Ayisha Qureshi

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.

-ALBERT EINSTEIN

My toughest struggle has been with my mind. Consciously I became aware of this struggle about five (05) years ago and it was with the realisation that my mind was totally out of control!!

Let me elaborate. The mind is like an unchained monkey, a restless child if you may. It skips from thought to thought, idea to idea in your head, going crazy and driving you crazy in the process. The synapses fire continuously and the worst is when it sets up a loop: usually of something that is bothering you- let’s say the behaviour of someone at work. The moment has passed and you want to get back to work. But you can’t, because your mind keeps replaying the same moment again and again and again. What’s more, it starts giving you a running commentary with the snapshots from memory. Minutes turn into hours and you just cannot get your focus back. You were not that upset to begin with but with every passing minute, your mood is deteriorating. The small incident has escalated into a battle- mind you- only in your head. You have wasted the entire day building it up and have gotten no work done, most probably aggravating your ulcer along the way.

My question to you is: who is responsible for this? You are? Who are you? You would never want to upset yourself. It is actually your mind. And this is when I realise that I was able to separate my mind from my Self. I realised they are two different entities. I realised that it was my mind that was out of control.

As they say: recognizing the problem is half the solution, so I have tried to chain in the monkey. I have realized that my Self (you can call it whatever you want. By the way, Eckhart Tolle calls it the Being) must be stronger than my mind. I have realised that my mind must be a faithful servant. It  must do as I say. I have deliberately started ignoring it when it throws a tantrum. In fact, I put it to task instead. Recently, after years and years of indiscipline, it has started behaving. Now when I must study, it listens. Now when I must let go of something that I have pondered, reached a conclusion about and settled, it lets go. Now, when I focus, it is all there, intent on the task at hand. And now when I want work, it gives me 100%.

So, please chain in your mind, discipline it, reign it in and before you do all that recognize that there is something larger than the mind, your Self, the Divine Being, the Spirit (call it what you may) that should be the master.

Mind is NOT the master!