Rooms of your house

“The rational mind is a good servant, but a poor master.” ― John J. Prendergast

Power of thinking is highly regarded and applauded in the modern world. ‘Mind over matter’, they say. We are told we can achieve anything, change any aspect of our lives, solve any problem by thinking our way through it. Among the complex, genius and wonderful set of organs and systems we possess, ‘the thinking mind’ is our most glorified asset. The rest of our assets -heart, soul, body, gut, senses, feelings, instincts- are seen mostly as the busy bees, executing the thinking mind's -the master's- orders.

Thinking is a crucial and differentiating human ability without a doubt. But, is 'the thinking mind' our only source of knowing, power, and truth? Our overreliance on our thoughts as the boss, and the rest of our body as executing soldiers can be a hindrance to personal growth and transformation.

Thoughts are products of the thinking process and not necessarily the truth or our identity. Yet, thoughts are powerful and can be deceptive. Too often we believe the products -the thoughts- of our minds as the absolute reality. Thinking often goes on over or tangential drive, producing thoughts, narratives, desires, and needs that are based on other thoughts and assumptions, driving us to unhelpful, unproductive, self-limiting directions. Overthinking turns pain into suffering, desire into obsession, and hope into paranoia. Overuse of our cognitive abilities can make us resentful, greedy, past-focused, and living in our heads. Overthinking can, and does, make us sick.

Living in the world with thinking mind as the only commander of our being, we lose the access to the guidance of our own hearts, senses, feelings, insights, and inner knowing. Ancient traditions, as well as modern neuroscience and behavioural psychology all underline the importance of focusing on our whole being for personal progress and transformation.

As I often say to my coaching clients, if you could bring on the change you want in yourself by thinking your way through it, you would have done it by now. There would also be a lot less burn-out’s, soul-searching and abandoned attempts to change bad habits. Taking our attention away from the mind, down into other sensations helps us to get out of autopilot of ingrained thoughts, reactive behaviours, and habitual responses we all have a tendency to get trapped into. Focusing on all our whole body allows us to tap into our full capacity. It opens us to experience and embody the change we want to see in ourselves. It supercharges our transformation.

Think of integral transformation as being in your house. When we only ‘think’ our way through life, we are stuck in a single room in our own house. We are blind to the possibilities, opportunities, and experience all the other rooms may bring. When we make the conscious effort to train our minds, detach our identities from our thoughts, and explore the wisdom of the rest of our bodies, we benefit from and enjoy all the space in the house.

I have a post-it note on my desk that reads: “C’mon, use your other rooms!”. When I catch myself stuck in my own head, living only above my shoulders, overthinking or identifying with my thoughts, it reminds me to leave my mind and tune in to all of my being.

A student of the Indian healer Ramana Maharshi once asked for help from his mentor to "find his true nature". “You are like a man standing in his living room, asking how to get home,” Ramana replied.

We are already home, in a spacious house with lots of rooms to discover and learn from. Let’s use all of them.