The Art of Directing Your Mind

In this podcast, want to continue the the train of thought, life is a matter of attention, plugging energy leaks, learning to set boundaries around yourself, healthy boundaries, as as to the individuals that you're giving your time and attention to and, really, what is going on in your mind. Remember William James saying, my life is what I choose to attend to. Also, I want you to think, of the power of a question. Whatever question you are asking yourself or others ask you, get you on a certain train. And unless you are questioning the questions that you are asked, you can be led down some paths that you don't wanna go.

I'll just give you an example. Years ago, there was a a class taught at Harvard University, and it was a class on positive psychology. It was the first time it was introduced, and it it quickly became one of the most positive, courses at Harvard. And in one of the class sessions, the professor, I believe his name is Ben Talcia here, if I got that correct or not, but he he gave an example. He put on the screen and there was a room, I don't know, maybe about a 100 100 Harvard students were there.

And he put on the screen an image of a number of shapes, triangles, rectangles, octagons. And they were all kind of twisted around each other, small ones, big ones. And he asked a question. This was the question. Okay?

How many shapes do you see? How many can you count? And he gave the class a moment to pause. And then, you know, someone raised their hand. I see 20.

Another one said, I see 30. Another one said, I see 60. You know and and all these answers were coming from different perspectives as people were adding and subtracting how these different shapes coalesce with each other and so forth. And and then the interesting thing, his next question was, after the room came back, he gave him a moment to do that, and then they came back. And he asked this question, how many people we're on the bus, and what time was it on the clock.

For in that diagram that he showed with all the shapes, there was a school bus with, I think, it was 8 people on it, 8 students on it, and there was a clock in hidden in all not really hidden. It was in plain sight in all the different shapes, and it was, I think, 10 minutes to 10. And I think it was, like, maybe 1 or 2% of the class members were able to answer it. Why was that? Because the teacher, by the question he asked, directed a person's attention.

And so it just shows it just goes to show the power that we have limited resources on what we focus on and the power of a question. So in this podcast, I I really would encourage you think of the questions that are leading your life right now. One of the assignments that I have, my clients do, is to start reprogramming the subject the the the subconscious part of the brain that has just learned through certain patterns to to live a certain way to view things a certain way is to ask why questions. To get in a meditative state within the background of alpha theta music. You can go on YouTube and and, just just click alpha, theta music, and they'll have tons of options for you, that helps you get in this relaxed state and then ask, as you're meditating, these questions.

Why is it that my body is healthy and strong? Why is it that my immune system is so powerful. Why is it that I am attracting into my life positive influences? Why is it that I'm able to set clear boundaries and own my energy and choose proactively what to give it to. Ask yourself a number of why questions.

Come up with what you truly desire? Why is it that I'm healthier and stronger than ever before? Why is it that I'm in the perfect physical shape that I that that I desired. And as you ask yourself these questions, and here's the interesting thing. The clients I've never had a client yet say to me that that has done anything negative at all.

When I check-in with my clients on a weekly basis or however often I'm seeing them, I will say, how are you doing on the y questions? Yeah. I'm getting up every morning. I'm listening to my white questions, so I I I asked them to actually record it with little alpha theta music in the background, so they just get their their phones. And and while the music's going in the background, ask those questions.

Why is it that healthy I'm attracting into myself healthy relationships and so forth, the why questions. You can come up with your own why questions is based on your own personal values as you continue to embark on becoming the quest is the best version of yourself as time goes on. And so, again, the power of a question can lead 1, can we can be misdirected if people are asking questions that help us go down a certain road, the pow certain roads. The power of a magician is they're masters of of misdirection of distraction. They have learned how to grab your attention while the hand behind their back is doing something different.

And it it's very, very powerful. And so this idea of mindfulness, being aware, trying to take total situational awareness into account of where you are, what's going on in your life right now, is is something to always come back to that question, what am I giving my attention to right now? Am I being proactive? Meaning, I choose by setting my dailies. And just because of the way the the limbic part of the brain works, unless we proactively, consciously choose our small and simple daily actions, we are so, so easily distracted into wasting time and energy.

And so what I call dailies, for example, of positive daily is to get up every morning, meditate for 5 minutes, there's tons of breathing breathing exercises. I encourage my clients to do box breathing. You can just Google box breathing to see what I mean by that. Daily exercise, nonnegotiable. These are just nonnegotiable.

It's a spiritual practice, then you study your scriptures for, you know, a period of time. But you set these things in place, and you refer to them in your life as nonnegotiables. Because if unless you do that consciously, you won't do it. Because the our natural instinct is to avoid anything painful. I'll exercise tomorrow.

Can do without the heating healthy eating. Nah. I'm gonna, you know, have an extra bowl of ice cream or whatever, unless you consciously set things out for your for yourself very easily distracted into areas that just drain you of energy, and then you don't find peace and happiness. The closest thing I've seen to an individual finding peace and happiness is doing good work. Working hard at a self directed predetermined goal and just throwing themselves into it.

Those are the happiest people I know that accomplish small successes along the way. So the takeaway from this podcast, I would encourage you to start the why questions. Ask yourself those questions. And then what happens is, subconsciously, your brain will search for answers. That's why we ask why questions, because the brain is a mechanism that always is trying to figure things out, and it never stops.

So why am I so healthy and strong? So your brain will go, well, because you get up and you eat healthy and you sleep. You get the appropriate amount of sleep, and you exercise on a consistent basis. It'll start your brain will start to propel you to do those things. So, anyway, that's a takeaway.

Hope you have an amazing day. Make it just make it a great day.