Strengthen the Mind

Mind-fullness

Willpower; determination; attention; concentration; conviction; solidarity; love?

The mind is a powerful tool and a catalyst for action. A weak mind has little drive and easily falls like a tree with shallow roots in the tumultuous winds of other people’s opinions. A strong mind bends in those winds, and with deep roots does not fall.

Strengthening the mind is about forging resilience. Emotions which are not ours, opinions held by others, disastrous arguments, and hypnotic media; life is a hurricane which we must endure.

I think many people mistake a stubborn, recalcitrant mind for a strong one. They call themselves “realistic”, “pragmatic”, “scientific”, their straw houses painted to look like brick. Others fashion porcupine shells, barbed and threatening, they call themselves “activist”, “leader”, “oppressed”.¹

Kindness is reserved for the strong.

How do we go about strengthening our minds? How do we avoid becoming jaded, hard-hearted, closed-minded? How do we escape inattention, depression, disinterest?

First you must unlearn. The best defense is not a strong offense. The early bird scares away the worm. Martyrdom is not glory.

Next you must expand. Hold onto thoughts which contradict each other. Give grace to opinions different from yours. Determine to stand your ground as a mountain unperturbed by the goats that kick off rocks.

Then you must strive. Much like strengthening the body, the mind strengthens through use. Pick a goal that is important to you, dig deep, and practice following through. Select something small to start with, otherwise you might lose hope well before you see any results.

Meditation is an excellent avenue for strengthening the mind; even my preferred method, which focuses on relaxation, works wonders. The mind is strengthened through meditation by the act of returning to a focal point. If you have a moment, try this:

Close your eyes and remember a recent time when you were petting a beloved animal, smiling contentedly at the sunset, or laughing with a good friend. Notice the feeling this memory brings forth in your body: gentle warmth right around your solar plexus. Focus on that feeling and enlarge it. Now relax your body, releasing the tension that your focusing produced. Keep your mind on the warm feeling. Buddhists call this feeling mettā and it is now the object of your attention. Whenever you notice that your attention has wandered onto something else, relax your mental grip on that new object and gently bring your attention back to the warm feeling of mettā.

This is an abridged version of the Buddhist meditation technique called mettā bhavanā. The part where you bring your attention back to mettā is the part that strengthens your mind.

Finally, in order for a mind to be strong, it must also be relaxed and refined else it becomes immobile, calcified, curmudgeonly. I will be talking about these next parts in future posts.

1. Perhaps it goes without saying but not everyone who uses these words have these issues; people with these issues use these words.