In the midst of work storms of the modern world, we normally forget where our mind is centered. The mind is at ease when it locates itself at a single point, however our peace or distress largely depends on where the mind actually rests.
Different centers
Imagine it is the weekend and you have promised your kid to take him to a fair ground. Your boss asks you to stay at work to do some arrangements for the upcoming event. You may doubt what to do and at last you accept to spend your weekend at the office postponing the fair to another time. If something like this happens a lot, you are probably work-centered.
The issue is not always with the job. Imagine there’s a sound inside you that constantly calls for the joy and party, drinks and night life. You are mostly in the clubs or you have long hours of staying awake playing and enjoying and probably trying to convince yourself that you are happy and free. In this case, you are joy-centered.
Many people’s mind is totally dependent on other people. For example, you are obsessed with your partner’s behaviour. You adjust everything to satisfy him or her. You constantly analyse their actions to see if they are happy with you or not. Honestly speaking, you are partner-centered.
It is the same for friends; your plans depend on your friends’ plans; if you are alone for a day, you feel lonely and depressed. This is labelled as friend-centered.
Let’s contemplate it more. In some cultures showing respect to the family is greatly encouraged and it is truly a universal goodness. However, many people might not think that being too much attached to the family may hurt them someday. Life is always changing. It’s unsteady and it has never promised to stay the same. Life is changeable and so are the people! Can you be a hundred percent sure that your family is immortal? Or they will never embarrass you or even choose a way which is totally against your life-style or your life philosophy? When you are in such a situation and you are family-centered, it is the time to re-evaluate your values and fix them mindfully.
Silencing the mind
This list is endless. We might be self-centered, product-centered, fashion-centered, church or mosque-centered, status-centered and so on…But the big question is where the mind should be and how we can gain peace of mind? Many philosophers, mind masters and even neuroscientists advise us to provide some moments of silence for the mind; when the mind is silent but alert! This is a good practice to train the mind to be free from all thoughts and worries of life.
There are numerous techniques of meditations and yoga which help us do so. A very useful type of meditation which I personally practice is to take the mind to the center of the body. The center of the body is the center of gravity. It is approximately located two finger width above the navel. Meditation is not a magic and it needs to be practiced every day. We brush our teeth every day for two or three times. Meditation is also one of our daily routines which we need to do to keep the mind healthy and free. It is a mind exercise to position the mind in its right place. When our mind is at the center, we avoid spending lots of energy to center the mind on purposeless things around us. We need to take care of our mind and by doing so we gradually become professional in taking mindful decisions and enjoying a balanced life.
Inspired by the book: The seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey
Photo by Dingzeyu Li on Unsplash
