The human mind has three prime unique powers: to contemplate, to choose, to create.
All its feelings of joy, contentment, pleasure, fulfillment, pride, self esteem, exhilaration, ecstasy, derive from them. It is energized, never bored, by their use.
When it is not contemplating, choosing or creating...that is, when it is not thinking, out of control, living repetitiously...it is moribund.
The human mind rests on two pillars:
1. Awareness that the Universe is knowable, and
2. Awareness that it is capable of knowing it so as to make life sustaining choices and direct life nourishing action.
If either pillar is damaged, if the Universe begins to seem chaotic and unknowable, or if the mind begins to feel overwhelmed and inefficacious, it is at risk of anxiety, distress, depression, shutdown.
At the first signs of those signals, steps ought be taken to repair the pillar damage, ideally through a support system of family, friends, counselors.
Evidence that the world is knowable abounds. Look out a window. Everything you see indicates knowableness. Everything you have achieved in life indicates mental efficacy.
Like every other part of the body, the human mind needs healing and energizing. That can be achieved by periodically checking the state of the pillars.
In regard to our learning the human mind, our elementary and high school educational systems fail.
We teach children all sorts of things about the world "out there" (science, history, geography) but nothing about the world "in there" (psychology and the working of our mental dimension). Omitted from the curriculum are any mindful discussions of the importance of self esteem and how to achieve and maintain it; emotions: what are they, where do they come from, are they reliable, should they be used in our decision making; how to deal with anxiety, despair, depression; happiness, and how to achieve it.
The result of the failure of our educational system is evident all around us, as more and more of us turn to addictive medications, and sometimes self destruction, to mask and/or escape our inner demons...demons that should never have been allowed to find a home within us.
Ironic that the academic minds have chosen to study everything but itself.
Virtually all of the physical hazards we face are visible and known, and we readily avoid them. Mental hazards are not visible and most of us not only do not avoid them, but we embrace them in the name of social propriety. Not speaking our mind when we oppose the view of the group, for the purpose of getting along and not rocking the boat, is a mental hazard with serious long range consequences. As does failing to pursue your innermost dreams, choosing to live for the welfare of others, sublimating your will to the will of others. All lead to loss of self esteem, feelings of inadequacy, frustration, depression.
Time for us to shine a light on what makes us the most advanced, accomplished and powerful species of life.
"My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such present joys therein I find
That it excels all other bliss
That earth affords or grows by kind"
Edward Dyer
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