Guided Meditation • Visualization • Mindfulness

 

by Kris King

Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the task is completed, you lay it down.
                —–Eckhart Tolle

I remember when I was first certain that I wanted to pursue my acting dreams while living in Springfield, IL. After driving back and forth to Chicago for auditions, it was clear to me that I needed to move to Los Angeles if I were to have a real shot at it. I sat with that knowing for at least a year before it hit me that time was not going to allow me to wait for a more favorable circumstance. At that point, it wasn’t what I needed to do that was an issue; it was how I will do it.

The major obstacle for human beings is the thinking mind. Alternatively, the human mind is the best tool ever given to you. If used in unison with the soul, the mind helps to create some of the grandest ideas, the most loving gestures, and numerous opportunities. The mind, unaccompanied, creates conflict, strife, and problems that can lead to the most erroneous behavior. In other words, when the mind plays the role of the sidekick to the superhero, the bad guys are captured and the town rejoices. However, when the mind starts acting as if it is the hero and feels that it doesn’t need any assistance, it will eventually self-destruct trying to save the town, ultimately taking the town down with it.

The problem seems to be that most people are trying to use their mind for the what as opposed to the how. To piggy back off my earlier example, when contemplating the move to Los Angeles, it was clear that I needed to move there, I just didn’t know how I was going to do it. So I explored a few different options. I thought about getting a loan. I even thought about saving up for a year or two, then moving. Until I eventually came to the obvious decision to sell my home and use the money to move and pay off some debt before I left. My mind made an assessment of what my options was, weeded out what wouldn’t work, leaving me with the best available option based on my circumstances. Two months later, I was in L.A.  

Your soul is all knowing. Your mind is all memory. If the mind is left unattended, all of your decisions will be made from past experiences. And can you blame it? The mind is trained to go into the storage room of any similar situation that you are currently in, see what you did in that situation, then act out a similar, if not an exact solution even if that solution didn’t work the last time. This is because it has no new data to work with. At least it seems this way.

The soul is always ready to assist the mind in making all of your decisions while always having your best interest at heart. The problem the mind has is; it likes repetition. If the information told to the mind does not feel familiar, it will always hesitate before acting. This is because the mind likes playing it safe and does not like surprises. Even when the soul sends a clear and rational solution to the mind (which is rare because the soul usually seeks newness and is always willing to walk into the unknown) if it is not mapped out in detail or does not paint a full picture beforehand, the mind will almost always disregard it. Only after the body has endured great misery, will the mind consider giving in to the soul’s advice. The key word here is: consider. The mind ponders for a while on the desires of the soul, but it may not choose that desire for quite some time. It all depends on how stubborn the mind is acting come decision time. Even when all signs point to the mind running out of options, it still will not raise the white flag just yet. It still believes somehow it can do this alone. This is just how arrogant the mind can be at times. So it exhausts every possible way to do just that. This can lead to great exhaustion of the body, which is waiting for the signal of what move to make. 

There is a solution.

When faced with any decision; whether it be starting your own business, what college to attend next fall, what career to pursue, or even what to make for dinner tonight; use the mind for what it is truly designed for, which is to strategize the answer, not come up with the answer.
 
The easy part has been done for you. Your soul has already given its suggestion. A suggestion that always sees to benefit you, not harm you. However, the mind always has the final say. Its job is to choose from the alternatives and make a decision. And the soul will never interfere with that choice. This choice will either be made in a team effort or a one-man show. Once a decision is made, the body will act out that choice. And the quality of your life depends on that choice… literally.