One fine morning you get up with bad feelings and start to wonder what has happened to you today! You feel tired or lazy; things look hopeless and you witness lot of things going wrong. You are unable to figure out what has really gone wrong. Your health, blood pressure and everything around you are otherwise as good as previous days.
Some leaders are great communicators. However, you would notice that on some occasions, they are extra-ordinarily effective and inspiring; but there are instances when they do a lousy job. Why? Females are known to have mood swings. Medical sciences surmise that it is because of hormonal changes. Do the swings of what is at the back of their mind swing their hormone levels or hormones swing what is going on in their mind is really not known to science.
There are several star sportsmen like Roger Federer in tennis, Lionel Messi in soccer etc. Sometimes, they are in the best form and other times, they can’t keep with their track records. Why?
The reason behind each of above examples is “What is at the back of his/her mind”, which holds concerned person back; impairs his/her performance; does not allow to do what one attempts to do!
What we mean by “What is at the back of mind”
Though it is a very common term, people seldom know its complete meaning and colossal effect.
Thoughts, information and/or images from your past memory, which are passively present in your mind constitute what is at the back of your mind. Your mind might be actively witnessing an action or making you to perform an action; but these Thoughts, Information and/or Images (TII) constantly influence or rather get mixed up with what you are actively engage with – thoughts or tasks. Sometimes you are aware about it and sometimes you don’t even realize this!
Your beliefs, faith, habits, biases, ego, obsession, fear, anger, anxiety liking or disliking are always part of TII!
Now is the key information hitherto little known – what is at the back of our mind (passively present) has been termed for centuries as “Subconscious mind”! On other hand, what is being witnessed now (actively present) is our “Conscious mind”!!
“What is at the back of mind” is more a bane than blessing!
If you believe that having things at the back of your mind i.e. in subconscious mind do good to you, then start to rethink.
Things that can reside at the back of your mind are countless. Some of the significant ones are:
- Love or respect for someone
If it is balanced, it is bound show up for a right reason and at a right time. Then, it works well. But if you are overwhelmed, then it resides at the back of your mind. You would tend to overdo and in that process, mess it up. - Past performance or incidences
When you are able to pull from your memory only lessons learnt, it would help. Instead, if you keep images of past incidences at the back of your mind, it would lead to over or under confidence and that would impair your performance, rather than improving it! - Anger, anxiety, fear or stress
These rampantly reside at the back of mind of everyone, cause most issues and mood swings. These lead to pessimism and hopelessness. - Attention deficit and absent mindedness
These are the prime causes of mistakes and mishaps. - Prejudices and ego
These are foundation stones for arrogance, split personality, irritation and tendency to blame or pass on buck to others! - Multitasking
Only when you keep several tasks or items at the back of your mind that you would multitask. Although most people defend merits of multitasking, it actually messes up their efficiency. - Feeling pain in the body
When feeling of body pain remains at back of your mind, it is frustrating and nagging. If you divert your mind i.e. take it away from back of your mind, then pain decreases or disappears. - Feeling lethargic or inertia
There are days, when you feel withdrawn or lackluster; enthusiasm in you is missing and initiative lacking. You are at loss to understand, what has happened to you. These symptoms are because you are passively struggling with your thoughts at the back of your mind, leading to confusion and reaction and that alters levels of mainly 3 hormones in your body – Adrenaline, Cortisol and Norepinephrine.
What is at the back of mind is a burden, you must get rid of!
Right from childhood, mind gets so used to keeping thoughts, images and information (TII) at the back of mind that we start to believe that it is a necessity and we can’t live without same. This belief has been further reinforced by innumerable books and articles on importance of subconscious mind, which as a matter of fact promotes keeping things at the back of mind, albeit only positive ones. What one forgets – if you keep positive things at the back of mind, it is impossible to prevent negative things to also creep in!
My research for years has revealed that whatever is at the back of your mind – good or bad – it does not do anything good to you! It is a burden worth dumping it away!! Some of you may then start to wonder what would happen to your knowledge, notions, traits or beliefs.
It is too simple to believe what can work wonders:
- Practice to keep knowledge/information, ideas and images in your memory but not at the back of your mind.
Let it not be passively present in your mind; allow it to sleep in your memory. - Do your things unmindful of your past; don’t prejudge or predefine; just witness whatever is happening.
- Allow your conscious mind to take control and respond to what you witness.
You would be amazed to see how your mind would automatically fetch knowledge or information from your memory right at nick of time or as needed.
Most innovations, creativity, breakthroughs and successes have come to people, when their mind was functioning like this!!!
So, a mind without any baggage at its back is amazingly powerful, peaceful and progressive! Any elaboration further would only belittle its phenomenal effects; you need to experience it by doing it!!
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