What do I give first fruits to? Letting my mind know who’s boss. | Andrea de Michaelis – Creating my own reality, one thought at a time

I know this happens to you, too. Whenever I sit to write something I always make myself go through a bunch of other mail, etc. before I can get to it. When I sit down to type out my thoughts, my sense of obligation rises up and says, “check email first, answer anything you can answer quickly.” Then I’m distracted from my original thought. I am the one who decides which I want to give attention to first. Of course my mind wants me to do the busy work first, and save the soul searching and mind/control/focus practice for later. The mind gets afraid anytime I want to meditate or contemplate deep thoughts, it gets nervous because it wants to jump around and flit from one thought to another. It knows by contemplation and self inquiry and breathing that I will be able to control it. It is a child who cannot control his impulses and it does not want me to control them either.

That’s why when you begin to dive deep into self study, learning who you’ve come here to be and what you’re here to do, the mind will begin to throw all sorts of thoughts at you to get your emotions riled up. Remember it is when the emotions are riled up (for good or for bad) that the attraction process becomes engaged.

The mind recalls which memories and thoughts cause the most emotion and distraction for you, so every time you try to control it (by focusing intently on something) or calm it (by breathing away your thoughts,) your mind will keep throwing up these thoughts.

The thoughts don’t go away (for long) but you DO learn to not be distracted by them. You remember that it is just a thought and YOU are in control of your mind, not it in control of you. YOU are in control of your thoughts, not they in control of you.

As soon as I learned that, my world changed. I thought I had to think any old thought that came up. I thought the mind was the boss. When I learned there was a higher part of myself that controlled my mind, and I could learn to manipulate that – yeah like, whoa! I was hooked on meditation and visualization after that.