We never have had a population that has suffered so much from stress, anxiety and depression. Associated with that, burnout is an increasingly common problem, and we have even heard that physical illnesses can stem from our mental condition. In fact, whether we like it or not, whoever is able to control their mind has more chances to succeed, in work, in personal relationships and in their ability to solve problems and fight for goals. Whatever the reason - which could be one of many - it is worth learning to have control over ourselves, in a society that does not always teach us to stop.

Probably you have already felt that you think too much, almost as if you were fighting against your own thoughts. Some people struggle with this kind of feeling. In turn, some authors believe that this constant state of spirit can cause more than stress and malaise; it can even lead to physical diseases, such as cancer. This is the opinion of Muz Murray, author of Never Mind the Mind and many other editions where he speaks about experience of life, in his perspective as a spiritual mentor and Mantra Yogi.

For him, “Illness is basically a case of not being who you are”. This means, that our body knows what it needs, but we reject this message all the time because of the “circumstances and the demands of the situation you are in”.

In spite of that, it’s possible to live without thinking according to Muz Murray. In fact, we have already experienced it when we were younger. In early age, up to three, no one has a “sense-of-individualised-mind”. As an adult, the author said that we can return to a similar condition but this time with awareness. So, “that spontaneous and free-flowing thought arises from the Original Source as and when necessary”, he says.

A study from Cambridge University published in Brain and Behavior Journal in June 2016, confirms that people in Western Europe and North America are more likely to suffer from anxiety than those from other cultures. The study also found that the probability of women suffering from anxiety is almost twice as likely than for men.

How can we control our mind?
Controlling our thoughts doesn’t mean that we have to live without thinking all the time. What may be good for some people, for others may not be very useful. Imagine a businessman who doesn’t think, it seems really difficult to keeps the business healthy, but controlling the mind, being able to disconnect and organise thoughts in a productive way seems like a great way to balance things.

To start, Muz Murray makes a distention between “me” and “mind” as a separating thing, such as “my house”, “my body”, “my hand”, “my foot” – “are all separate objects from my-self”. But he goes further. “We have no need to consider mind (mental static) as ‘mine’, any more than accepting a headache as a ‘possession’” he referred. Besides that: “even without meditation, if we simply focus our attention on ‘mind’ itself, seeking its source of arising, we can find nothing there. It is too much of a phantom”, he says.

Muz Murray shares his experience, when at New Year he decided to refuse every unnecessary thought. “For the next three months I toiled away at my carpet-pulling tactics, refusing to participate in any of my ‘mind games’. Every time an irrelevant thought cropped up, I decided - ‘It’s only in the mind and let it go. When things I had to remember spontaneously popped into my mind, I immediately wrote them down on a list, so there was no necessity to have to think of them again”.

One day he woke up in a different way that he describes as a pure clarity and a gentle joy. “I suddenly woke up to find my mindflow had ceased altogether. The endless interior dialogue was no longer operating as I could no longer feel my usual mental pressure.”

However, this state of not thinking does not have to be constant. When “I became involved in the details of selling my cottage, I was obliged to study books of law to make up the deeds. This is a head-breaking task at the best of times, and for several days I began to feel the return of ‘mind’- like a distant balloon on a string being slowly wound back on a spindle into my head. Soon I returned to a semblance of ‘normality’. Since those days, my mental flow came and went like the tide, so that I was sometimes with and sometimes without ‘mind’”, he concludes.

This technique used by Muz Murray, is reported in his chapter, Never Mind the Mind in more detail, where he explains how we can live without toxic thoughts.
For further information about Never Mind the Mind and Muz Murray, please visit www.muzmurray.com

Author

Paula Martins is a fully qualified journalist, who finds writing a means of self-expression. She studied Journalism and Communication at University of Coimbra and recently Law in the Algarve. Press card: 8252

Paula Martins