion is sick.
Constant agitation and thought process disturbs the peace and harmony of our life. This causes stress, nervousness, depression. We start thinking about the outside world and what it thinks more than looking internally. All our emotions including happiness, sadness, anger, love, hatred etc originates from the mind. It is therefore important that we try to understand how to control the mind.
Dalai Lama Says...
"As I see it, it all originates in the mind, events depend heavily on motivation. If we develop a good heart, real appreciation, love and compassion for others, our life will improve. If every family member has a warm heart, the atmosphere at home will be peaceful, but if anyone is angry, it will get tense. Despite good food or a nice TV, peace and calm will be lost – so things depend more on mind than on matter.
Every type of happiness and suffering can be divided into 2 main categories: mental and physical. Of the two, it is the mind that exerts the greatest influence on most of us. If we are not ill or deprived of basic necessities, if the body is content, we virtually ignore it. The mind, however, registers every event, no ...matter how small. Therefore we should focus our most serious efforts on bringing about mental peace."
When we start looking internally gradually the mind calms down. It is a difficult and lengthy process but worth the try.
Here are few tips to quieten the mind.
Avoid Negative Thoughts
Negative thoughts and emotions undermine the very causes of peace and happiness. When I am faced with negative thoughts I try to change the attention by focusing on my breathing. This has been found to be useful by many people.
Here is one post on observing your breathing.
Simplicity
Have a simpler lifestyle and live according to universal principals of peace like non stealing, maintaining a higher moral value etc. We can have a good goal and focus on that. This will help us to focus better and achieve more. This will also help us to separate the essential with non essential like news papers etc. Discarding the non essential calms down the mind.
Silence and Meditation & Yoga
Wouldn't it be good to invest some time to repair, rejuvenate and observe through self observation? Silence and Meditation & Yoga are great observation tools. I strongly suggest that you fix some time of that day for this activity. Once this starts happening on regular basis gradually mind starts calming down and we become more and more peaceful.
Peaceful mind is what we all desire after all. Isn't it true that when we are seeking money or fame or any other object we are looking for that elusive happiness? Ultimately the happiness becomes permanent when we are peaceful and then we do not need to find it outside. Let us all be peaceful.
