One way or another, we are addicted to many unskillful and unwholesome habits:
- physical (unhealthy eating, checking messages obsessively, addicted to drugs...)
- verbal (angry speech, unskillful speech patterns, mindlessly forwarding messages...)
- and mental habits (negative thinking, constant worrying, compulsive thinking...)
Over time, they become ingrained in our whole system. Then, we try to suppress and eradicate them with our will-power. But we find it hard and often we fail, because we are not addressing it harmoniously as a whole and without realizing their root-causes. In any case, our conscious mind is too narrow to understand how we might be deeply trapped in a complicated way.
Our mind is a learning system that we can mold it (plasticity of the brain) towards eradicating unwholesome habits and cultivating wholesome ones. But we have to skillfully work with both conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. The key is:If we really listen to our mind, it'll also listen to us, because openness is a both ways street. Meditation creates such a deep penetrating condition (some neuroscience studies correlate this with certain frequency waves related with learning).
A simple method of mind programing:
- Meditate (calm-abiding) for 10 minutes or so, till the mind reasonably settles down.
- Then make your aspirations/assertions – repeating a few times in a simple and direct way. Let this benon-egoistic aspirations.
- Come back to regular meditation (sandwich approach).
Practicing it regularly is the key!
👉 Example for non-egoistic aspirations: Mindful Aspiration
👉 If you need basic meditation instructions, please refer: Introduction to Mindfulness and Meditation