So Disciplined, yet so Naughty !!
Tags: Spiritual Mindset, Mind Experiments, Discipline, Calmness

Have you ever wondered that your mind is like a very disciplined child who behaves in the same (exact) way in a particular situation?

Spend few seconds to think about some words like global warming, Mount Everest, beaches, holidays, office, family, etc. Your mind will give you a chain of thoughts and pictures about what that particular word means to you. You will realize that every time you face such instances, the disciplined mind presents you with the same sequential thoughts and pictures.

You might say, “That is a good thing if we have a disciplined mind.” Yes, if thoughts are structured or disciplined, but what if over-discipline becomes over-thinking.

Have you realized that sometimes you can’t make your mind stop thinking about a particular thing or thought again and again? In other words, your mind starts behaving naughty !!

Let us look at some more scenarios. Have you also wondered why most of the people around you that you interact with are like a tape recorder, saying the same things in the same sequence? Initially, you will listen but then you wonder why he/she keeps on repeating the same thing repeatedly.

Let me throw some examples. Obviously, married couples are first on the list !!

1. Couples in case of fight or argument — repeating same bad habits — You don’t clean, you are too busy, you don’t find time for me, you missed our anniversary, you missed school meet and the same sequence goes every time…! Conclusion is always spoiling the mood and mind saying that I won’t talk to you now.

2. Parents — advising children — Eat healthy food, when we are your age we used to do in this way, then life advise, then career advice and some emotional sentiments. The conclusion is always spoiling the mood with the mind saying that you don’t understand me, I won’t talk to you now. Finally, you close the discussion.

3. Let us diverge a bit in this example. Whenever you see your neighbor every time, you start thinking about him/her. Then your same chain of thoughts start coming with when you first met, what did you talk and then you start thinking what will I say next time, mostly appreciating him/her. I know most of you have already started thinking but come back 😊

4. Whenever you are bathing you start singing the same song, then think (mostly criticizing) about your boss, then start planning your next two hours, and the same sequence goes on every day. You start draining your energy unnecessarily.

5. The list is endless — Whenever you are washing dishes, driving, sleeping, jogging, and whenever you do social interaction with anybody. Your mind will throw the same set of thoughts depending upon what and to whom you are interacting.

In all the above examples there is an “obvious disciplined” pattern — Repetition and Sequence of thoughts. Let’s acronym it — RnS (Repetition and Sequence). Our RnS might not be applicable for productive or creative activities like creating a sales report, teaching kids, or any interaction resulting in some form of positive discussion.

Now, all the readers will say what is the big deal in this as this is how a mind works! It’s quite obvious, it’s done by our subconscious mind powered by those zillions of cells and billions of connections. You can’t control it as this is human behavior.

Well, I agree with my respected readers and this is how we have accepted our habits and behavior. But do you ever wonder that in all the above instances, you want to change something every time that happens? When Global warming or beach word appears, when your spouse is repeating tape recorder (although you know that its human behavior) but you still ask him/her to calm down and ask your spouse not to repeat the past. What is more interesting is that even the RnS spouse knows that something is wrong — “why he/she keeps on saying the same thing and hurt him/her”.

When your parents are advising you, every time you tell them — “yes Mom/Dad I know, you don’t have to repeat it every time”. Even parents realize that they have to stop repeating next time and not spoil a child’s mood.

Sometimes you want your mind to stop over-thinking about the same subconscious thoughts. But in the end, you end up losing to your supercomputer powered by those “naughty” neurons.

You start browsing the internet on “how to calm down overthinking”. You find words like depression, anxiety, chemical imbalance, hormones and you stop.

So, is our mind the problem? Why does it overthink or keeps on wasting energy on things that it already knows?

As I am a big overthinker too — a typical “RnS” family member — I decided to experiment on myself to see if we can conquer or reprogram our supercomputer. I need the following things to experiment.

1). Few over-thinking (RnS) scenarios

·2). Pen and paper to note down the sequence of thoughts whenever each scenario is triggered

I have filled one scenario as an example below.

In all the above scenarios, the important portion is the last thought that will come to your mind every time that particular scenario is triggered.

For every scenario/interaction, your mind stacks all the information in a particular way — that is what I felt, but please note that I don’t have any degree in “brain science”. I tried to draw those mind stacks below.

As you can see above, every scenario is a different stack of thoughts with varying lengths, and it always runs from top to bottom culminating in the last thought. The last thought is the place where our mind gets the most pleasure. But the only way is to run from top to bottom because this is how we have trained our minds from childhood.

So, my experiment does have clear-cut observations but now I need the solution to stop my mind in case of negative/deconstructive RnS scenarios. How do I give my mind that pleasure of last thought and at the same time not spoil anyone’s mood, not frustrate myself or the others? In other words, how do I teach my mind to behave in a truly spiritual manner naturally? i.e. Natural satisfaction and pleasure?

I decided to take my experiment to next level by creating more memory stacks with Scenarios (1a, 2a, and so on), First thought, and only the Last thought.

Now, my spiritual memory blocks are ready. It’s time to test them and see if I can cut short unnecessary negative thoughts and calm down my mind and body naturally. So, I waited for an argument with my spouse and then my first thought came which I spoke.

I started using scenario #1a instead of #1. My mind already knows which is the last thought (I won’t talk to you now) and it can cross-reference the long thoughts with Scenario#1. Since my supercomputer already knows the answer (last thought — ultimate pleasure) so it starts bypassing other thoughts thinking they are already traversed.

Now, I observed something different. My spiritual mind takes control and it is smiling, relaxed, and knows what is happening. I can spend my energy in trying to do something positive rather than getting frustrated or draining my energy. With some more practice, I finally know what will happen in each scenario and don’t need my naughty supercomputer to go through RnS every time. Instead, my mind goes to the last thought. My spiritual mind is smiling knowing that it’s naturally under control. I spend my energy more on positive thoughts , I am much calmer now and can avoid negative thoughts at will.

My concluding lines: I don’t know how many of you will be able to control the naughty mind with this technique. Even if it benefits a single person anywhere on this Earth, I achieved my pleasure !!

Do share your thoughts and improvements for the naughty mind 😊