Mastering a mind

Have you ever felt it? That sudden rush of thoughts, emotions and troubles overtaking every milimetre of space in your head. It’s as if you’re trying to juggle it all, all at once, and you end up going round in circles because you don’t even know where to start.

There’s the news you need to catch up on because it’s important to know what’s going on in the world. Current affairs are necessary information so as not to be caught off-guard. The weather bulletin is equally significant; if you’ve ever been caught in a rainstorm without an umbrella or an anorak, you’ll appreciate the reason why.

Then there’s everything else: those emails you need to reply to, the reminders of the errands you need to complete, your agenda of the day with meetings and things to get done, the messages from friends, family, people you know and often people you don’t. You need to get in sync with whatever troubles each one has so as to respond accordingly.

Social media is a huge distraction during this process. But an even bigger one is the ads that constantly pop up when you’re searching for something or simply scrolling to pass the time for some reason or other. That clever algorithm that feels like it’s stalking you, knowing what you’re thinking or looking for. And it’s enticing, because when an offer appears you feel the urge to learn more about it.

And just like that you end up buying a pair of shoes when all you wanted to do initially was remind yourself of a task you had to complete but for which you had absolutely no inspiration.

A mind is easy to wander off. The difficult part is to keep it in check.

That’s why self-discipline and meditation are much harder to master than they seem.

If you can’t find Spring

“And if Spring arrives and it’s cloudy and drizzly?”

“‘If you can’t find spring, you make it’, as the great Greek poet Elytis said.”

“How?”

“One little step, one colourful thought, one bright action at a time.”

We often tend to make things more difficult than they are. We allow our imagination to override our rationale and we make mountains out of molehills, fearing the worst, instead of envisioning the best case scenarios.

If we control our mindsets, we may be able to spring up our daily lives too, one sunny day at a time.