How do you navigate your own mind?

Answering for myself, I'm always aware of different sides of me which contradict. I feel mostly centred and in control, but I'm not all together. There are some dark rooms I don't like to go into and at least one which terrifies me to even touch the door, you might say, never mind go into. I have some issues to deal with going back to my childhood and then in my adult years. Sometimes I have become consumed with depression or pain and despair, but less so lately. I am in a calmer, more centred time in my life. I therefore have better control now.

I am an artist though, I explore myself through my art a lot. I often listen to my heart and let out whatever feelings or emotional residue needs to come out, not in this case expressed through art but a kind of energy through my mind and body, that releases like an invisible steam, if you know what I mean. I feel much better afterwards and I heal. When comfortable I allow myself to drift down into the lower reaches of myself, but only where it feels comfortable. I don't allow myself to go too deep, to stray too far, because I am currently working a full-time (year round) job and I need to stay level-headed, feet on the ground. In a spiritual journey (deep inside yourself) you can lose yourself, go through an eccentric phase and risk going truly insane. There tends to be good and bad to such a journey and it's very dangerous, but rewarding if you stay true to your heart. But like I say, for that you really need time without responsibility.

So yeah, I explore myself through daydream, art, meditations (no techniques, just relaxing and feeling one with nature or the spiritual side of myself,) and in dream too I feel. I always try to keep my heart centred in myself and feel my way through the rest of me. I do occasionally say or do something I regret and wonder why I said or did that (nothing major, but perhaps a silly but poorly timed joke or inconsiderate or even completely off-subject remark.) The mind is deep and complex.

I usually seem to sort it out pretty well though. someone might say why don't I go and get drunk, waste my money away for a good time, and part of me may want to. But other levels I may desire other things, and on a more sensible level I definitely don't want to do that. I may feel nervous about something yet also comfortable about it at the same time and so on. Largely I just work it through in the situation, accepting that I am complex and using my logic, intuition and my heart to judge and feel my way through. There is never a time where I feel uncomplicated or entirely united in myself.

a reply to: LoneCloudHopper2

hello Sir how many posts i have to make to create my own thread here ? can you tell me something helpful here ?

a reply to: GustaaaveAlberjo001

I think at one time was 20, but it may less now. You can check the freshman's forum.

a reply to: Night Star

nah when i last time checked it was 1000 ( one thousand ) posts. so i hvae no problem even if it is 20.

but are you sure that after 20 i can make my own thread here ?

a reply to: GustaaaveAlberjo001

As far as I know it is 20 or less. You could ask any Mod or try to find the answer in the freshman forum. I tried quickly to find it, but gave up. LOL

a reply to: Night Star

alright thank you for your help. let us hope that i will be able to make thread and you will also comment in it. LOL

originally posted by: LucidWarrior
How do you navigate your own mind?

I think that if I accept/believe that it is "my own mind", true expansive 'navigation' would be greatly inhibited.

Generally, if there is something that I need to Know, all I need do is to enter the 'question' and get out of the way.
The 'answer' might be instantaneous, or take ten years...
The relevant phrase is 'need to know', and 'when' we 'need to know it'! *__-

originally posted by: LucidWarrior
My question for you is, like it says in the title, How do you navigate your own mind? Is there different techniques? I read in a fantasy book once a most intriguing concept which wasn't elaborated upon, of mental geometries. Like I kid you not, I have a hard time searching my own memories at times.

Firstly the 'mind' has to be found. Look right now at the 'mind'. 'Mind' is an idea - where is it?
Thoughts happen when?

The belief is that there is a thing called 'mind' with lots of stuff in it (memories) but really there is just the present thought occurring. You (consciousness) are the space in which all appearing things come and go - including thought and sensation and perception.

a reply to: LucidWarrior

Physics is governed by metaphysics, though the latter presupposes the former, and I feel lost amidst the sea of philosophy with no oar, only a makeshift raft and a net. Wonderful things, I find, I feel, I see. And yet... With no way to be, other than to become; for one lost in stagnation it's hard to overcome The battle is never lost, remember this All you ever do is your best Just remember to try Always, and you will fly

You hint at being on the river of life with no oar but only a net, then, cast forth your net and entangle it on the brush on the shoreline and pull yourself aground (you can bring the raft along if you choose to then tie it up just in case you need a crutch) - then you can navigate your path and not let the path navigate you.

Great question.

I am not just my mind, so for me navigation includes intellect, intuition, emotion and hopefully a good dose of common sense related specifically to the unique situations that face me. Sometimes I get it right other times it may seem that I got it wrong, but for some reason it all works out in the end, so it makes me wonder if I am giving intuition more power.

Movement is life

We occasionally asked Moshe why, with his background and other abilities, he decided to teach in this way, through the body. He reminded us first of all, that movement is life, and explained in detail how the nervous system is already in movement even as we think of doing something, before any outward movement is evident. He often had us imagine movements to perfection before attempting them outwardly - a surprisingly effective way to improve out functioning. And, secondly, he used the metaphor, "If you want to get somewhere, why not go down the broad avenue?" By this he meant that a good 90 percent of the information coming into the brain at any moment is triggered by the body's minute movements in space; thus it makes sense to get into the brain through the motor cortex - the broad avenue of movement.

Why Talking to Yourself Might be The Highest Form of Intelligence

However, our body is a primary part of us as we live in human form. Too often this part of ourself is neglected. We attempt to become spiritual by leaving our body behind, by numbing it, or disregarding it, and then turning our total attention to our mind, emotions, psyche, or spirit. It is clear to me that we must bring our bodies along, and that our challenge as earthly beings is to bring enlightenment to our full and total being, to embody spirit fully. Moshe's focus on awareness and on the body helped bring the light of consciousness into each cell of our bodies, and to very effectively bring our fully integrated self into the process of personal growth and spiritual work.

originally posted by: Nothin

originally posted by: badw0lf
a reply to: LucidWarrior
...the sadness I continually feel for the things I have failed to do, failed to be, and have become in times of dire loss, wrecks me...

What can one possibly do about the past? Does anyone have the ability to affect the past?

The only sense that rings true: is right-here, right-now.

Exactly. But the problem is when we're stuck in it.
The past is just a story we tell ourselves. The future is a story we anticipate. Only now matters.

I know this, but ... she is in the past and I miss it all. so my now, hurts. you are exactly right though.

But how to remain here...

originally posted by: Night Star
a reply to: GustaaaveAlberjo001

As far as I know it is 20 or less. You could ask any Mod or try to find the answer in the freshman forum. I tried quickly to find it, but gave up. LOL

You are a good soul NightStar..

If the world were more like you :heart:

ugh dp dp

dp

a reply to: Wildmanimal

Apologies accepted, it wasn't the humour itself but rather the derision I percieved that riled me. By all counts you are most likely right I might just need to take a wilderness break

a reply to: badw0lf

Like the little poem I found in writing my op says, brother, all we have to do is keep trying. I'm sorry that you are in this mess too.

Yes the mind is random it seems like an ever changijg current... I know even at my worst of times that dwelling on such sadness and pain and percieved failure will only make things worse... Yet when I get like that I don't even feel like I deserve better. It boils down to feelings of self worth, for me I think.

a reply to: Nothin
Different hats, huh? I will try this one today, I think, but I can't help but wonder: what makes them work? Also I know you were talking to wolf with your next comment, but that's just another trap I get into and he might as well: when you know you should only use the past to make sure the now never returns(regret) or to make it come back (nostalgia) and yet the mind gets stuck

a reply to: Night Star

Morning! Yes I do have depression and anxiety, in boatloads haha. I don't really have anyone I feel I can talk to, though, which is at least in part why I choose to expose myself on forums like this one. I do use diversions but a problem then becomes I get stuck hopping from diversion to diversion and never returning to where my soul knows or feels it must. Except on accident and then I find myself promptly running away again...

That's kinda what inspired this post, a dim light. I've written before using that exact metaphor, and when I write I can sometimes see it, sometimes even feel it. But it's like it departs from me when I leave the page, or like I depart from it, and I can't grab it can't hardly even see it or feel it...

Well I do see a star now so things are looking up!
I'll be dropping by there soon

a reply to: LoneCloudHopper2

Thanks for dropping by.

 I often listen to my heart and let out whatever feelings or emotional residue needs to come out, not in this case expressed through art but a kind of energy through my mind and body, that releases like an invisible steam, if you know what I mean.

I really don't, I mean I know such a thing is possible and yet initiating such a thing seems beyond me. Like, literally

When comfortable I allow myself to drift down into the lower reaches of myself, but only where it feels comfortable.

I see those words I understand what they mean but I am still in the dark wondering how do I do that.

Perhaps the biggest question I have for you is, could you elaborate upon

always try to keep my heart centred in myself and feel my way through the rest of me

I hear you on not ever feeling united in oneself, though it would appear you are a much better navigator of that really than I am haha. Really in essence that is all I should wish for, unity of self so I may proceed to raise unity in the world.

Its like Google Earth you start with some solid coordinates and look around for interesting links.

41° 12.591'N 87° 51.263'W

a reply to: namelesss

So your saying release the attachments I have to my mind because they may be blocking it from 'flowing' so to speak? And to just form a question and release it?

Seems simple enough and reminiscent of what I tell myself sometimes... "If I am truly meant to/truly want to... I'll do it" which leads to it's own form of despair haha. But with regards to answers and information, well I tend to receive a lot of those tailored specifically for me and don't really do much with them.

a reply to: Itisnowagain

Yes the mind is an idea, the realm of ideas which govern our personal and collective world's. A game piece capable of moving around the board is not playing the game that comes from human rules which are set in consciousness

a reply to: InTheLight

See that's just the thing I use words to describe myself and my plight and then words offer a solution but my plight isn't the words it's the reality they represent and when I get the solution in the form of metaphor such as casting the net to the bank and pulling myself over, I literally have no idea how to go about doing that.

Much like michet brings up in his post, that bit I was talking about metaphysics governing and presupposing regular physics is meaning that changing ones physical environment has a direct effect upon the mental like how you are much the likelier to feel better if you go outside than if you stay in your room all day.

a reply to: LucidWarrior

For me it has been a long and difficult journey. As a kid I felt youthful, innocent and life seemed wondrous. Everything wanted to kill this in me but I refused to let it. I would not allow myself to be corrupted by bad behaviours/attitudes around me or to be squashed by the education system. I feared the adult world would break me and it has. I have lost myself, lost touch with who I really was a couple times in my life. Once I lost it so much that it took me years to get it back. Because I once had it I knew it was still inside me. I felt like an empty shell of a human being, beside myself with emotions and confused, lost.

I would spend lots of time alone, head low, concentrating, reaching for anything inside me (particular feelings, memories, instincts, a motivation to do art) that reflected my true self/heart in some way. I would hold onto such aspects of myself and work hard to feel and express them better, to make them more of me again. When I got doing art again, exploring different feelings or ideas, anything that felt more like my true self that I could find I would explore further, whether in art, thought or feeling. It all came down to feeling like my old self and I was basically digging up scraps of who I really was and I kept reaching with sincere attempt for my true self--you might say my will was searching like a light through the dark for my heart. This took years and required a great deal of patience and determination but eventually I found myself again. For me making YouTube videos helped a lot! To look at myself on camera, to open up and always try to be genuine in every way to those who watched me, it was a big help in finding my true self/heart again.

My heart being the centre of me and always feeling my way through. To describe this, hmm. Right now, I am my heart, I am one with my true self. I am that. I feel an edginess, a part of me that does't want to type this. Part of me is checking the time because I have to leave for work soon. Part of me wants to get up and grab something else to eat. Part of me does not feel like helping you (don't take that the wrong way, it is just a part of me.) Part of me Is tired and drained from my inner problems which I screen my heart from and wants to lay back and moan bitterly at how hard life is. Part of me wants to do some of my art before work. But obviously my heart chooses to be here, thinking about you and trying to express myself and see if I can be of some help to you. I am my heart and I navigate all these opposing feelings, instincts and motivations of myself. My heart is balanced in myself and goes on love, compassion, passion (for the arts), a desire to heal and to adhere to basic logic for the sake of myself. The heart guides me well, so long as it listens to logic.

So for me it was digging up my true self/heart in pieces until I felt it again and was centred in it again. I was following no guidance or advice, just what I felt I needed to do. It was very difficult but I achieved it eventually. My true self/heart is the part of me that feels the strongest and the most purely. It is like an inner child that rejects all adult world nonsense, something that people say you need to grow out of. But I believe in maintaining a strong, protective adult mindset while in public (esp. at work) while nurturing my inner sensitivity. I believe it is unhealthy not to do both. All these sensitive feelings come from the heart, but if you have lost touch with it then it is not balanced and you can be overwhelmed by stress, feel, anger or other unhealthy feelings or states.

For the kind of meditation I have talked about you may have to try some of the ancient techniques of meditation which have helped many people. I have found art very helpful, and making videos helped me. You need to make yourself emotional naked for yourself, to strip off the nonsense, the protective barriers, the self-disciplines which screen you from your true self/heart. It takes time and patience. Anything I could do to help just let me know I hope this was of some help to you.