If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Over the next several weeks we’ll be posting about the 12 Spiritual Laws that our residents learn to understand and practice throughout their 90 day stay at the Mark Houston Recovery Center.

7 The Spiritual Law of Relaxation

In all mental work be relaxed, gentle and unhurried…………

Let us consider that we have two separate mind: A working mind and a thinking mind.

The Job of the Working Mind

I use my working mind to accomplish logical tasks such as

• Set goals
• Making appointments
• Paying Bills
• Carrying out daily tasks

If I am identified with my mind I will take impatience; the need to be done quickly; and fear into my minute by minute day. If we were only as deep as our thinking mind, life would have little purpose.

Nurturing the Thinking Mind Through Relaxation

On the other hand, I use my thinking mind to evaluate my world. Much of the activity of the thinking mind runs in the background on autopilot. Never allowing yourself to explore the more creative and intricate parts of your mind and only staying busy with the working mind leads to a life of stress and non-fulfillment.

It is critical that we learn to tap into our thinking mind if we truly want to change our lives on a fundamental level. In order for the thinking mind to understand what it encounters, it filters new information through my pre-programmed assumption of the world.

Each new piece of information runs through a series of filters including:

• My fears
• My judgments
• My conditioning of what is right and wrong

If we never give ourselves the opportunity to explore the thinking mind that shapes our perception of the world, we will never truly change our lives.

The use of meditation provided me the chance to dis-engage from my thinking mind; to observe it while I am present to my working mind. This process allows a relaxed, gentle, and unhurried experience.

Tags: Recovery //