BEAUTY AND THE BEHOLDER

Our brain has the power to not only make our lives beautiful but also create a better person within us.

Beauty lies in the mind of the beholder. Our mind is a thought spinner and more often than not we under estimate this power. According to research we create an astonishing 60,000 thoughts per day, which roughly translates to 40-50 thoughts per minute. From mundane day-to-day to delightfully positive, our mind can dart wherever we as navigators want to escort it. However, in reality, we are the ones following the steps of our mind, with the blind fold.

Let’s take a test – What were you thinking while brushing your teeth in the morning? Which thoughts did you create while eating lunch?

Prime Time breaking news on TV give us ingredients to create unhealthy recipes for thoughts and we blame this sound around us for overcrowding our mind. Resulting in a venting of thoughts as ‘Status Updates’ on Facebook and Twitter. The number of ‘likes’ steers the conversations. We fog the mind with meaningless, purposeless thoughts every minute. The box is stuffed with pessimistic, dis-empowering junk. Each creation saps more energy and by the end of the day the mind is overwhelmed by its own burden. The mind is disempowered.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and in our lives it pertains to the beautiful relationship between cause and effect. Let’s break it down. Many friends complain of being slighted by best friends, many feel being judged, others have trust issues. WhatsApp messaging is easier to download this feeling to many other friends. Real time conversation, which is an organic thought churner has replaced text messages. Do we really know the feeling attached to a thought in a text such as “W r u?” or “V R BFF ROFL” or have we imagined the sender’s intent?

Going back to the cause and effect story, let’s scan our mind and map what all it breathed during the day. Did it unmindfully give life to fear, guilt or resentment? Did it unwillingly abort a budding idea with doubt? Did it inattentively bring up enviousness and gloomy reasoning?

We hang around with our thought blurbs; “Her dress was much better than mine. Maybe she has lost weight that’s why”, “Sharma has bought a new car. Wonder how much increment he got. Or is he dealing underhand may be”, “I should learn a new language. But maybe I am too old to learn anything new.” Wrapping ourselves in the warmth of these thoughts we criticise the noise outside. We become our thoughts.

Then sometimes a fond friend livens up a party, some energise a dull conversation and some rejuvenate the mind by a mere thought. These electrifying personalities create strong positive thoughts around them, inundating those in their energy field with buoyancy. Innovative start-ups are strong ideas fuelled by unwavering faith.

Our brain has incredible capability to design and beautify our lives, relationships, goals and personalities. All we have to do is remodel our thoughts.

Here are 5 hacks for the mind to download beautiful thoughts:

1. Be Aware

Pay attention to every thought arising. While brushing teeth, looking out from the window of a moving car, in a coffee break, anytime when the body is in an auto pilot mode and brain is free-wheeling. Check the brain and watch what it is upto, like an outsider. Train the brain to be discerning.

2. Reduce the number of thoughts

Once the brain knows its been watched over and controlled, it will consciously reduce the number of thoughts. A simple trick is to get all the thoughts in a queue and then arrange them in descending priority. The vague, random, negative thoughts can be asked to leave, albeit politely. Once you have mastered this, the not so important thoughts will turn back even before you open the door of your mind. Such is the power of our brain.

3. Mindfully create beautiful thoughts

Don’t let your mind run like an unguided missile. Manoeuvre it like a drone. Create meaningful pictures, goals, ideas. Your mind is your canvas and you, an artist. Whatever comes out of that powerhouse better be strong and positive just the way you want to be perceived.

4. Convert negative thoughts to positive

Here are a few tips to check mate negativity thrown at you by others. Condition your brain to Ctrl+Alt+Delete thoughts which don’t serve any purpose. Shout ‘Cut’ albeit silently. You can also talk to your brain and say ‘Erase negative thoughts’. Don’t underestimate the power of your brain.

5. Be infectious

Spread beauty by talking, texting and thinking positive because what you will think, you will eventually become.

Ipomea Chaudhary is an author of recently released fiction ‘Conviction of Absoluteness’. She spent 14 years in media and in her last profile she headed Radio Meow, Mumbai, as a Station Head. Her bag of certificates has Pranic Healing, Hypnotherapy, Aromatherapy, Reiki, MA – Education, MBA, Mass Communication, baking and Spanish language. Mindful-living and soul-sensitivity is her purpose. She believes in new experiences as nutrition for the soul!