a different approach to thinking

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A Different Approach to Thinking

Written by Sen on October 5th, 2012

Life is a thinking energy, you as a soul/being as well as you as the physical body (with the heart &

brain as the intelligence centers) are a form of life-energy and hence have this inherent nature of being a

thinking entity. Living from a place of wholeness has nothing to do with the end of thinking, rather

its about letting go of the deluded, misguided, or imbalanced, way of thinking. The whole practice of

trying to silence your thoughts is one of the most misguided practices you can ever follow to come to a

place of wholeness trying to silence your thoughts is just an act of suppression, it can give you some

temporary relief, just like a drug would, but it also keeps you to from resolving the conflicts/problems that

you may be dealing with in your life. There are people who have spent years trying to silence their

thinking, through the force of will, and all they manage to accomplish (temporarily) is a false state of

dull peace, which has a highly unnatural feel to it and requires constant effort to maintain these practices

are ways of disciplining yourself unnaturally, and they accomplish nothing towards inner-freedom,

creativity, alignment and conscious living. The problem is not with thinking, the problem is in the

approach we developed towards thinking, which is simply a part of the conditioning/training we receive

from a largely struggle-based society.

There are two ways in which you can think, as a being

1. Relaxed awareness (or relaxed-thinking)

2. Focused thinking

Very few of us have consciously aligned with the mode of relaxed awareness, and hence we dont

realize the immense potential this approach has towards bringing new solutions and resolving inner

conflicts. Most of us are rooted in focused thinking, and in many cases our focus is on negativity rather

than solutions and hence we just end up creating a momentum of negativity within us (which eventually

shapes into a physical reality) while standing in resistance to allowing a balanced/wholeness-based

solution. Focused thinking is also a very powerful way of creating solutions, but only when your focus

is on solutions. Its important to understand the right way, of using the potential of focused thinking, inorder to lead a consciously effective life. The way I see it, unless you develop the capacity for relaxed-

thinking, its very difficult to align with the right way of focused thinking you can see this in people

who keep trying to focus on positive thoughts, and end up living in fear of problems, conflicts and

challenges.

Since the capacity for relaxed-thinking is a required pre-requisite, for the capacity to use the potential of

focused thinking, I will discuss the mechanics of relaxed-thinking first, and follow it up with the

mechanics of the right way of using focused thinking.

The approach of relaxed awareness

Relaxed awareness is just a term I coined up because it gives an accurate description of the state of

openness involved when you align with this mode of thinking it can also be referred to as relaxed-

thinking. Relaxed-awareness is a part of the ability to be allowing of what arises in the form of

ifferent Approach to Thinking http://www.calmdownmind.com/a-different-approach-to-thinking/?ut...

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thoughts, and emotions, without trying to suppress it and without trying to force a solution. You can try

this right now, just a for a minute let go of making an effort to think, and just let thinking happen if it

happens. The pointer is dont try to think, dont try to solve anything, dont try to look for solutions,

dont try to get rid of what arises, just be. I hope you understand that I am not asking you to trance

out into some passive state, neither am I asking you to be focused on anything, its just about being

aware without the need to protect yourself from any thought and without the need to hold on to any

thought. There is such a thing as become passive, which is just another escape mechanism, and there is

such a thing as fear-based focus which is also another protection mechanism. Relaxed-thinking is notmeant to be an escape mechanism to got into some lulled state of daze, neither is it about focusing, its

about actively being without trying to make an effort at trying to be.

Its possible that you are not able to get the pointer I am conveying here, and its because you may be

trying to understand, the approach of relaxed-thinking, from your past training of either trying to

struggle in some way or trying to detach in some way which are just two extremes of the same thing,

fear-based living. Even when I give the pointer of just be, it can be misinterpret as trying to be, and

then you just sit and keeping making an effort to be, and since all your energy is focused on this effort

you cannot be relaxed, and hence you cannot really allow whats arising naturally in your mind. Just let

go of effort, without going into a state of being passive its a middle ground. Below are a few pointerson knowing if you are doing relaxed-thinking the right way.

- You are not trying to escape, suppress or deny any of the thoughts that arise

- You are not trying to think, but you are allowing thinking to happen, in any way that it wants to

happen

- You are open to all the emotions that arise in you including stark feelings of fear, restlessness or

irritation

- You are not distracting yourself in any way through any external stimulus (Its very helpful if you do

relaxed-thinking with closed eyes, initially)

- You are not trying to become passive or detached. I can only give this as a pointer, its up to you to be

honest with yourself on whether you are trying to get passive as a means to go into a lulled sense of

peace, as an escape or as some spiritual idea.

- You are not trying to be aware, neither are you attempting to watch thoughts rigidly, if your awareness

goes towards any thought, or feeling, you allow it, and when it lets go of a thought or a feeling, you allow

that also you are not trying to control what your awareness rests on.

- You are not trying to relax or feel good, you are not trying to be fearless, you are not trying to feel some

extraordinary state.

The tendency of the mind is to think repetitively about any thought that feels like a concern, problem or

challenge. The mind also thinks repetitively about its true desires, preferences and interests (when I say

the mind I am including everything the thinking of the heart, the brain, the being). The fact that the

mind has the tendency to keep repeating whatever it feels is important for it, ensures that the state of

relaxed-thinking is not a state of denial if something is important to the mind, it will keep repeating

the thought unless a solution is found or unless it loses importance through an understanding or

perspective. So, dont worry about being in denial when you are connected with relaxed-thinking ifyou are not trying to be passive and detached, the state of relaxed-thinking will never be a state of denial.

The reason why the state of relaxed-thinking brings solutions (or brings wisdom) is because in this state

you are not trying to think from your past conditioning which may be rooted in imbalances or


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delusions, rather, you are allowing the intelligence of the wholeness of life to assist you in bringing a

solution/balance to the thoughts of your mind. This way you are connecting with a far deeper intelligence

than the mechanical intelligence of conditioned thinking. In many cases, when you connect with relaxed-

thinking you may see yourself being automatically guided towards solutions (for example, you may just

feel an inspiration to search something in google which ultimately takes you towards a certain solution).

The other advantages of relaxed-thinking are as mentioned below

- You develop a sense of inner power, where you become free of the grip of your minds thinking (sinceyou develop the capacity to stop reacting to your minds thoughts). The more you connect with relaxed-

thinking the more open your being feels from the strong-hold of the minds thinking momentum.

- As you practice relaxed-thinking the mind momentum keeps reducing and finally comes to balanced-

levels, in case you had a high momentum going for you before. The momentum reduces not only because

your mind finds solutions and understanding, but also because you are no longer fueling the momentum

through giving it your narrow focus.

- You gain access to perspectives that are rooted in wisdom and wholeness, since you are no longer

holding on to an egoic perspective alone.

- Emotional accumulation of the past starts getting released when you connect with relaxed-thinking, this

is because you are no longer suppressing the emotional-release that arises naturally, and you (as a being)

are no longer re-creating the emotions through unconscious identification which thought-patterns relating

to them.

- You start gaining an inner stability to handle any challenge because you start finding a confidence in

lifes intelligence to bring you solutions in this mode of being resistance-free.

- You feel more in tune with your intuition and wisdom

Relaxed-thinking may feel like a completely new domain to you. Its like developing a new habit, and it

will take time before you start getting used to it, and start seeing its potential/power in bringing solutions.

For a while, you may just need to work on getting to terms with the natural state of relaxed-thinking.

Dont get too impatient, dont try to get it right both of these mindsets will hamper you from truly

being connected with the openness thats needed for relaxed-thinking.

Using focused thinking the right way

Focused thinking is when you consciously, or unconsciously, think about a particular thought/subject,

giving it the fuel of your attention and interest. The first step towards using focused thinking, the rightway, is to be more conscious about it. When you practice relaxed-thinking you will become aware of all

the various habitual/repetitive patterns of thought that you were giving unconscious attention to before.

You would need to release the momentum of your unconscious thinking patterns, before you can really

start using focused thinking consciously the only way to release the momentum is to become more and

more rooted in relaxed-thinking (relaxed-awareness). At one point, when youve released the momentum

of your unconscious thinking patterns, you can use relaxed-thinking and focused-thinking in a balance,

both these ways of thinking are required for an optimal life.

I will reiterate that its very important to find a stability in relaxed-thinking before you can even look at

using focused-thinking the right way. It is relaxed-thinking that releases the past momentum of negativityin your mind, so that its more conducive to a new focus. For example, you may be rooted to a

struggle-based way of thinking and your mind may have a strong momentum towards this way of thinking

owing to years of unconscious attention, and in this condition if you try to change your focus to a


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abundance-based way of thinking you will find a lot of resistance coming from the mind (because of its

past momentum). When you connect with relaxed-thinking, you can allow the past momentum of your

mind to ebb away, so that your mind no longer poses resistance to your conscious focus.

Once you have released the past momentum of your mind (through relaxed-awareness), you can start

using focused-thinking in a conscious manner. Below are some pointers on the optimal way to use

focused-thinking to align with a solution-based focus.

- Dont focus on blame-based thoughts, it serves no purpose

- Dont focus on the perceived negatives in a situation, just observe them, and then focus on what kind

of growth the situation is wanting to create in you. Always focus on thinking in terms of inner

growth/maturity. Introspection is a very powerful form of focused-thinking.

- Dont keep focusing on the problem. When you have a problem, you just need to observe it once to

know its there, nothing is served by constant obsessing about it. Once you see a problem, you can also see

your mind formulating a required solution (envisioning a reality that doesnt have this problem). Shift

your focus towards this required solution, and keep your focused-thinking along these lines.

- Use your focused-thinking to visualize the reality you desire, and get a sense of the light and dark nature

involved in this reality the reality of life is that every situation has a light and dark nature. For example,

a relationship can bring you romantic experiences, but it will also take up your time and energy. When

you are aligned with the light and dark nature of a desired reality, it can manifest more smoothly, since

you are exhibiting a maturity to deal with it.

- Dont use your focused-thinking to only focus on the light nature of a reality, such a focus may seem

like positive thinking when in truth its just deluded thinking because its also not grounded in reality

and hence is in resistance to manifesting a physical reality of your desire. Such a focus can also keep you

from unearthing the resistance you may have towards the actual reality of your desire.

- Focused-thinking in balance with relaxed-thinking is most optimal for bringing better solutions and

dissolving inner conflicts/resistances.

Focused-thinking is a part of being a deliberate creator, where you make the choice towards what type

of reality you want to experience. The problem is that, when a person who is deluded about life, he/she

tends to think in a delusional manner and such a person can then use focused-thinking to just focus on a

deluded, or misguided, image of reality which can just become a means of living in some form of denial

or ignorance. This is the reason why its important to first connect with relaxed-awareness, to allow

yourself to transcend the grip of your minds imbalanced momentum while also developing a deeperunderstanding of reality the more you understand the reality of life the more aligned your thinking will

be. For example, when you realize that all realities, in life, have a light and dark nature, your thinking is

no longer deluded, rather it starts becoming congruent with reality.

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Promise: Hi sen thanks so much .am seing a great change in me.

Ray: considering both sides, would you say dark and light are as one, a non-duality? or that

the duality is inherent...

Markus: Sen, while I understand the point you make in this post, it seems to miss something.

That is, one can be...F: http://www.calmdownmind.com/th e-basis-of-inner-freedom/

Satish: Sen, how do we describe the series of events happened/ happens in our life. We are

destined to meet some...

Irina: Hi Sen, I have some questions but I have to share some things first. I think I have some

strong belief in me...

Viraj: Be afraid of nothing.depression,hope lessness,anxiety,uncertainty,p ointlessness..I

got the...

anca: Hi Sen, talking about mind strategy or spiritual mechanics I want to ask you about

thoughts that appear in some...

casey: Sen, I want to thank you for description of release of imbalance andmind-momentum. It has been...

Markus: ryan, I dont know if you believe in past lives, but maybe you lived out whatever

you fear in another...

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