Stimulation
"Stimulation can unground the mind"
Introduction
Defining Stimulation
The mind is like an electrical circuit; every time we generate emotions and thoughts, the mind is being electrically charged, or in other words, "stimulated".
In this article, we will explore how overloading the mind with stimuli can negatively impact one's quality of life, and the ways to release oneself from an excessively charged mind.
Stimulation In Depth
Different life experiences will affect the mind in different ways.
For instance, drinking a cup of warm hot chocolate can make the mind happy, hearing babies crying in the background can make the mind irritated, and jumping off a plane can make the mind fearful and excited.
Thus, some experiences can stimulate the mind a lot; some, a little. It will really depend on who is perceiving the experience as everyone's mind will react differently to the same experiences.
Naturally, there is nothing inherently wrong with stimulating the mind; after all, it's only natural for one to experience reactions in their life experiences.
However, like overloading a circuit, problems can arise when one is constantly charging the mind with excessive stimulation.
Let us explore some of the potential problems that one can face when one has a highly charged mind.
When one is always stimulating the mind with fun things to do, it can leave the mind charged with the desire of wanting to do fun things all the time. Thus, when the fun experiences expire, it can leave the mind wanting for more, leading one to a perpetual cycle of more and more but never enough. In the extreme, this can lead one to form different kinds of addictions.
When the mind is always been fed with stimuli, the mind can also end up developing a "mind" of its own: wandering thoughts can become uncontrollable, and one can find it more difficult to quell their fluctuating emotions. Instead of leading the mind to aid us to achieve our goals, one can end up in the cycle of trying to feed the mind's desires, which is to find activities to sustain old habit patterns.
Over-stimulating the mind can also make one ungrounded throughout the day. When the mind is always charged with activities to do, one will find it difficult to calm their mind and absorb the details of the things that are happening around them. This can impact one's ability to study, hold conversations with people, perform one's task without making mistakes, remember little details throughout the day.
When the mind becomes overly-stimulated, one's sleep patterns will be affected too. One can end up rolling in bed for hours on end wandering one the mind just won't sleep.
So, if you are experiencing any of these conditions, it may mean that you have a highly charged mind.
Now, let us look at some of the the ways to ground the overcharged mind so that it can function optimally again.
Path Of Creator
Stimulation In Relation To The Path Of Creator
To address a stimulated mind, we first have to understand the causes for a stimulated mind.
Causes for a stimulated mind
There are two ways for the mind to become stimulated.
Firstly, the mind can be stimulated through external means, for instance, through the life experiences we put the mind through, i.e. engaging in exciting activities, partying, alcohol, drugs, and so forth.
The other way the mind can be stimulated is through internal means, for instance, through over-thinking, always worrying and fantasizing about things, always using the mind for creative work, and so forth.
The solution to release an excessively charged mind is simple: just do less things that would stimulate it or do more things to relax it.
This will require one first to develop Self-Knowing: to discover what one is doing throughout the day that is always stimulating one's mind, and then, to challenge one's habit patterns of always doing that activity, which will be quite challenging because the mind will always want to hold onto its old habit patterns.
That is why the practice of meditation can be very helpful because through the practice of simply observing oneself, one will learn how to react less throughout the day, which will allow one to bring Stillness back into the mind.
Realize that our tendencies to react excessively to life experiences will always be the deeper cause of an over-stimulated mind because if one can learn to react less, no matter what kinds of life experiences one goes through in life, the mind will be scarcely stimulated.
However, the idea of living a "non-reactive" life can deter one away from developing the state of Stillness because it can make one feel that in doing so, one can end up living like a robot that is unable to experience any emotions, erasing all the fun of intense experiences from life.
But this is not really what will happen when one learns to maintain a Still mind throughout the day. Realize that when the mind is Still, the experiences one go through in life will become more vivid and colourful. And instead of experiencing uncontrollable intense reactions and letting them blow up, one will be able to appreciate their reactions in the subtler states, and let them these reactions come and go without it affecting the mental wellbeing of their mind.
So, although one may think that it's not "exciting" or "fun" to live with a Still mind, it's a state that is of more profound happiness, contentment, and control.
The journey of releasing oneself from a stimulated mind is not really about forcing oneself to live a life that they don't want. Rather, it's to practice bringing Stillness to the mind, and with time, one's habits and preferences will naturally change. Perhaps, one will realize that one actually prefers Stillness over Excitement through their journey of developing a Still mind.
Finally, the deepest cause for a stimulated mind will always be the Suffering States of the Mind: the fears, the anger, the impatience, and so forth. These negative states of the mind will always compel the mind to overreact, generating excessive thoughts and emotions to one's life experiences.
For instance, the states of boredom can drive one to constantly search for exciting things to do or to fantasize in one's mind
For instance, our fears can compel us to live in their imagination of the worst things that could happen.
For instance, one's anger can drive one to have arguments with the person they hate in their mind
And the list goes on.
Thus, by working on one's suffering states of mind, the mind will naturally become balanced with time.
Realize that often one can search for stimulating things to do out of the subconscious desire to distract oneself from one's pains, one's fears, and one's unhappiness. Thus, once the unhappiness within is addressed, one might realize that the things they used to enjoy are no longer needed because one has become happier than before. When one is truly happy, they will become less dependent on external things for happiness.
Thus, the journey of developing Stillness can be enlightening and transformative.
In summary, practice meditation to learn how to bring Stillness to your mind. And carry that Stillness throughout the day so you can become aware of the moments when you are stimulating your mind. This will help you to discover the deeper cause so that you can address it.
The destination is towards becoming the master of our minds again rather than let our mind run our life on old habit patterns as if on a hamster wheel.
Train the mind to be Still so that it can learn to be happy with whatever you do in life.
Know and Transform The Self!
Reading articles helps with understanding, but to transform the mind, one realizes the truth from experience.
For such an enlightening journey, the Self-Transformation Course has everything you will ever need!
