State of mind Awareness

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I beg for 5 minutes of your time. The stuff that I’m about to tell you may change your life.

Every single moment, all of your thoughts of past, present and future, as well as your actions are affected by your state of mind.

Examine your thoughts when you are angry. You won’t, because you are angry.
Try to harm another while you are ecstatic. You won’t, because you are ecstatic!
Try to do something when you are bored. You won’t, because you are bored.
Try to sleep when you are creative. You won’t, because you are creative.
Trace your worry and recognize that you are anxious.
Catch your thoughts drifting off and realize that you are distracted.

This may seem obvious, and it is. Here’s the catch: each one of these states has a distinct feeling, and each one is more than the sum of the letters in the corresponding term. Each state of your mind colors your entire existence. You cannot feel either one of them by thinking of them, these states are only experienced as they happen. And each state of mind will change, it will be washed away by the days that will come, and with that, your life will change once again. And isn’t life just a series of sprints from feeling bad to feeling good?

You can learn to recognize each state by its symptoms, and follow the symptoms to experience the state itself. Become an observer of your state of mind and you learn it. Thinking “I’m happy” is different from observing you being happy. While in a state, try to think in the state and notice how the state alters your thoughts of the present, past and future. Notice the kinds of actions that you will and will not take in that state.

Once this kind of awareness becomes as common as checking side mirrors when changing lanes while driving, you are ready for the second message:

Any state of mind of mind available to humans is available to you, right now. Now stop for a moment, let go of reading and become aware of your mental state.

In the depth of depression, elevated by joy and ecstasy, angry or artistically inspired – recognize the state of your mind and keep observing it. Observe its effect on your thoughts and actions, experience your feelings, and through this, become truly alive and aware. Or if you wish, turn some of the more negative emotions into episodes of profound understanding.

Experiment. Combine this awareness of experience with different experiences and see where it leads you.

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Thank you for reading, what are your thoughts?

hmm, I wouldn't recommend examining your mind too closely unless ur completely feeling love in your heart. When you look into ur mind u discover it controls ur thoughts and u need fully positive feelings to be present with in order to delve further

This is a great method of discovering ur inner mind (sub and un-conscious) and becoming a visionary

Wow, well damn, gotta love synchronicity. Lol, 'God' loves us all very much ;). Over the past few months I've struggled with being up and down from day to day, from incredibly spiritual loving states to pure anger and intense sadness, and in the past few week's I've come to an understanding as to why because of this technique, and then you suddenly post this lol. Having grown spiritually over the past year, I was wondering why I was suddenly 'stuck' lol so to speak in this bi-polarness. But a couple of days ago I sat down, and wondered, wtf?. Why am I feeling this? and really felt it and observed it, and then I came to a conclusion, and then state was pretty much gone, I was in a much better place, the place that I was at before I got 'stuck'. See, life shouldn't be a series of sprints from feeling bad to feeling good, that's just a symptom of modern society. One thing I've discovered is that all those states of joy and happiness you've described, are all encompassed in love, without the hate, jealousy, anger and sadness there is love, love heightens the amazing states and absolutely diminishes the negative one's. Moments of happiness and ecstasy seem to flit past, but a moment in love lasts an eternity. This is very useful information and insightful into one's psyche, but don't chase states, be what you are underneath what you think you are.. 'tis the love brother :D.

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Originally Posted by dreamdimensions

hmm, I wouldn't recommend examining your mind too closely unless ur completely feeling love in your heart. When you look into ur mind u discover it controls ur thoughts and u need fully positive feelings to be present with in order to delve further

This is a great method of discovering ur inner mind (sub and un-conscious) and becoming a visionary

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This is true, when I am angry and I try to discover What is forming the anger I can only come up with negative answers to the problem. Self discovery is not possible in this state of mind. Understanding is in the hands of love, without love all answers will be manipulated by negative thoughts with no accurate truth.

In my experience, the love is there, once you've experienced it that is, and then it's about removing the "clothing" so to speak of the anger so that love can shine through. If one has the resolve to look inwards and say why am I feeling this way, then there is no doubt in my mind that love will find them and they will let go of their negativity.

I like the way you put that. I am dealing with the same problem you talked about in a post above. I feel loving and very spiritual one minute and completly angry the next.

Grabbing these feelings and their source is showing to be difficult.

Alot of it is probably due to external pressure being put on you, but it's nothing you can't easily brush to one side with defiance once you know why you're feeling it in the first place. See.. Sometimes we don't realize it but we proliferate a bad experience maybe even indulge in it, feel comfortable in it. If you decide not to, then you can stop being sad. Saying F this! to a particular state takes ALOT of willpower and courage and although you can't perceive it there's alot going on there when you say to yourself, I don't have to feel this way. Once you feel that within you, you'll be guided to the source of your feelings and how to drop that shit, because you gots ta love man. Took me a while and alot of wondering and being very close, but remember all the time.. life (a.k.a you anyway) is trying to tell you why your feeling what ur feeling. Hints are everywhere, answers everywhere as I'm sure you know. Be mindful of that also.

It's great that you guys can relate!

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Originally Posted by dreamdimensions

hmm, I wouldn't recommend examining your mind too closely unless ur completely feeling love in your heart. When you look into ur mind u discover it controls ur thoughts and u need fully positive feelings to be present with in order to delve further

This is a great method of discovering ur inner mind (sub and un-conscious) and becoming a visionary

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I'd agree not to do this, unless at one point you have experienced love in your heart and may re-ignite it as you start to examine your thoughts and feelings. This state of awareness is a state in intself, and similar to WILD, unless you know what to aim for, it's like poking around in the darkness until you hit something.

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Originally Posted by MrMarley

Wow, well damn, gotta love synchronicity. Lol, 'God' loves us all very much ;). Over the past few months I've struggled with being up and down from day to day, from incredibly spiritual loving states to pure anger and intense sadness, and in the past few week's I've come to an understanding as to why because of this technique, and then you suddenly post this lol. Having grown spiritually over the past year, I was wondering why I was suddenly 'stuck' lol so to speak in this bi-polarness. But a couple of days ago I sat down, and wondered, wtf?. Why am I feeling this? and really felt it and observed it, and then I came to a conclusion, and then state was pretty much gone, I was in a much better place, the place that I was at before I got 'stuck'. See, life shouldn't be a series of sprints from feeling bad to feeling good, that's just a symptom of modern society. One thing I've discovered is that all those states of joy and happiness you've described, are all encompassed in love, without the hate, jealousy, anger and sadness there is love, love heightens the amazing states and absolutely diminishes the negative one's. Moments of happiness and ecstasy seem to flit past, but a moment in love lasts an eternity. This is very useful information and insightful into one's psyche, but don't chase states, be what you are underneath what you think you are.. 'tis the love brother :D.

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Hey, this is really close to what I've been experiencing! Over the past year there was a lot of spiritual growth, a lot of good and bad, and I was also pretty close to this realization. I came up with this on Monday night, and it has been truly liberating. You mentioned coming up with a similar idea several days ago, when did that happen?

You are right about not chasing states, they are the icing on the cake. The end goal is to feel this kind of love/insight (may be different terms for different people, because these terms are abstract and purely subjective) at all times. It would surely make the world a better place if more people became aware of how their mental states affect them!

Haha :D It most definitely would help a lot of people, it's quite sad that you can't escape the horrors of life, I mean here in the west were supposed to be better off and to be living the perfect lives for some of us, but there's depression, adultery and all the rest of it. This would help people greatly. So yeah, wow this seems to be something we've all experienced.. to me it was necessary for learning, I had been getting hints as to why I was feeling so down and erratic, it was literally staring me in the face but I didn't acknowledge it, wasn't aware of it. The actual day I came to this conclusion... it was last week thursday, the 12th. And yes, it's veeeeeeery liberating, you can be as you are after the blockages are gone, amazing to see how everyone suddenly changes around you when you're in that state, and how different people react. Haha :D

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Originally Posted by Ev

Examine your thoughts when you are angry. You won’t, because you are angry.
Try to harm another while you are ecstatic. You won’t, because you are ecstatic!
Try to do something when you are bored. You won’t, because you are bored.
Try to sleep when you are creative. You won’t, because you are creative.
Trace your worry and recognize that you are anxious.
Catch your thoughts drifting off and realize that you are distracted.

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I actually do the first, third and fifth. I try to avoid getting into the first state at all. But when im getting into it i know what is causing it. Its me, ok there are external factors, but is still me who allows it. So i get quite and just realize my stupidity at this moment. When i do that i make a mark that there is something more to learn and that im still stupid man. So i get over it. Or if i need it i can use it.
The third is interesting. I like to go out and do whatever exactly when i feel bored. Then interesting things happen.
I have more problem with the fifth. Im still learning how to wait and be not too much attached and just go consciously with the flow.

The other things do not make much sense to me for now :) May be the last one but then i like my mind to drift sometimes.

If you are angry or depressed or feeling any other negative state you still need to look into yourself and observe your mind and understand why you are angry or depressed, etc. You need to find which thoughts or beliefs are causing this negative state. Once you understand why you are feeling the way you are, you can change how you feel to something positive. Negative thoughts are also symptoms of something that is wrong, just like physical pain is. If your foot is in pain you need to understand why and then you can do something about it. In this case, negative emotions and feelings help you go deeper. Many positive emotions are very thin or shallow. Sadness is deep.

It is up to you how you feel, it is a choice.

I found a simpler way to explain the experience: "Instead of pulling away from the emotion, experience it fully while being aware".

Another term for this is "emotional intelligence" and when applied to interpersonal relations it becomes "social intelligence"

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Originally Posted by Dannon Oneironaut

Negative thoughts are also symptoms of something that is wrong, just like physical pain is. If your foot is in pain you need to understand why and then you can do something about it.

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A agree with all that completely. Here's an additional thought, to go along with that one. Often you can fix the problem by going right at it, like removing a thorn, draining a boil, or moving a dislocated joint back into place. This has generally been my approach. However, I've also found that there are some things that you can't fix that way, that you have to just leave them alone and let them heal while you develop and strengthen other surrounding areas. Some emotional injuries are like that for instance. Trying to fix them by studying them just makes them worse, like picking a scab repeatedly when there's no infection. "Use no medicine on an illness incurred through no fault of your own", to quote the I Ching. And even when the injury is your fault, sometimes introspection can be kind of like anchoring a ship so that you can study it and try to figure out why its stopped. (That image is from a Gene Wolfe novella called the Fifth Head of Cerberus.) Sometimes the only way forward is to live, and grow and become something more than what you were, and you can't do that if you're too fixated on the injury. Knowledge and experience can't be undone: when an experience has been injurious, you can't put yourself back to the way you were beforehand. But with time you can move beyond it.