Exploiting the body mind complex to shape thoughts

In my last post an attempt was made to explain away thoughts - they are causal, we have little control over them, we should chill out about them. The mind makes thoughts like a factory makes widgets. They are not us.

However, we all know how difficult thoughts are - they can make our lives a misery. As westerners, we have a duty to stop this misery and control them in some way, and there is a glimmer of hope if you put the effort in.

The first thing to be aware of is: the more you think a thought, the more likely you are to think that thought again. The more you moan, the more likely you are to moan in future. The more generous you are, the more generous you become. And so on. In short, think good things.

The next handy thing to know is: you can't think a thought without contracting a muscle somewhere (this is why dead people don't do thinky things). The body and mind are two sides of the same coin, they are inexorably bound together. This is useful because we can influence the mind by working on our bodies - relax the body and the mind will follow suit. There are many, many ways to work on the body and if we pay attention to how it affects our minds we can start to generate a beneficial cycle of relaxation and contented thinking. We feel het up, we do some body relaxation, we notice the contents of the mind change, we explore deeper mind relaxation, the body begins to let go, the mind let's go further, the body and mind unite as one and we are suddenly as vast as the ocean .... Maybe.