An untrained mind is like flipping TV channels—you don’t know how you but somehow you end up binge watching some reality show drama trainwreck.

Our thoughts and emotions are like a “show” constantly playing on the inner screen of the mind. How do you change the channel and find a “program” that you like instead of leaving the mind to go rogue?

The solution is simple—where you turn your attention to, it will go.

Carefully train the mind and then turn your attention to the inner world. But leave the mind untrained and it will often veer towards negativity—fear, drama, anger, unhappiness, desire, dissatisfaction, general sense of malaise, complaining, self-pity and self-loathing. These are the resting points of an untrained mind and the root of suffering.

Be willing to sacrifice these familiar ways of being. Be willing to surrender into something bigger and let the old ways go. It’s tempting to meet the shadow side of the mind with rules, regulations and moral codes.

I’ve suffered from debilitating panic attacks so I know how tempting and comforting it feels to think you can feel safe by fitting everything in a box. But really, control is an illusion and adherence to dogmas leaves you stuck in a legalistic code that is dead.

Instead, live in spirit. Let the light fill you up so powerfully that there is simply no choice but to embrace the clarity of truth. Shine so bright so you blind people who don’t want to recognize your greatness. Grow so big so that no one’s smallness will ever bring you down.

Rise above and beyond.

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More from Kino: 

Stepping toward Authenticity: Sharing ourselves wholly & completely.

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Author: Kino MacGregor

Editor: Katarina Tavčar

Photo: Gilbert M. Ledezma Ho/Instagram