Our greatest asset is our mind.
Spark | by Suhailah | Newsletter Issue 02.
Image above imagined + created by Suhailah, via Dream Studio
Quotes of the Week:
From others:
“My mind is the center of Divine operation, and Divine operation means expansion into something better than what has gone before.” – Thomas Troward
“Your mind must arrive at your destination before your life does.” – Author Unknown
“The best way to predict the future, is to create it.” – Original Author, Unknown
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein
“Thoughts Create.” – Said by many
From me:
“Our greatest asset, is our mind.” – Suhailah
Self-Inquiry/Journal and/or Meditation Prompts:
Over the next 7 days, take time each night to reflect on your day and write down the moments - big and small - where you noticed your mind and imagination working in unconscious ways—ways that didn’t serve you, that weren’t empowering, or that didn’t align with what you truly want for yourself or the world around you. Then, contrast these with the moments when your mind and imagination worked in ways that did serve you, empowering and guiding you towards the life (and quality of life) and world you want to see and live in. Pay attention to the difference.
As you move forward, make it a habit to consciously direct your mind and thoughts, this is not about trying to be "positive," but to use your imagination with intention. This is your opportunity to literally change your mind.
Story Time:
There used to be a commercial on TV with the tagline that became iconic that said “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” This was for UNCF, created by Young & Rubicam (an Ad Agency) partnering with the Ad Council. It was coined in the 70’s, and ran for over 40 years, revived again in 2013, and it was meant to create social change. In the campaign, the story was being told about the educational aspirations of African Americans, in particular.
What I write and share is always for the human race, and so I agree with my whole heart that “a mind is a terrible thing to waste” for anyone who falls within this category.
However, in today’s world, including in that campaign perhaps, while I understand its significance and its importance, formal education is made to be seen as the only way someone can fully utilize or even access their minds. This is simply not so.
To start, we tend to think of our mind as something in our head. Something in our physical head…that sits on our neck…connected to our shoulders. And we tend to think that it is the same thing as the brain, which it is not.
The brain lives in the body. It is a command center, for sure. And the experts say that, on average, it weighs about 3 lbs. in the average adult. It is made up of 3 units that govern our movements, emotions, and the ebb and flow of bodily functions. Or, essentially, sensory and motor functions, autonomic and regulatory functions, and some cognitive functions.
But the MIND - no one knows where the mind actually is. And it dances to a different drummer.
The mind, is more abstract. It is often described as the set of cognitive faculties that includes consciousness, perception, thinking, judgment, and memory. The mind is where thoughts, emotions, and experiences (note that I wrote experiences) take place—it is the subjective experience of being. And while it is said to emerge from the brain's activity, it represents the zone of mental phenomena rather than the physical structure itself. And so when I say “mental” (phenomena), I also mean spiritual because as I say in my new book…
Excerpt above from the book “Awaken the Brand by Suhailah, Unleash Your Personal Potential Through Building Your Brand.”
The mind is phantom, elusive, unseen, and untouchable. But it is the essence that shapes our reality, and it is not bound by the physical.
The mind is where imagination - one of our spiritual organs - comes from.
I recall a time when I knew I needed to end a relationship I’d been in for three or four years. The realization was clear, but I was literally too busy and too tired to do it. I had a job as a Vice-President at a marketing agency that kept me busy, and in the midst of this I convinced myself that I simply did not want another thing on my plate to have to handle and deal with. Really, I think I was just very fearful of even the thought of doing this, at first.
I told myself that it would take a lot of difficult conversations and emotional unraveling, and that it would be hard to do because I loved this person deeply, as he did me. (We still love each other today, as good friends.) Nothing big or major had happened, per se, except my awareness and inner knowing that certain behaviors he was showcasing at the time needed some attention and healing on his part that he seemed to be unaware of as well as unwilling and/or unable to look at and address. And me, at the time, I lacked the knowledge, the tools, and the capacity to offer the kind of support (not to be mistaken for "saving") that I might be able to provide now, given where I stand in my personal growth and my current understanding and way of love, relationships, and true partnership.
So instead of using my mind imagining the best case scenarios in all the things that could happen after I ended this relationship and how I would feel as a consequence, I spent a year (I swear, I kid you not), taking myself to hell and back in my imagination by imagining all of the worst case scenarios, in feeling, just to prepare myself emotionally for having to sit in the weight of my decision that I knew was coming in real life.
For this full year (and a couple of months, mind you), whenever I had the time at night or throughout my day riding to and from work on the train from Brooklyn to Manhattan, or traveling on planes on business trips for work, I would literally mentally walk myself through, in my mind and in my imagination, every bad feeling that I thought I could/would experience after every imaginary act he could possibly take that could possibly hurt me after I ended things, to prepare myself for it.
Now, I knew the power of my mind and imagination before this in terms of basic manifestation that many of us know today (“let me manifest this job or client,” or “this vacation” or whatever), when we first learn and begin to experience that thoughts attract, and that this is an actual science.
But I had never, before this point, experienced a more powerful example in my own life of how creative (and so how destructive) my imagination could be until this experience.
The moment of our actual breakup, he told me it was the most beautiful and loving thing he had ever experienced in terms of endings. He was used to women hating (or disliking) him, by the end. We cried in each others arms in gratitude for the experience, the moment, and the expression of unconditional love on both sides. This was also one of my clearest intentions for that year that I contemplated this ending - that I did not want to cause harm to him, and that I wanted to be the best version of myself in that moment, and so I was.
But after this, literally everything I emotionally prepared myself for in my mind, thoughts, and imagination - and with feeling - the painful parts and experiences (and “every imaginary act he could possibly take that could possibly hurt me after I ended things” as i wrote earlier) happened after our relationship was over.
(Let me pause here for a moment: I don’t consider myself a violent person, have only had two real physical fights in my life - one was as a kid – and would never cause myself harm, but I want to slap myself in my own face right now just at the thought that I did what I just described in rehearsing feeling bad for a full year. Hahahaha! Just kidding. But I am punching the air “in my mind” right now, and SMH too. As they say, “Make it make sense, Suhailah, make it make sense. It simply doesn’t, but I digress.)
What a waste of my time and what a waste of my life force energy, this was. Absolutely ridiculous.
Now, I know I was not responsible for his actions after our relationship ended, and to be clear, he didn't do anything directly to me. But instead of focusing on the best possible outcome, at least emotionally, throughout that year that I was preparing, I ended up doing the opposite. I'm not talking about the usual twinge of discomfort we may feel when we see an ex moving on a little too quickly for our taste, or handling that moment with less consideration than we would have wished; I'm talking about how I actually rehearsed feeling bad and sad for 12+ months, imagining “worse case scenarios” thinking it would prepare me and lessen the blow of the inevitable. Instead, I was unknowingly creating the very emotions I wanted to avoid. We've all heard how high-performance athletes mentally prepare themselves for success by visualizing and feeling it as if it's already happened, so this concept isn't new.
But we do this - use our imaginations and direct our thoughts in the way I did in the story I just shared - on a regular basis. Most of us do this in some way, shape, or form. It is why we can lay in bed, be driving, stand in the mirror or on line in a store, be taking a shower, washing dishes, or folding laundry and be having completely imaginary arguments with someone we are mad at “in our head” (a boss, an employee, a husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, whoever…), who is not even there, and it feels sooo real. “Our mind elsewhere” (other than where we are), as we say.
Sometimes, if we catch ourselves, we might even realize that our physical face might be scrunched up – brow furrowed - we make it feel so real. Conversations, mind you, we never wind up having or needing to have in real life.
We often use or minds and our imaginations wildly inappropriately, in unnecessary ways, and unconsciously in this way. But it is still affecting us. Our state of being, our well-being, our outcomes, and our experiences. And it is disempowering if not for the fact that it can actually show us our true power if we are paying attention. - We are really, really bizarre creatures - us humans. Animals don’t even do this.
And with only 24 hrs. in days that we all feel seem to be quickening as of late, who in the world has time for this? Who can afford this? NONE OF US.
Also, and more seriously, if you have ever been sick or had a serious health issue where you cannot use or move your body properly as I have, you will understand the power of the mind to transport you somewhere else entirely even more. And you’d also understand that this same energy and power that can mentally and spiritually move you, can eventually and actually “move you,” in a different kind of way toward healing, and where you are trying to go physically. To your destination. Yes, our minds are that powerful.
But, overall, the way I see all of this based on my own life experience is this:
We are ultimately left with two choices in how we want to approach life, and especially when life throws sh*t our way that we don’t want our way:
1. We can either get busy always reacting to it, being dragged by it, and with trying to fight what is and treat it like a battlefield we have to conquer; Or…
2. We can get busy and treat it (life) like it is the creative act that it actually is. By first using our minds to create the essence (or the literal version) of the experiences we want, and then see what happens.
We must learn to become like world class, gold medal winning Olympians in the conscious use of our own minds and so our imaginations. And while it’s not a competition, even a bronze or silver will do. At least try; Imagination is not only child’s play.
Spiritually, we can do this by engaging in practices like meditation, prayer, or mindfulness, allowing us to move beyond surface-level thinking and access a place of inner stillness. In this state, we can connect with our higher self, listen to the whispers of our intuition, and find clarity in the midst of confusion. It’s about trusting our inner voice that speaks from a place of wisdom, not driven by fear or ego, but by a sense of love, compassion, and truth.
Imagination is the bridge between the known and the unknown, allowing us to visualize outcomes, and explore possibilities beyond the limitations of our current reality. It’s through imagination that we can envision higher states of being, and so propelling us forward. These images can evoke feelings of peace, love, or connection, helping to shift our consciousness to a higher state.
Here we can access intuitive knowledge, knowledge through inspiration, and imaginative knowledge to create our new reality.
Book Recommendation:
“Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One” by Dr. Joe Dispenza
Copyright © 2024 Suhailah H. Yoba. All rights reserved.
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