I don’t consider myself nostalgic in the least, but I do find a certain usefulness in tracing your origins from the past. Many times, this exercise can help you experience certain intricacies about you, your personality, or the way you think. Recently, it’s come to my attention that my own personal thought structure, especially when discussing mental connectors or associations, is the product of a long string of influences and actions that have shaped my brain to interpret sensual triggers in a way that I feel has contributed greatly to my personal “success.”
At a young age I convinced my mother to allow me to train in the martial arts; an act I consider one of the greatest influences on my life. The influence, however, wasn’t from Tae Kwon Do itself, but came from my first instructor (A man I consider so dear that I’m plugging him here). Master Colling was an amazingly charismatic teacher. His skill was certainly above and beyond, but it was his approach to teaching that affected me so much. I had originally started going because I wanted to know how to fight and be a tough guy. What I got was a complete 180 degree shift and instead received the tools needed to face and deal with the situations life throws at us. He didn’t teach me how to fight; he taught me how to see.
Our brains are incredibly powerful machines capable of developing vocal communication, inventing the wheel, sculpting David, or deciphering the means by which to get humanity into space. And while a fist to the face is an incredibly powerful action, true power lies in the ability to convince another person why they do not wish to fight you; Even greater power lies in the ability to then convince your would-be attacker to follow you and train the way you do, thus creating a beneficial friendship out of a potential enemy.
The point is, if our brains are so powerful and influential, why then do most of us forget their effect? The idea is simple once it is painted clearly. While all of us (this is a general statement and neglects certain populations who are born defected) have eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, and the means by which to touch physical objects, we must all go through a translation period where those signals picked up by our senses must be converted into specific thoughts or feelings by the brain. The issue is, not everyone perceives the same emotions from the same stimuli. This is clearly demonstrated when you place a piece of artwork in front of a group of people and ask them to describe how they feel or how they interpret what the artist was conveying. The mental power I want to focus on here is mental associations.
Mental associations are the physical or emotional connections we make with certain senses. They control how we look at the world and how we initially address situations that come our way. Simply put, mental associations can be the reason why when it rains, you feel sad or depressed. There are reasons behind this: perhaps you associate rain with tears of sadness or you once had a traumatic event that occurred in the rain. The problem is, inevitably, it will rain again and you will once again have those overwhelming sensations of depression and sadness.
In the same way, this is how our view on such things like fear or the concept of a challenge is controlled. The idea of being placed or stuck in a very high place is extremely panic inducing to many people. Sometimes even the idea or thinking about being in that kind of situation is enough to make their pulse skyrocket and their breath shorten. Does this mean we should never place ourselves in that kind of situation? The problem is that we have the ability to “guess” the future and then worry about it. Ironically, we are almost always wrong. Yet we continue to worry and allow the emotions that derive to control how we act in the present.
The good news is that all of us have the ability to rewire our brains the way we feel necessary. It is this rewiring that sets many of us apart and allows us to be truly free. This is the gift I was given by my master all those years ago. He would constantly ask us to name our fears, physical, spiritual, or mental, and then challenge us to face them one way or another. It was this head on approach towards personal challenges that helped define me.
It’s the concept that and obstacle or a fear is not a limitation, but an opportunity. It’s the concept that rain is not to be associted with tears of sadness, but tears of joy. It’s the concept that if something is hard, or the journey is long, the feeling of overcoming that difficulty or experiencing that journey is attractive; it is not something to be afraid of.
This is an actual science that the current Dalai Lama sponsored to see if meditation has any effect on the brain itself. The article can be found here and the results are mind boggling. They clearly demonstrate the capabilities our minds hold.
These positive connections I make to the senses I experience I believe to be a big contributor to my overall feeling of health, consciousness, success, happiness, and state of mental relaxation. This outlook towards that which is difficult or hard is something I feel is very integral to personal development, yet is something so lacking in today’s society.
Face your fears and deal with them head on. Stop allowing your own thoughts and your own imagination to control your emotions and your feelings. Break free and realize that you have ultimate control. Suffering is not a requirement, but a choice too many of us decide to make because it is easy. It is easy to give up or succomb to a fear or a challenge and wallow in your short comings; Easier still to then turn away and place responsibility or blame on some outside source and complain about the unfairness and injustice.
“Be strong to be useful,” not just physically, but mentally as well. We all have the means by which to be free of limitations. Changing for the better isn’t as hard as one may think, and in the grand scheme of things, that is half the battle right there.
Charles