Limitless Monday – Your Body Is Where Your Mind Is

Limitless Monday – Your body is where your mind is

The statement “your mind is not where your body is,” like most reframing mantras, refers to a concept that is easier said than done.

Let’s say you have the misfortune of being locked up in prison for 10 years. Your body may well be located physically in a concrete block, but your mind needn’t be. It’s a lesson that Nelson Mandela followed during his 27 years behind bars.

It’s important to remind ourselves that we have control over what we think about. Perhaps there are outside factors which try to influence the content of our thoughts or our mood but at the end of the day they are only influences; you make the final decision.

Every day at a set time I would search for the quietest spot in the prison and begin writing until I had completed five pages. It didn’t matter where my body was positioned. If I had been on a hilltop overlooking the ocean or outside my cell, it made no difference to me. I was focused on writing, not on the view.

Perhaps a movie would provide a different impression of my mindset when the camera zoomed out to show me sipping a cup of tea as I wrote furiously facing the blue waters of the Mediterranean. But while the viewer may find this image romantic, my mind doesn’t appreciate the breathtaking view; it’s intent on fulfilling a goal of writing 5 pages of quality prose.

Daydreaming takes you away from your current environment. Contemplating your future by visualizing more pleasing surroundings is a powerful way to remove yourself from the potential stress of a situation. Let’s say you are sitting with your girlfriend and her parents on a coach heading to a show. You don’t like the parents much and your girlfriend irritates you, you just haven’t got round to telling her it’s over. Rather than allowing this scenario to ruin your day I chose to think about something else, in this example I contemplated finding a new girlfriend and the joy that would bring. The day went a lot quicker than if I had dwelled on my current predicament.

If I find myself in a stressful situation where the world is closing in on me, I distract myself by focusing on what is good in my life, a new venture or endeavor. That provides me with hope, dispels any potential anxiety, and gives me new goals to focus on rather than trapping me in a dark place surrounded by hopelessness and misery.

By focusing on positive thoughts you develop new goals and with it positive action.

If you choose the alternative route of lingering in darkness, you will be devoid of motivation or inspiration.

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If my world starts to get dark, I always find a way to get to the window.

If depressing thoughts are something that drag you down into a slump, you must clamber out from this hole before you get buried in it. It’s not easy, but you will find the light.

Make finding the light and the positive in all situations your default setting.

Happy Monday!

Banner Image: Meditation. Image Credit – Milan Popovic