Train Your Mind for Constructive Thinking
Welcome back to Mid-Week Meditations , Lifehacker’s weekly dip in the pool of stoic wisdom and a guide to using its waters to meditate and improve your life.
This week’s selection is taken from the fifth book of Marcus Aurelius, Meditations , section 16 . He encourages the practice to regularly think with good, positive thoughts:
“As are your habitual thoughts, so is the nature of your mind; for the soul is colored with thoughts. Then color it with a continuous series of thoughts such as these: for example, that where a person can live, there he can live well. “
What does it mean
Your mind will constantly perceive the thoughts that arise in you. These thoughts form your soul, your consciousness, “you” inside your vessel. So try to shape your soul with constructive thoughts. For example, wherever you live, make it a good life.
What to take from there
Your brain is somewhat malleable. Like a muscle, you can train it and develop certain ways of thinking. If you always prefer to have negative thoughts, you will train your mind to always go straight to negative thoughts by giving yourself a dark, pessimistic foundation. Negative will always be your preset.
But your thinking can be changed. However, it is not as easy as mumbling some useless mantra like “Stay positive.” To change your mind, you need to act with intention. This requires you to choose more constructive thoughts, just as you should choose to lift weights to build muscle. You can look at this load and think, “This load is so heavy,” or you can lift it and think, “This load is still heavy.” To change your mindset, you must exercise.