The mind can be trained to do almost anything.
It can be trained, for example, to get used to any situation, like sitting in silence for a long time or concentrating on a task.
However, usually we’re training our minds to do what we don’t want: be distracted, give in to cravings and urges, complain, avoid discomfort, and procrastinate. We do this by rewarding our minds for these behaviours — if we do any of these things, we give the mind something pleasurable or comfortable. That’s exactly what we’d want to do to reinforce these behaviours.
Think about it: you’re not feeling like doing a task, and the ideal behaviour would be to open up to the task, see its importance, and stay focused on it. But the behaviour we normally do is put it off (procrastinate) and head to our favourite distractions. The distraction becomes its own reward, so this behaviour is reinforced.
We do this all day long. Every day.
What if we wanted to train our minds to do something different?
The Superpower of Training the Mind
We can get the mind used to anything:
- To enjoy eating healthy foods.
- To shun junk food.
- To eliminate the desire for alcohol, coffee, sugar, cigarettes, or drugs.
- To eliminate the desire for video games, YouTube/Netflix, news or blogs, porn or social media.
- To stay present and mindful.
- To explore feelings rather than avoiding them.
- To be perfectly OK in discomfort.
This then becomes a superpower. We spend so much of our time and energy avoiding things we don’t like, and trying to get things that comfort us. What if we could train ourselves to stop avoiding uncomfortable things, and stop running to our comforts as a coping mechanism? We’d be gods.
If you go to an uncomfortable social event, instead of needing to avoid, hide, or find a comfort zone … you could just stay in the discomfort and talk to people you don’t know. It wouldn’t be a problem, because you trained your mind to be fine with the discomfort.
If you normally have to have your comforts (coffee, sugary foods, soda, TV, alcohol, pot, cigarettes), you’ll spend a lot of money on them, and in many cases worsen your health and your bank account. You might avoid going places where you can’t get these things, and spend a lot of energy to make sure you can have them every day. But what if you trained your mind not to rely on them for comfort and relaxation? You could slowly get the mind used to not needing these, dropping one at a time, until the mind was free.
It’s possible, using the same training methods used to train puppies.
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