Yes, but only by understanding how the mind takes its instructions.
Thoughts start happening, most often without our consent and seemingly out of nowhere. If these thoughts are causing any type of negative or energy draining feeling, feelings we label as fear, worry, jealousy, anger, etc; the person will then desperately want the mind to stop. We all have experience with this, our mind seems to focus on the very thing that we don’t want it to. Filled with frustration and despair, such a person might find themselves asking, why won’t my mind stop? They then may start to wonder if they can control this mind of theirs that always seems to be causing trouble.
In this effort, they are trying to control the mind directly, with more thought. Shouting at the mind to stop is not only not going to work, it will cause the opposite affect. The more you push against your mind, the more it pushes back. This is what is meant when it is said “what you resist, persists.”
So what can you do? First off, stop blaming your mind. The mind is neutral. It is not a sentient being capable of intending to harm you in any way. You absolutely must first understand this. Blaming and shouting at your mind does nothing but perpetuate the disturbance.
So then, why does the mind seem to want to run off in the direction of our worst fears, worries and insecurities? Because you have instructed it to. How in the world did you happen to do this? It’s how you have been speaking to the mind, in it’s language.
Although the mind may seemingly speak to you in words, it doesn’t necessarily listen in words. Or at least, that’s not what it listens to primarily. It’s taking it’s instructions from somewhere much deeper. It’s primary instructions are coming from your attention and what you feel is important.
Thoughts, in and of themselves, have zero power. Zero. A thought not paid attention to vanishes into nothingness in less than a second. They only have power if you give them your attention. If you’re having disturbing thoughts, in the form of words, images or both, it’s only your attention that sustains them and gives them life. If you could shift your attention to something else, the thoughts would lose their power source and fall away.
What you’re likely trying to do now is to control the mind through will power, and that is like trying to fly your kite in 90 miles per hour winds. It really doesn’t matter how much will power you execute or how hard you try. You will never get that kite to where you want it to be. Even if you do for a second, it will be somewhere else a second later. Have you noticed this is how your mind behaves? Why does it do this? Why won’t it just cooperate and do what we want?
It’s because the mind knows nothing of what you want. It’s not the language it speaks. As far as it’s concerned, it’s functioning exactly as it should. What language does it speak? It’s speaks the language of importance and attention, and those two things go hand in hand. What you believe to be important, the mind will zone in on. It will analyze, imagine different scenarios, rinse and repeat. It’s doing this for you. You told it something was important, and now it’s thinking about that exact thing for you. But you don’t want to think about it? The mind doesn’t know this. “Please stop thinking about this! This is driving me insane.” What did you actually tell the mind? “This is extremely important to me. Think about it even more.”
The most important step to stop the minds drain on your mood and energy is to take back the throne. Drop the assumed importance of all thoughts to zero, then you decide what you will give your attention to and determine how you want your mind to serve you. Obviously, some thoughts are quite useful and productive and can alert you to changes you need to make in your life, but if you were to be honest with yourself, you would admit the vast majority of your thinking is repetitive, useless and draining, if not destructive. Take back control by using your power of attention wisely and skillfully. Then, and only then, can your mind be your instrument, rather than your tyrant.