mastering mind control

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You generally don’t think too much about your mind... because you’re captivated by it. It’s like your mind is constantly making a movie, called your life, and YOU are the main character. There’s a LOT going on in the movie of your life and everything is so compelling. Your relationships, desires, dislikes, good circumstances and bad circumstances have you sooo captivated . . . . . . that you’ve forgotten something very obvious and basic about yourself. “Forgotten” is the key word here, because most likely you’ve never actually realized what I’m going to point out to you, about your very own mind . . . . . . but once you DO see, from your own perspective, that what I’m saying is completely obvious . . . you’ll feel like you had never forgotten it in the first place. YOU WILL OWN IT . . . as if you’ve never been without it (because you haven’t). Which is why this simple book has the potential to change your life. Take the time to look closely at what I’m about to show you . . .

In this book . . . I’m going to show you: * Why you are not responsible for a lot of things that bother you. * Why you sometimes feel powerless in the movie of your life. * How you always hold the ultimate power. * How to take back the power you never knew you lost so you can: * Eliminate your pain points. * Enjoy a life that fulfills you, every single day.

We’ll begin with a few discoveries you MUST make about your very own mind . . .

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Your Mind Is Your Primary Instrument The most important thing to every person is their own experience of themselves. . . . . . which is created, entirely by the mind. Is that true, in your direct experience, right now? What is the most important thing to you, bottom line? Helping your child, getting bills paid, getting away from an impossible situation, improving your health …? Although we’re focused on accomplishing something in the world outside, ultimately we take those actions to satisfy our own inner experience of ourselves. The drive to help your child or pay the bills comes from inside. You get unsettled feelings about some things and must act to resolve those feelings. So … the most important thing to you is how you experience yourself. And … your experience of yourself, is created entirely by your mind. Please don’t believe me, it won’t do you any good. Instead, look at your direct experience, right now, and see for yourself. Every single thing you ever experience comes directly from your mind (your thoughts). It’s really obvious when you take a minute to think about it. Everything you know and every experience you ever have IS what’s happening in your mind. Of course things happen in the world, but your actual experiences come from how your mind interprets those things.

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When we don’t slow down to analyze this, we operate under the false idea that “life is happening to us”, as if everything we experience is because of what goes on outside. But a little contemplation will show that’s never the case. I can be happy doing something one day, and miserable doing the very same thing the next day. What was happening outside was the same, but what was happening in my mind (my mood) was not. Take this moment for example, right now as you’re reading these words. How you experience this is entirely due to what is happening in your mind . . . your thoughts. We get captivated in our experiences but don’t notice the thoughts that are actually creating those experiences. It’s really obvious. You can’t recall any experience you’ve had, that did not involve your mind. It’s impossible, because all experience comes from the mind. So the most important thing to you is how you experience yourself, and that comes 100% from your mind. Therefore your mind is your primary instrument, with which you experience yourself. You do use other instruments to experience yourself, like your eyes, your speech, your hands, etc. but you don’t use them all the time like you do your mind … and they are all dependent upon your mind.

***Your Life = EQUALS = Your Mind*** Your Mind Is Your Primary Instrument 
 For Experiencing Yourself

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Your Mind Is Very Powerful Recall the intensity of a very painful memory, just for a second. Can you remember feeling like you just can’t bear the misery, yet it seems like there will be no end to it? It’s such a powerful feeling. Now recall an amazing, “best ever” memory. A time when everything seemed to be perfectly in sync, you loved life, and were filled with gratitude, psyche, and motivation. That too is such a powerful feeling, right? Intense misery and incredible joy both come from thoughts, as well as all feelings in between. To say that your mind is powerful is an understatement. The thoughts created in your mind can lift you up to un-imaginable heights, and they can also throw you down into raw desperation. An Experiment Notice what happens to your experience when you answer this question honestly, “What’s your toughest problem right now... the one you’re really concerned about, the one you most want resolution on?” Is your health declining, your relationship suffering, or your finances stressing you out? Sorry to mention it. . . we’ll fix that sinking feeling in just a second, but see how your internal experience completely changes the moment your mind points to your problem. What you experience is always, and only, what happens in your mind (your thoughts). Now let’s prove that again and lift you back up! Ready? Pay attention to how you experience yourself and honestly answer this question, “What are you really grateful for?” Think of an event or a person that you profoundly appreciate, something or someone that makes a huge positive difference in your life, anything you’re really grateful for.

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Got it? Now ask yourself this, “Why do you love it so much? What is it about that circumstance, thing or person you’re grateful for, that gives you such a good feeling?” Observe how your whole experience is completely different (better) now that you have your mind focused on what you deeply value and love? Nothing changed in the world around you as you first thought about your “problem” and then switched to thinking about what you’re grateful for … … yet your experience in yourself changed dramatically. It’s obvious. Everything you experience, the good the bad, the high the low, the inspiring and the devastating… come from your mind.

Your Mind Is ALL Powerful It lifts you up to your greatest joys, and throws you into your deepest pains.

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Your Mind Has One Serious Problem Your primary instrument, your mind, that which is wholly responsible for your experience of yourself and your life. . . has one significant characteristic that very happy people know about and very unhappy people do not know about. This essential fact about how your mind works, when known to you, gives you the power to uplift your life, face any challenges that come your way, and experience yourself as the master of your life. But when this truth is not understood life becomes a burden that can never ultimately be changed, challenges are overwhelming, and suffering seems to be the nature of life.

The Mind Constantly Makes Thoughts And always will . . .

Most likely that’s not news to you. However, if that does not strike you as one of the most obvious things you’ve ever read, make it a priority to prove or disprove what I’m saying, by observing your own direct experience, right now. Watch when you have thoughts and watch when you don’t have thoughts, and watch when you’re having thoughts about having thoughts or not, and you’ll see. The mind always makes thoughts. It was designed for that purpose. Thinking is its nature. It’s on duty every minute. It is impossible to escape … except when you are deep asleep. Yes you can calm the mind down, and even completely still it for an amount of time . . . but the mind will always come back to making thoughts . . . because that’s what it does.

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Why That’s A Problem . . . The fact that your mind always makes thoughts is NOT a problem. The fact that you do not choose those thoughts is your ONLY problem. Did you catch that? When you understand this piece everything else falls right into place. Let me say it again. You are not choosing the thoughts that your mind is constantly producing. You may say, “I think this” or “I think that,” but you don’t go through any process of choosing those thoughts before they appear. They just pop out, without your permission. At least 95% of your thoughts are Involuntary Thoughts, completely out of your control. So your mind is your primary instrument. It determines how you experience yourself and your life ...yet it’s dominated by ongoing thoughts you don’t choose. Ideally I should leave the next three pages blank so you can grasp the enormity of this essential fact. The thoughts that are constantly produced by your mind and wholly responsible for your experience of yourself and your life are Involuntary. You don’t choose them! That the quality of your life is always being determined by thoughts you do not choose is the very essence of this teaching. Using that to your advantage to actualize the most amazing life available to you is the essence of the practice I’ll soon explain … … but to succeed in that practice first you must understand why your suffering and pain come from believing involuntary thoughts you never chose.

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A Short Story Imagine you came into a bunch of money and decided to look for a piece of land you could build your dream house on. You found an ideal place, bought it, and began the exciting process of manifesting your most inspired ideas into reality. You would finally have your ultimate place for family, community, and even solitude. Just before you started building you noticed a bunch of squatters who had moved onto your property. You approached them and told them to please leave, but none of them paid any attention to you. Every day you returned to find more of them living on your dream plot. Things got worse. As they littered your land with trash and human waste, and grew in numbers by the day, the local authorities paid no attention to your pleas. Your beautiful dream plot was now held hostage by squatters who you had no control over … your once “magical life” now felt hopeless and out of control.

Uninvited involuntary thoughts are squatting on your primary instrument, your mind, dominating 95% of your life. This depressing story represents pain and suffering, which comes from a mind controlled by unexamined involuntary thoughts. The pain doesn’t come because the thought was not chosen, the pain comes when the unchosen thought goes against your highest, personal values. Let’s see how that works …

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Impressions In The Mind Desire is the force that turns the wheel of your life. Every single thing you do comes from a desire. You always want something … and whatever you’re doing is always an effort to get that something. Chasing desires started the moment your mind could differentiate pleasure from pain, and every action you have taken to achieve more pleasure than pain has literally created the person you experience yourself to be right now. That’s life. Wanting some things, wanting to get away from other things, and taking actions to accomplish both. But life is very tricky because chasing desires requires strategies that may or may not be in one’s best interest. A child who wants attention will try one thing after another until something works. If screaming does the trick, the child’s mind will learn this lesson and then repeat it again and again. First comes a desire then comes an action, under the watchful eye of the mind which is programmed to learn which actions produce pleasure and which produce pain. When the mind finds an action that produces pleasure it repeats that action. Every action you take creates an impression in your mind, like rainwater carving drainage paths into a mountainside. The next time rain falls it must follow the established path simply because it exists, which makes the path even deeper. The same is true for thoughts in the mind. The mind creates a thought that says, “yes, that action increases pleasure” or “no, that action created pain”. 10

As the thought is served by the mind and then acted on, it literally creates a path in that mind, which in turn predisposes that mind to serve that thought again. That’s why we do things that are not in our best interest, even as we are telling ourselves we shouldn’t be doing it … the impression in the mind is too deep to resist. “I really shouldn’t have this last drink” might be clear thinking, but it has no power to stop your arm from raising the drink to your mouth when years of thinking “I need another drink” has carved a powerfully deep impression into the mind.

The mind is a habit-machine, endlessly repeating what it knows, making deeper impressions with each repetition of thought and action.

Those habit-thoughts are called belief systems in western psychology and samskaras or vasanas in eastern terminology … … but you can just think of them as your personality.

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Thoughts Determine Values Understanding that your current personality is nothing more than a bundle of deeply believed habit-thoughts from all of the actions you’ve taken over your lifetime is the key to mastering your mind and transforming your life. Your actions, what you do and say, express your values into the world and reflect your personality. When your personality, what you do and say, does not express your highest values, you suffer. The child who learned that screaming was the best way to get attention carved a deep impression into it’s mind, as the habit-thought, “I have to scream to be heard”. Decades later, the impression of that thought on the mind was so deep that he/she was trapped in the automatic behavior of screaming at people. When the mind is controlled by unchosen habit-thoughts, the person is forced to express the unchosen values associated with those old thoughts.

The average person believes every thought their mind serves them, never questioning what values that thought is making them express in the world and never seeing the connection between what they automatically think, how the instantly re-act, and what the get in life.

When someone screams at you, what kind of value are they expressing with that action and what are they going to get in life? They value their own chaotic emotions over an authentic relationship. So guess what they won’t get in life … a healthy authentic relationship.

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Hopefully this is painfully obvious to you, and your inner conscience is nodding “yes” as it pokes you about some of your own habits that are inflicting pain upon you … … because the solution is simple, and you’ve already been successfully doing it your whole life. Everywhere you feel good, everywhere you enjoy and all of the simple relaxing beautiful moments in your life come from habit-thoughts too. Actions you took in the past that did support your values carved positive impressions into your mind, which now automatically compel you to act in ways that express your highest values into the world, and give you joy. The mind is your primary instrument. It is meant to be owned and used by you, for your enjoyment and fulfillment in this life. Without this knowledge most people live their entire lives half asleep, in the trance of past, formative experiences. With this knowledge assimilated, you become the master of your life … assuming of course that you know your own highest values.

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What You Do And Say I’m going to show you a simple practice that will empower you to transform limiting habit thoughts so your mind automatically supports your highest values … … but first you have to know what your highest values are, which is where your active journey begins. Discovering your highest values requires a deep, introspective process of self-reflection. Start by taking a serious, honest look at yourself. Specifically observe what you do and what you say to others. Study your actions to see what values you are expressing in the world.

First we have to take a brutally honest look at how we behave in the world to ourselves and others, see what habits dominate the mind, and start a list of the ones that do not reflect how we aspire to be. Then don’t ask, “Is this the right thing to do?”. Instead ask yourself, “Is this how I see myself, is this how I want to be?”. When your spouse or child or parent offends you, your habit-thoughts will immediately justify yelling at them. The mind projects an emotionally convincing story. But do you want to be someone who yells at other people? Do you see yourself as a “yeller”? As this person, how do you see yourself and who do you aspire to be? Not for the sake of any others. Every human being chases desires for their own happiness. You are meant to pursue that which will make you happy in this life.

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So when your mind produces the “yelling thought”, regardless of how anyone else experiences that … does it serve you? Is the experience of yelling at someone else how you want to experience yourself and your life? Identifying habitual actions we’re not proud of is like digging for gold. It’s hard. But once we admit it, we’ve uncovered yet another opportunity to polish our beautiful mind, shed a little more stress, and enjoy where we were previously suffering drama.

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Your Purpose Scrutinizing your actions and the values they express, to own and upgrade your mind, will automatically empower your purpose in life. It’s not that hard to define your own highest values but figuring out how to express them in the world is a whole different story. Every person has their own values, but at the same time there are universal values like non-violence; nobody accepts being hurt by another person.

Balancing your own values with universal values, relative to all of the elements making up every new, unique situation you are presented with is the art of life …

How do you react when someone is getting pushy or aggressive with your spouse, parent, or child? It depends on three things, one is the situation. If the aggressor is a trusted counselor in a therapy session you might feel relieved that an issue is being pressed, and sit back with a relaxed sigh. If it’s a friend or family member you might roll your eyes and leave the room. But if it’s a stranger and they’re moving toward your loved one you might physically attack. Your reaction would also depend on how you value the world around you. If you were at a public protest and saw a group of people getting pushy, you might go take care of an elderly lady, even though you wanted to protect your loved one.

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And finally, your reaction would also depend on your mind. If you own your mind and regularly assimilate your values into your mind, you will react with an optimal expression of who you choose to be relative to the specific circumstances. If your involuntary habit-thoughts own your primary instrument then you would mindlessly react, totally unaware of the values you were expressing. Do you see the difference? Life will always be insecure because it always changes. You can’t count on anything in this world. When unexamined habit-thoughts rule a mind, the insecurity of life triggers overwhelm, fear, and doubts that make life look like a burden too great to bear. But when you consciously own your mind and you’re well acquainted with your values, you catch the habitual overwhelm, fear, and doubts and see them for what they are, uninvited squatters encroaching on your primary instrument … … and instead of being pushed into unchosen reactions you go inward, manage your mind, and then act according to your values. That’s living your purpose, which means showing up moment by moment as the person you aspire to be, for no-one else’s sake but your own.

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The Good Life Living purposefully, consciously owning your mind to empower actions that express an integration of your values with universal values or “the greater whole” … … is the choice that ignites the magic of life. After all, what process do you go through to figure out what action will best express your personal values with the needs of “the greater good”, in any situation? You go inward, to yourself, asking “who am I relative to this situation?”. And you embrace life, you accept life as it is. Living purposefully transforms a burdened life of repetition and reruns into a constantly expanding opportunity to know oneself, experience oneself, and express oneself … … and it develops absolute confidence by proving over and over again that fulfillment never comes from trying to control the world, but instead comes from knowing oneself and showing up as oneself in this constantly changing world.

Knowledge is the key. If you base your life on experience, one strong emotion sends you off center. But when you recall the knowledge that names that emotion for what it is, an automatic thought that may or may not be true, you’re centered even in the midst of strong feelings.

This requires assimilation. The mind is quick to comprehend, but the old habit thoughts have carved deep impressions, and the only way to make this knowledge available when you most need it, during stress, is by carving even deeper impressions with the knowledge.

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Let’s do a quick review, before moving on to the practice … 1. The most important thing to you is your experience of yourself. 2. Your experience is created 100% by your thoughts. 3. You don’t choose your constant stream of thoughts, they are habits from the past. 4. Positive habit thoughts reflect your values; you act harmoniously and enjoy. 5. Negative habit thoughts negate your values; you act habitually and suffer. 6. Identifying habitual negative behaviors is like digging for gold. 7. Transforming the negative habit thoughts means owning your mind and living your purpose.

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Take Personal Responsibility Transforming the involuntary habit thoughts that bring you pain requires that you first step up and fully admit that what you experience is due to your thoughts, not the world. That means no blame. You can have feelings of blame, but your perspective must be rooted in the knowledge that your experience comes from your thoughts, which are just habits, and therefore in need of scrutiny. That’s easy, reading these words on this paper. But what about the next time your spouse or kid or parent or boss offends you? How about the next time an aggressive driver cuts in front of you, yells at you, and flips you the middle finger for no apparent reason? Are you going to take complete responsibility for how you feel?

When you take personal responsibility for what you feel, these teachings will work brilliantly for you. When you don’t, nothing will work.

Most people live their lives feeling powerless because they continue to believe a thought that says, “My pain comes from people and circumstances outside of me. I am an innocent victim of this cruel world”. Now it’s not your fault that you have those thoughts. That’s not your responsibility. You didn’t choose it. What IS your responsibility, is what you DO with them.

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If you mindlessly believe those “victim thoughts” you’re handing your personal responsibility over to your old habits. They will rule you, and you will struggle with the weight of their apparent “problems”. When you take responsibility for everything you experience, knowing it’s all from your thoughts, you analyze the “victim thought” when you feel the pain it inflicts, see it for what it is, and again show up as the master of your mind. That’s where your power is. This is a lifelong practice, day by day, moment by moment. It’s a skill we develop with practice and it’s not your fault when you forget, blame the world, and act like a victim. It’s just how the mind works. . . . . . which is why it’s challenging. This is grown-up stuff. It’s nice to read these words and be inspired but it’s hard to feel disrespected and own that you feel that way because of your own thoughts. When you own every good time and every bad time you’ve ever had … as the product of your own mind, you become very motivated to be the master of your own mind.

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Understanding The Nature Of Your Mind Your primary instrument, your mind, is just like a radio that’s always on - constantly cranking out thoughts, over and over and over. It’s a machine, it does it’s own thing. You can observe it, you can make it play a song you prefer for a limited time, but you can’t ever change the way it functions. Your radio projects a story that captivates you because everything it delivers has deep emotional connections to your past, which makes it seem like it is you. . . … but it’s not actually you. In reality it’s just memories, habits, and conditioning in the form of thoughts. Like when you get totally engrossed in a movie you’re watching, you’re brought to tears because you emotionally merge with the story, but it’s just pictures and sounds appearing in front of you. That’s exactly how your mind works and if you understand this, not superficially but deeply, then the machine called your mind becomes what it’s meant to be, a powerful instrument at your disposal.

With this knowledge your mind becomes a tool, beholden to you. Without this knowledge you remain the tool, beholden to your mind. When you understand that your mind is a little machine that works according to it’s own rules, it’s in your best interest to understand those rules. Gaining this knowledge is all you need to be instantly free from most of the pain you suffer, without any actions needed. Learning how your mind works and deeply assimilating that knowledge will lift the weight of the world up off of your shoulders and give you the clarity and strength to make changes where you want …

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… because you will see that most of your pain points have nothing to do with you. They are simply habits in your awesome little machine called your mind. All minds have different content. Each person has their own unique thoughts, yet all minds function exactly the same, meaning they all have certain characteristics in common that make them work in predictable ways. Think of a radio. Yours may look different from mine and they may be set to different stations, but they both have the same functions and work the same way.

Understanding the nature of your mind means gaining the knowledge of how the machine works, regardless of the unique content it has inside. Minds are neutral, just like computers. They do a brilliant job of serving the thoughts that have been programmed into them, over and over again. Have you ever noticed that your computer or smart phone always shows the same page every time you open the internet browser? The content on the webpage that automatically opens may seem like a positive message to some people, while others might find it absolutely repulsive, but the computer is neutral, only displaying what it’s been programmed to show. That’s how your mind is. Neutral, with absolutely no bias. Every mind starts out with some programs already installed, which is evident in that all kids have their own dispositions. And every experience we have in this life programs the mind in one way or another, but the mind itself is neutral, just like a machine. When you don’t know much about your computer and the programs inside, you’re limited in your ability to use it, and you can get insanely frustrated when a problem comes up that you can’t resolve.

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Yet the potential your computer has to serve your interests is virtually unlimited and all you need to access that potential is the knowledge … of how the computer works. The same is true of your mind. Understanding the nature of your primary instrument will free you from it’s captivating drama and empower you to use it to discover and express your own potential, which is truly the joy of life. Fortunately, gaining knowledge about your mind is much easier than understanding a computer because all you have to do is observe yourself objectively.

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Your Mind Expresses Duality Sometimes your mind serves you a “cold thought” and you need a jacket. Sometimes it serves you a “hot thought” and you need to shed a layer. Sometimes your mind serves you a “I hate working” thought and sometimes it serves you a “I love working” thought. Sometimes your mind tells you to be honest and sometimes it tells you to lie.

Your mind will always change in one way or another and those changes will reflect completely opposing perspectives.

This is very important to know because it saves us from repeatedly collapsing into the movie of the mind. Imagine you have a miserable morning. What does that look like in your life? Burnt toast, fight with a family member, unbearable back pain? Clearly you’ve had the same exact circumstances on a different day, without being bothered at all. It’s not about what’s happening in the world outside, it’s only about your thoughts. And if you know that your mind serves you wildly happy thoughts and wildly insecure thoughts and everything in between, then you see the ups and downs of your life for what they are, reflections of what’s going on in your head. You become very tolerant of your own mind and emotions, remembering with quicker grace that none of it is worth believing until you’ve taken a good look at it, and definitely not worth acting on until you’ve compared it to your values.

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The hard drive of your mind has every idea, experience and emotion known to you, and it serves them all at different times, according to many factors. You can control many of the factors that influence what thoughts your mind will serve with your actions; what you eat, how much you sleep, how much you work, how you treat your body, how you deal with conflicts, etc, etc. Every action you take makes your mind either more active, dull, or clear … which will determine the thoughts it serves.

A perfectly balanced mind, which happens for moments here and there, clearly remembers the knowledge that sets us free and has energy to take action on that knowledge while remaining calm and grounded. When the mind is too active it becomes overwhelmed and overburdened with life’s demands and can easily tip into anger, frustration or panic. When the mind is too dull it expresses laziness and denial and is prone to fear, doubts, and anxiety. You have massive power to influence the state of your mind with your lifestyle. If you feel dull, watch your thoughts and associated feelings. Then go take a brisk walk around the block and see them change … for the better. But there are many factors influencing your mind that you can’t control, all of which fall under the category called life; that which makes all circumstances happen. Knowing that your mind expresses duality, opposites, will help you catch your reactions to life’s tougher challenges and empower you to handle them with poise. See your mind for the machine that it is, and understand it well so you can use it to fulfill your deepest desires in this amazing life. Here are a few knowledge points that, when firmly established, will help you do just that.

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Watch your mind’s tendency to superficially say, “yeah I know that …” and want to go on to the next point. You can’t own your mind if you are unable to concentrate, so practice conditioning your mind right now as you read these points by analyzing each point, according to your direct experience, to prove or disprove them.

The Nature of All Minds * Minds constantly serve involuntary thoughts based on the past. * Minds are programmed to search for pleasure and avoid pain. * Minds express duality, opposites in the form of positive and negative thoughts. * Minds resist seeing their own faults. * Minds tend to blame others. * Minds doubt. * The mind has 3 qualities: Active (projecting), Dull (denying), and Clear. * They appear together in varying degrees, determining what thought is served.

Think deeply on these points. If you see they are true to your experience then study how they operate in your own mind. Watch the patterns. As you identify these essential truths you will effortlessly feel lighter, for two reasons. First of all, you are not a bad person for having constant thoughts or negative thoughts or lazy thoughts or blaming thoughts or any other thought. You simply have a mind. You didn’t choose the song, it just played unexpectedly, so be kind to yourself. Secondly, you will see for yourself if you follow my advice, that your problems are not your problems. They are opportunities to clean up old habits that are not serving your deepest desires. Peace of mind is not “a peaceful” mind. Peace of mind is the knowledge that allows you to observe all of the ups and downs in your life exactly as they are, thoughts … which in reality can never even touch you.

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Chasing Desires Look at your life. Everything you do is an effort to control something. Every single thing you do, every day, is an effort to manipulate the outside world to fulfill your desires. Chasing desires sounds sacrilege, and is incorrectly taught by many to be the root of suffering. Suffering doesn’t come from chasing desires, it comes from thinking your essential happiness is dependent on getting those desires fulfilled, which is never true. Your happiness depends only upon knowing yourself, and your desires unfold the landscape in which you get to discover more of yourself. Try to experience 5 seconds without desire, right now. It’s ridiculous. You can’t do it. You’ll be chasing the desire of “experiencing no desire”. Look at your direct experience, objectively, and you’ll see there’s a desire behind everything you do. So don't question yourself for trying to control the world to fulfill your desires, ever … instead question your desires in regards to your values. Does that make sense? I hope so, because once you see that this person you appear as can never escape chasing desires, then you’re ready to chase them with style … … “mastering-your-mind style”, which means engaging in the game of life for the sheer pleasure of fine-tuning your primary instrument to experience your own potential self. Just remember to wear your life jacket, because the seas of desire can be quite choppy.

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As long as you remember who gave you your desires, as well as all of the circumstances that allow you to chase those desires, you’ll never go overboard.

Life is the Giver & Decider. You are the Receiver & Actor * Life gives your body, your mind, your desires, and all of the people and circumstances around you. * You receive it all and express yourself through action. * Life decides the results of your actions by giving you new circumstances. * You receive them and again express yourself through action.

Be objective. You’ve never created anything entirely on your own. Life has always provided everything to you. It’s obvious. So be grateful. Gratitude is your ultimate ace in the hole. It removes all resistance to the magnitude, power, and benevolence of Life which is always working on your behalf. Gratitude allows you to place your desires on the altar of Life, as icons of your values, and take action with full confidence that whatever Life brings, “pleasurable or painful”, is what best serves you as well as all others. Without gratitude desires are driven from the ego, creating the false impression that you can’t be happy if you don’t get what you want.

Most people are running tough on the hamster-wheel of life, endlessly trying to change things outside that can never be controlled.

When you’re obsessing on changing a person or circumstance in the world outside, you’re under the spell of the ego, which is emotionally brutal because it’s doomed to fail.

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You can never control anything outside, ever. Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes you don’t, most of the time it’s an unexpected mixture of both, but ultimately you never know … … because Life is the decider, every single time. When you see this clearly and master your role as receiver and actor, you are effortlessly filled with gratitude. You chase your desires freely, appreciating them as your means to know yourself and express yourself, with no painful attachments or expectations to what Life gives you next.

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Control Your Mind With Voluntary Thoughts Your mind is your primary instrument. It’s been given to you so you can experience yourself and your life, not through the filter of unexamined involuntary habit-thoughts, but through the vision of your values. Your mind doesn’t belong to your involuntary thoughts, it belongs to you. You can take it back anytime you want, by artfully using Voluntary Thoughts. Like a computer, you can re-program the content in your mind, which is how you create massive transformations in life.

Nature has provided the perfect solution to limiting habit-thoughts that dominate a mind: Voluntary Thoughts. All of the involuntary thoughts your mind serves you, all day long, became habits in your mind because you thought them repeatedly over time, whether you realize that or not. With each repetition, impressions were formed in your mind, which made your mind serve those thoughts again. Instead of fighting negative thoughts that don’t serve you, identify them. Then ask, “what thought would I rather have my mind serve me in this circumstance?”. Having gone inward and discovered a “chosen thought” that perfectly supports your values, you then condition that thought into your mind, by thinking it repeatedly. When a deep impression in the mind serves an old habit-thought, and you do not act on that thought, but instead think a different thought, you are literally erasing the old impression by forming a new one.

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This is how we condition the mind to transform old limiting thoughts into new chosen habits, with voluntary thoughts. Now you can’t control your mind all of the time, and who would want to, but when you do control your thoughts with concentration and feeling, you can make big changes in your mind. It’s simple yet powerful, and it’s your ultimate power because your thoughts determine your experience. Let’s consider both types of thoughts, Voluntary and Involuntary. If you’re not intentionally thinking thoughts, that you’re consciously deciding to think, then your thoughts are involuntary. 95% or more of your thoughts will always be involuntary, that will never change. What can change however, is the content of those involuntary thoughts. Take a moment right now to own your mind by intentionally thinking a voluntary thought. I know it sounds silly, but do it. Think the thought “yellow”. Notice the experience.

Voluntary Thoughts 1. You decide to think the thought 2. You think the thought 3. You observe both the deciding and thinking

This is kindergarten stuff. You don’t have to be amazing to observe your thinking process, you’ve lived with it every moment of your life. Voluntary thoughts require two actions. Deciding what thought to think, then thinking the thought.

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If you actually observe your experience of thinking a voluntary thought (pause, observe now think “yellow”) it becomes even more crystal clear how involuntary thoughts dominate your mind. Right? Voluntary and involuntary thoughts have many opposing properties. You always control voluntary thoughts. You never control involuntary thoughts. You always know what voluntary thoughts you are thinking. You never know what involuntary thoughts are coming and usually don’t even notice when you think them. Voluntary thoughts express your free will. Involuntary thoughts express reruns, habits, both pleasurable and painful.

Voluntary Thoughts

Involuntary Thoughts

Account for less than 5% of your thoughts

Account for more than 95% of your thoughts

You ALWAYS choose these thoughts

You NEVER choose these thoughts

Always express your true values

Only express habits

Uplift your life by making you think, feel, and act in ways that you believe in.

Keep you doing the same things you’ve been doing for decades . . . (hamster wheel of life)

When you find yourself sucked-in to the movie of the mind, feeling like you’ve got to control something in the world outside so you can feel better … … your knowledge will remind you that you can’t ever control the world, and motivate you to look inward. The only thing you actually do have complete control over, if you want, is your thoughts, which is extremely convenient considering they are the source of all your experiences.

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Here is my 5-step formula you can follow to take back your primary instrument, recondition your involuntary thoughts, and literally change your life in the direction you value. Follow these steps anytime you feel bad, even if it’s just a small disturbance. Make a habit out of this practice, and soon enough it will become your own.

The 5-Step Formula To Mastering Mind Control
 1. Identify that you have an emotional disturbance. 2. Ask yourself if the feeling is familiar. 3. Rank the intensity of the feeling. 4. Discover the thought that is creating the feeling. 5. Change the thought to one that reflects your values.

First you have to identify the emotional disturbance. Yes it’s obvious when you feel bad, but usually you just get sucked into the movie instead of standing apart from it and observing it. The act of identifying an emotional disturbance does two things. It separates you from getting caught up in it and it establishes a clear focus of what you need to work on. Then ask yourself if it’s familiar, and be clear you’re not talking about the circumstance. Is the feeling familiar? You will almost always find that it is very familiar. In fact, you’ll most likely see that you’ve been dealing with this same feeling for decades. Next, rank the intensity of the emotional disturbance on a scale from 1 - 5. If it’s not really that big of a deal it’s a 1. If it’s crushing you it’s a 5. Then identify the thought that’s behind the feeling. Sometimes this is very easy, but usually it takes some patience and concentration. With very deep habits it can take days or weeks.

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Once you’ve identified the specific thought that creates that negative feeling, hold that thought up next to your values and ask yourself if you agree with that thought. Of course you don’t, because it’s making you feel bad. So then ask yourself, “What thought would I love to have, instead of this thought that’s making me feel bad?”. That means if you completely re-lived this situation that is creating your emotional disturbance, what would you love to have your mind involuntarily think? What would be your ideal thought in that situation? What thought would totally reflect who you know you are, how you essentially see yourself? This is a process, it’s something you get better and better at with practice. You want to go deep on this because you have to craft a thought that is natural and meaningful to you. It’s your issue. Only you can know what it’s like to have that specific thought and feeling take control of you, and only you can find the voluntary thought that will perfectly replace the bothersome thought into one that expresses your values. I call this “Crafting Your Determination”. Your Determination is the thought that you want to condition into your mind. Once you craft the Determination that perfectly opposes the painful habit-thought, you think that Determination with concentration for 10, 20, maybe 30 seconds. That’s all.

When you consciously think thoughts that reflect your values, you are conditioning your involuntary mind to serve you rather than control you.

If the issue bothering you is not very intense, this practice is really easy to do and can instantly transform a negative experience into an uplifting internal victory.

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With the small stuff it’s obvious that your mind is the problem, and easy to change with a little attention to your authentic values. That we buy into such silly involuntary thoughts can actually make you laugh out loud.

Whenever you feel bad it’s an opportunity to re-condition your mind with what you truly value.

When the issue is very intense, it’s challenging to even take responsibility. When you tell yourself it’s just a thought in your mind, you don’t believe it. You’re too pissed or offended. Your primary instrument is dominated by the negative habit thought. In this case it’s best to simply understand that your mind is in that particular phase. Instead of taking action, acknowledge that you’re under stress, accept that the mind is basically unavailable, and be patient and take care of yourself. Being captivated by involuntary thoughts that give you pain is just a phase that all minds go through. As you practice this work more and more, your mind will go through that phase less frequently and less intensely, but it will still happen forever. Don’t make it wrong, it’s just what minds do. Once the intensity starts going down then go through the 5 steps, take your mind back, and transform the limiting habit-thought with your Determination. As you deliver the thoughts that you value to your mind, it will begin making habits out of them and soon enough you will no longer have to deal with the same issue because you will have replaced the negative habit-thought with your chosen voluntary thought. If you take the “easy way” and don’t deal with it, you are literally re-enforcing the habitthought that gives you pain, and you can be sure it’ll be back.

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It’s true that when you step up and deal with your negative habit-thoughts you do actually feel them more intensely for a bit. That’s why this is grown-up stuff. You’re doing something you have resistance to, knowing that it will make things easier in the future. But you’re already feeling bad, so you might as well go into it and transform it rather than suffering the feeling and essentially programming it to return. When you seize upon these opportunities you are Mastering Your Mind.

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Cultivate Your Vision You can use voluntary thoughts to not only transform your pain points, but to also actively move your life in the direction you value. Take a moment and look at all of the man-made things you can see right now. Every one of those objects began as a thought. The thought was held in someone’s mind so consistently that it manifested into the object you’re looking at. As you clarify the values you want to express in your life, you will get creative ideas about what that would ideally look like. Those are your “bigger picture” desires, frequently called dreams.

If you want to “manifest your dreams” then put the power of your mind behind them, by crafting Determinations that perfectly represent those dreams.

Intentionally cultivating, reviewing, and thinking about your life vision is pro-active mind control. It works because it speeds up the process of cleaning up your mind, so be prepared. When you spend time thinking about what you really want, you are inviting self-limiting involuntary habit-thoughts that hold you back - to come up. See for yourself. What’s one thing that you would love to have in your life? Go for the gusto here, what’s the sweetest desire you could have fulfilled right now if there were no limits?

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Watch what happens in your mind … it automatically serves you limiting thoughts telling you why you can’t have it. Right? When you concentrate on what you ideally want, what that looks like, what it feels like, and what it means to you, you have to have your sword in hand because you are eliciting your strongest issues. Most people collapse when those limiting thoughts arise because they believe them, which only carves the impressions still deeper in the mind. But you are prepared with the knowledge that objectifies those limiting thoughts as nothing more than habits, and the skills to transform them with voluntary Determinations. Sometimes it’s easy, but sometimes it’s an all-out battleground where you find yourself far outside of your comfort zone.

Remember, your limiting thoughts limit you because they’re so convincing. They have deep emotional roots from your past, so it can be hard to stand up to them, but you have to do it if you want to be free of the pain and empowered to move forward in your life.

It’s called sadhana and it means a conscious practice, a discipline you adhere to by ethical choice. Implement the 5 Step Formula to Mastering Mind Control with each painful thought your mind serves you. Craft the perfect Determinations to empower your vision and then use them like swords to slay the debilitating habit-thoughts that are your only real enemies in this life.

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If you practice this you will have the remarkable experience at some point of seeing a long-held limiting perspective fall to the side and reveal the space of limitless opportunity that had always been available to you. And you will see again and again how Life is indeed the giver, as events magically appear that impeccably support the values expressed by the images in your vision. Did you catch that? Sometimes Life gives you the exact image you envisioned and sometimes it doesn’t. But if you place your desire on the altar of Life and give up your attachment to that desire by chasing it as an expression of your values, in every case you’ll see that Life gives you exactly what you need to fulfill that chosen value.

Life continues to go up and down, but you become stable and content, gifted with gratitude and passion for the amazing miracle that is your life.

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Now Master Your Mind Ready to create a simple yet powerful, easy-to-follow daily Mindset practice that you can implement, to own your mind and upgrade your life? All you need is 5 minutes per day. Are you worth it? If yes, start off easy so you can experience how well this works and build confidence. 1. Find something that bugs you, but isn’t actually that big of a deal. There are so many minor annoyances that we generally don’t pay much attention to, because we have bigger concerns. What’s one of yours? Something you’ve addressed that seems like it’s not going to change anytime soon. If you’re not sure, simply wait and watch. Something will come up soon enough. As an example, it used to annoy me when my wife would put car keys on the kitchen counter. It was a daily frustration. 2. Notice how the mind blames the world outside. In my example I blamed my wife. 3. Apply your knowledge by remembering two things. You feel the way you feel because of how your thoughts automatically interpret the circumstance, not because of the circumstance itself … and … you can’t control the circumstance, you can only control how your mind responds to it. 4. Forget about whatever you automatically blame for a moment, and look instead at the quality of your life. Are you okay with feeling negative every time this circumstance happens because unchosen “aggravation thoughts” dominate your mind? Are you okay with your mind serving these thoughts that create these feelings? If you took action on these thoughts, would you be expressing your values? 5. If not, figure out what the involuntary thought is that’s making you feel this way. In my example the thought was, “Damnit, she always …”. But I consider myself to be a patient person, not an uptight person, so those thoughts compel me to act against my own highest values. 6. What thought would you prefer your mind reacted with, in this exact same circumstance? In my example I would like to automatically think “When my wife forgets, I’m patient and understanding”. That’s my Determination. The truth is, my wife forgets sometimes, that’s what Life has given, and I want to show up as patient and understanding because that’s the quality of life I want for myself. 7. Voluntarily, intentionally, conscientiously think that Determination a few times, feeling the meaning, simply to condition your mind with your highest value.

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If you feel kind of silly thinking your Determination at first, don’t worry about it. Most new things feel strange, and although we’re constantly having internal dialogues we’re not used to doing it intentionally. Rely on your knowledge, this practice makes complete logical sense, so just do it. If you’ve followed all of the points I’ve shared, it will work. At the very least you’ll feel the intensity of the annoyance dissipate, and feel centered due to re-focusing on your values. In the best case scenario, which will happen a lot as you master this practice, you’ll see how ridiculous it is that a simple thought you never chose turned the quality of your life negative … … and the whole issue will literally disappear as a smile comes over your face and you know exactly what it means to own your mind and master your life.

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Summary: Your Mind Is Your Primary Instrument * Everything you experience comes from your mind.

Your Mind Is Very Powerful * It lifts you up … and throws you down.

Your Mind Serves Involuntary Thoughts You Don’t Choose * Which create your feelings, and compel you to act.

Your Thoughts Create Your Actions Which Express Your Values * Honestly look at your actions and discover the values they express. * Clarify your highest values, are your actions in alignment with them?

Take Ownership Of Your Mind With Voluntary Thoughts * Take Responsibility - your problem is never “outside”. * Understand how your mind works - your “problems” are just habit thoughts. * Upgrade your life: condition thoughts that represent your values into your mind.

Cultivate Your Vision And Accelerate Your Mind Mastery * Discover your creative visions for expressing your values into the world. * Create Determinations that condition your mind toward your visions. * Be prepared as your deepest limiting habit thoughts arise and resist your vision. * Transform your limiting habit thoughts into supportive habit thoughts.

Embrace Life As The Giver And The Decider * You are the receiver of all that Life gives you, be grateful. * You are the actor but never the decider, relinquish attachments to results. * Chase your desires for the pleasure and rewards of knowing yourself.

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About Christian Leeby

Hi there! I’ve been looking for contentment and equanimity since I was a kid. When I was 20 I started practicing Yoga, hoping that would do the trick. For more than 25 years I traveled the world, studied with the gurus, and practiced like a monk with one pointed focus on the classic yoga goal of “stilling the mind”. As I mastered the art of stilling my mind I didn’t find contentment or equanimity, I found anxiety, and lots of it. Stilling the mind is pleasant, as it turns off the involuntary thoughts for a while, but it doesn’t magically change, upgrade, or transform them. So as soon as my thoughts started up again, which they always will, I found myself right back in the same old problems I was caught in, before stilling my mind. Fortunately my value for freedom was strong and Life gave me my perfect teacher, who took me by the hand and showed me everything that’s in this book, and more. Minds are meant to be understood and artfully managed, which in and of itself will reveal your true nature and deliver stability, equanimity, contentment, and happiness. I bow to my teacher Ramji, my beloved ocean of mercy, and to the long lineage of clearthinking teachers before him who cut through the bull and told it like it is. Right knowledge will set you free. Own your mind, apply the knowledge, know yourself, and love your life. With gratitude, Christian Leeby 44