Have you Mine-d your Mind yet?

Deep cleaning. What strikes your mind when you read this? The first thing that rings a bell for me is my mom asking me to schedule 'deep cleaning' appointments for the sofa. Or perhaps you'd think your balcony needs 'deep cleaning' to prevent infestation of any kind. As decipherable as it is, the beauty of this term lies in the multiple ways one can perceive it but one chain of thought that I would like to mull upon today is the 'deep cleaning' that our brilliant minds need occasionally. Quite intrigued are we? Let's give this topic more context.

We ofcourse live in an ever evolving and ever overwhelming world. We are led to feel that experiencing contentment is a violation because the environment we dwell in makes us believe that nothing is ever enough. Now that does not actually have a negative connotation. It has a positive bearing when looked at keenly. Let's see how.

No one can deny that they are not constantly clouded with thoughts that are no doubt enterprising but are mostly fearful. Thoughts that make you question everything from your current to your future life trajectory. Well I am not ashamed to admit that these thoughts sometimes engulf my mind in bizarre ways which are not always pleasant. They are eroding, bothersome and demotivating in nature. But here's the catch. They are not the only thoughts in our mind. We have positive glimpses too and what's really important is that we learn the art of clinging on to the good thoughts and finding our own unique way to 'deep cleanse' the not-so-good thoughts to find something nurturing in them.

Maybe a situational example here would help. Let's say you are running a 200m sprint. You started off well, building stamina and stability along the way to get yourself to the finish line. 160m into the race, a hopeful thought sprouts in your mind - Yes, I am almost there! Well, just as that thought of winning starts sinking in, you see your competitor leveling up with your speed steadily and you feel a sharp pain in your throat, an intense burn in your stomach and a gut-wrenching feeling of sinking, all at once. What happened here? Your positive thought of winning got buried under the negative glimpses of fear, haste, anxiety, panic, trepidation and what not. Just imagine, one happy thought being absolutely crushed by thoughts merely caused due to the 'possibility of failing' and not actually failing. Now what should you do? There are 2 options - either let those worrisome thoughts tear your down and make you give up in those last 10 meters when you had gathered the courage to run those 190 meters in the first place or you could just do what a vacuum cleaner does to your sofa. Deep cleanse those discouraging thoughts and just get yourself to run the rest of the race. Just dust off those thoughts which covered your hope of winning and run like never before. You will either win or you will learn. By letting those negative thoughts come over, you would have lost, even without trying to win and those are the impressions that really make one feel defeated. Not the race, not the competitor, not the circumstances. What decides your win or loss is that conscious choice to say what Kapil Dev said to his team after the first innings of the '83 World Cup - "Its okay, we have made 183 runs. Its a good score. Let the world say the opposing team bowled better than us, fielded better than us. But they shouldn't say, they tried better than us". The same way, every time we run a race in life - all we need to do is deeply cleanse the thoughts that pull us down and make way for the ones that can actually lift us up and help us fly.

Another perspective that I would like to bring in is one where cleansing your mind not only frees you from tons of baggage of pointless tension, but also carves the way for spirited, uplifting, enlightening thoughts that make you feel worthwhile. Now there are plenty ways to achieve that. Spanning from journaling in your diary to a session of yoga to a game of sudoku to a walk in your garden to a hip and tug to your favourite dance number to 10 undisturbed minutes engulfed in the notes of music to crocheting your winter wear to re-reading your favourite thriller to watching a documentary on the Amazon rainforest to delving deeper into the intricacies of the stock market. Whoops, that's a very diverse list. But the point here is, absolutely anything of your liking can help you elevate from a state of despair to a state of optimism. All you need to do is give yourself the space and the opportunity to do so, along with a key and a rope. A key to unlock the thoughts that cage you and a rope to climb up to a landscape of endless possibilities.

Either find a way to mould hindering thoughts into reviving ones or find a way to dispose them all together and make room for light. As humans, we cannot stop unnecessary thoughts from crossing our mind but we can definitely put an end to them meddling with its wiring. Its as simple as clicking delete. Don't send those thoughts to your archive. That would mean your are still preserving them and preserving a chance to let them derail you.

Our mind is the most marvelous part of us, one that in fact can both drive us mad and drive us forward. The power our mind wields is immense and harnessing its ability to propel us further rather that tug us backward lies only in our hands. Just sit with your thoughts one day, it would be buzzing with a million things. Go through them all, de-clutter your mind, categorize your thoughts, clean the space. Treat it like your mailbox on a rather free day at work. Trust me, this exercise will grant you access to a canvas you always knew you had but never knew what colors looked best on it. Giving yourself the joy of wiping off chalk dust to find a clean slate is your responsibility. On an ending note, all I would ask of you is to keep your mind clean and fresh with thoughts that nurture your growth for if you do this, you will never again feel caged and cluttered.

So, when are your booking a 'deep cleansing' appointment with yourself? Let me know in the comments!

Happy reading, or should I say - Happy cleansing :)