“For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.” Bhagavad Gita 6.6

We have two minds: Conscious and Subconscious. Sigmund Freud often used the metaphor of an iceberg to describe the two major aspects of human personality. The tip of the iceberg that extends above the water represents the conscious mind. As you can see in the image on top, the conscious mind is just the "tip of the iceberg." Beneath the water is the much larger bulk of the iceberg, which represents the subconscious.

The conscious mind is the active mind that observes and does everything with attention. It has the power to make a decision. Like

· You are reading this article in your conscious state.

· When you change the channels of your television using a remote, you are in a conscious state.

· When you are talking to others, generally you are in a conscious state.

· When you type a message on WhatsApp, you are in a conscious state.

When you are conscious, you control your behaviour, you manage what you say. You know how to respond/ react to any situation. You try to show your best to the world. Our conscious mind is the “watchman at the gate.”

Our subconscious mind has unlimited potential. Unlike financial banks, where you have a finite amount of money, your subconscious mind has infinite storage capacity. It stores everything irrespective of the quality of the content.

"All Power is within you. You can do anything and everything": Swami Vivekanand

You can think of many instances in your life like when someone hits your car, your boss criticizes you for your performance, your child does not perform as per your expectation when someone writes something nasty to your Twitter message and many more. You become like an empty boat that is without a driver and with no control.

At this moment, you have 2 choices, whether to react angrily/tamely or respond with a smile.

Reacting is a bit different from responding. When we react, many times it is instinctive, reciprocal or in opposition to a particular situation or person. That reaction may be favorable or not, depending on how you feel.

Responding, while technically a reaction, takes into consideration the desired outcome of the interaction. A reaction may result in a positive or negative outcome whereas a response is engineered to produce a positive or negative outcome.

“The mind is restless, turbulent, strong and unyielding; it is as difficult to control it as it is to control the wind.”- Bhagavad Gita Verse 6.34

Whatever we think, will come out as it is. The same principle applies to garbage in our minds. We all have certain waste thoughts – stray desires that are utterly unworthy. Such garbage often crowds and clouds our minds. And this garbage tends to grow, not just inside us but also outside us. Filthy thoughts inside us grow till they impel us to filthy actions that only make things worse, sometimes horrifyingly worse.

Garbage that is not cleared often tends to multiply – even if it is kept in a bin, the bin starts stinking or polluting the environment. If we learn to carefully fill our minds with positivity, then negativity gets automatically driven out or kept out.

This is the single most important aspect that designs life. We always think about why things are happening this way or that. Sometimes we think that life is favouring us, but at times we think otherwise. The pertinent question is WHY does it happen?

The root cause is what we are taking in every day. It is just like the farmer who is sowing potatoes in his field. The output will be potatoes, even if the present market requirement is for onions. So, it is very important to understand that “what you sow, so shall you reap.”

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”
― Gautama Buddha, Sayings Of Buddha

Destiny sometimes referred to as fate (from the Latin fatum), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual.

Destiny is formed by different factors, some under control and some not. Whatever you are today is not only because of the way you think and act now. It is a combination of five different imprints.

• Your Surroundings

• This Birth karma

• Genetic Impact

• Past Birth

• Original impressions

Thus, you are the sum total of five different imprints. The question is what is in your control and what is not? Original impressions, past birth and genetic impact are not in your control. Only two factors are controllable, i.e., your surroundings and your karma in this birth. You have limited control over your surroundings (at least during childhood), but you have 100% control over your karma. Whatever you feed in makes your karma, it is imperative to take care of what you absorb. Maybe in childhood you weren’t aware and did not have much control; but as you grew into an adult, it became your responsibility to take care of what you are feeding in consciously and unconsciously. The kind of self-talk that you do, the type of people you meet, the kind of food you eat, etc. make your present karma.

“Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t).”: James Baraz

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.

“Mindfulness is the awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” When you start looking at life with no judgment, with no prejudice, then you are in the state of right mindfulness."

Mindfulness is a quality that every human being already possesses, it’s not something you have to conjure up, you just have to learn how to access it.

Our mind takes flight, we lose touch with our body, and pretty soon we’re engrossed in obsessive thoughts about something that just happened or fretting about the future. And that makes us anxious. Yet no matter how far we drift away, mindfulness is right there to snap us back to where we are and what we’re doing and feeling. If you want to know what mindfulness is, it’s best to try it for a while.

When we’re mindful, we reduce stress, enhance performance, gain insight and awareness through observing our own minds, and increase our attention to others’ well-being.

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.” ― Jim Carrey

Society has its definition of success. Success is a very social concept. As to society, the meaning of success is an accumulation of status, fame, money and power. Success is not about the accumulation of wealth and power, it should be personal, for joy, for satisfaction.

The real truth is that happiness is often subjective and difficult to measure. Success is often judged externally or by comparison to other people.

People have a tendency to confuse the two (success and happiness), mixing them up and can’t distinguish that both are very different but seemingly unified terms.

Joy is a goal that many people aspire to. Most people also have a strong desire to be successful in life and they tend to believe that through this success they will automatically become happier but they continue to struggle.

There are just as many people out there who deem themselves happy, while not necessarily successful, as there are successful people still trying to figure out how to be happy.

• Success is all the money in the world; happiness is having people to spend it on.

• Success is measurable; happiness is limitless.

• Success is working hard; happiness is loving the work.

• Success is being right; happiness is being true.

• Success is earned, happiness is achieved.

• Success is money; happiness is value.

• Success is pursuing your dreams; happiness is living your dreams.

• Success is reaching the top; happiness has no ceiling.

• Success is envied; happiness is shared.

• Success is perfection; happiness is embracing imperfections.

Does it mean that it is bad to be successful? The answer is no. Considering the above story, a person can be successful, own a red Lamborghini and can still be joyful. But if a person is having pots of money but no mental peace, it is better to have less money but more calmness.

In general, the mind is capable of producing two major types of thoughts: good and bad. These thoughts sendoff signals to human emotions manipulating how they should feel. Good thoughts generate good feelings while negative feelings are a product of bad or negative thoughts.

Positive thinking, or an optimistic attitude, is the practice of focusing on the good in any given situation. It can have a big impact on your physical and mental health. That doesn't mean you ignore reality or make light of problems. It simply means you approach the good and the bad in life with the expectation that things will go well.

Baby mosquito came back after its first flying... His Dad asked him, "How did U feel ?"

He replied "It was wonderful Daddy... All humans clapped hands for me!"

Moral:- Life is too Beautiful, it depends on our way of thinking

Negative thinking is a mental attitude of anticipating the worst possible outcomes of situations, events, and circumstances. It is the ability of the mind to produce thoughts that are not deemed favourable to what the person wants. Whenever a challenge arises, a person with negative thinking pre-empts a negative outcome before it has even occurred or is being acted upon. Pessimism is synonymous with negative thinking. The act of pessimism is also a state of mind that lets the individual view life in a negative manner.

Vibration is an overall state of being. Everything in the universe is made up of energy vibrating at different frequencies. As per the first law of thermodynamics, energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It transforms itself from one form to another. As human beings, we are also experts in transmitting and transforming energy. We do it continually knowingly or unknowingly.

Energy, in the form of vibrations, plays a very crucial role in our lives. At times, we don’t understand its potency, but vibrations are always affecting our lives positively or negatively.

Example:

• When we are going for the examination, we seek the blessings of our parents and grandparents.

• When we hold the hand of our beloved, some magical energy passes and we are willing to challenge the entire world!

• When India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983 and 2011, the vibrations of the win were echoed by more than a billion Indians

• As a parent, when we carry our newborn baby for the first time, the vibrations are humongous and cannot be explained in words.

Vibrations are nothing but energy. Vibrations play a very important role in your life. We should be extremely careful while generating them. Even if we have generated wrong thoughts, we know there is a way to manage them. Similarly, we also know how to channel positive energy to ourselves. Self-talk plays a very important role in channeling positive energy and dissipating negative energy.