Enjoyment comes from the thinking mind, connected to the body.
The human brain is composed of neurons or nerve cells that transmit information and messages; they’re the building blocks of the brain for the efficient functioning of the thinking mind.
Neurons are responsible for all
human behaviors in the form of perceptions, which then trigger a mental
process in the thinking mind that may result in an action or an emotion. If the
process becomes instinctive, then the output in the form of actions or
emotions is also automatic and predictable. That’s how attitudes
and habits are formed, including the fight-or-flight response to any dangerous
situation. This automatic or spontaneous mental process is often not “by
choice” but “by instinct.”
This “learned” and “acquired” mental
process is often responsible for thinking and actions, as well as for beliefs
and emotions. So, it’s important for the thinking mind to do the following: recognizing
the instinctive or automatic mental process; challenging its reality or
validity to see through the myths or even the deceptions behind; and then changing
the mental process by taking appropriate actions accordingly.
The Bottom Line
Living in wisdom is the
capability of the thinking mind to recognize
the deceptions behind the so-called “realities” perceived and processed by the
thinking mind, that is, the capability to separate the sheep from the goats.
Living by faith, you get
your spiritual wisdom from God to perceive the differences between sheep and
goats, that is, the differences between realities and half-truths.
Perceiving and processing
The thinking mind processes all
life experiences, which then become thoughts and memories, and ultimately the
raw materials of the thinking process by the thinking mind.
According to James Allen,
author of As A Man Thinketh,
humans are “makers of themselves” and the human mind is the “master-weaver,
both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance.” That
is, humans may have become who they are and what they’ve now become
by way of their own thinking over the years.
So, life is all about mind over
matter. Harnessing mind power is understanding the exact functioning of the
thinking mind and how it may positively or negatively affect the
thinking process, and then learning some strategies to fully utilize the
mind power to live in wisdom.
Life Experiences
An individual’s life experiences
are unique in that they’re the byproducts of all the happenings in the lifespan
of that individual. Those life experiences are determined by two pivotal
players: choices and circumstances.
· Choices, resulting in
actions or inactions, bring about consequences as well as circumstances affecting
life in general and in specific.
· Circumstances can come from self-inflicting
internal circumstances or from those uncontrollable external circumstances.
An Illustration
A person had to complete a project and submit a report on that project. That person had sufficient time to do what he or she was supposed to do, but that person chose to procrastinate until the last minute. An unforeseeable event happened and made it impossible for that person to finish the work on time, thus creating a “self-inflicting” circumstance of anxiety, frustration, and undue stress that might affect the subsequent choices of that person.
Of course, sometimes personal
choices may not be able to alter the uncontrollable external circumstances, but
they may still play a primary role in the reactions and adaptations to
those external circumstances beyond their control. For example, in the
devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, the Japanese
people demonstrated their remarkable resilience in their reactions and
adaptations to the uncontrollable external circumstances inflicted on them by
nature.
The Bottom Line
Living is all
about choices and consequences from those choices, and that has
much to do with causes and
results—they often become the components of life experiences.
Living By faith, you often make the right choices with
your own accountability to the consequences through God’s Helper, the Holy Spirit.
Stephen Lau
No comments:
Post a Comment