While

While I work I play. While I play I work. In fact, while I do noth­ing a lot gets done in my mind. This is the result of a num­ber of stud­ies I have done on the mind and the changes made in a few of my men­tal habits. Man­ag­ing your mind is an art. It can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Mak­ing it your friend takes a while to accom­plish. From early child­hood to the present, you will notice that it will turn against you and waste its time and yours by worrying.

The mind works at a num­ber of lev­els con­tin­u­ally — even while you are asleep. Pay atten­tion to it, but do not let it drag you into unwanted thoughts. Learn to iden­tify with your tran­scen­dent spirit rather than your think­ing processes. We are more than think­ing ani­mals. Our exis­tence is far beyond mere phys­i­cal sur­vival. Most of all, the mind seeks bal­ance. You will some­times think of the fun­ni­est things dur­ing the most seri­ous events.

Have you ever noticed how your mind likes to play old movies in the back of your head while you are try­ing to get work done? Do you hear the music echo­ing in your thoughts? There is also a series of lit­tle image cre­ators — like TV screens in the back of your head offer­ing alter­na­tive scenes. The mind is a very busy place. It loves sto­ries and fan­tasies. Get all of it aimed at qual­ity liv­ing and you have a heaven on earth — regard­less of your income.

Here are some sug­ges­tions: Aim you mind toward some wor­thy ideas; pick the music for it; re-watch a favorite movie so it will have a happy sto­ry­line; remem­ber the good times; talk to your­self with the great­est respect; find humor in every­thing; let your sub­con­scious solve your most prac­ti­cal prob­lems; give it some­thing to look for­ward to; care for it like you would care for a small child.

This is not a les­son on multi-tasking. It is a reminder from John Mil­ton that, “The mind is its own place and can make a hell of heaven or a heaven of hell.” You are not going to change the world around you, but you can do some­thing far greater — you can change your own mind. So, while you do what you do today, get to know your own mind. You may actu­ally find a pleas­ant lit­tle heaven in there somewhere.