Discovering ‘Wise Mind’ in Meditation
Welcome back to our weekly mindfulness and wellbeing blog where at present we are covering a series on experiences of meditation. Last week we covered defusion, which is a process of ‘distancing ourselves from our thoughts’. This week, we will cover the concept of wise mind.
Wise Mind
experiencing a sense of opening
Last week we discussed that it is possible to experience a type of ‘falling into’ or ‘falling away’ from thoughts, into a deeper, more ‘real’ part of ourselves — almost like ‘letting go’ of our thinking and of our own mind, and allowing ourselves to fall into our ‘hearts’. You may experience this as an opening up of a deeper part of yourself that you were only vaguely aware of previously, but had never really been completely conscious of. This may be experienced as a sense of opening, or movement, in your ‘heart’ — the central or deepest part of your chest or abdomen.
a guide through the inevitability of life’s challenges
Some people have called the deeper part of our mind — or of ourselves — ‘wise mind’. This is to symbolise that each of us have problems or challenges in our lives that can be both deeply personal, hard to answer, and often can only be answerable by the person in question — ie you. For instance, choosing a career, or a partner, or trying to find a way through a difficult relationship, either at work or in family life, or choosing with direction to go when confronted with a difficult choice or crossroads that life throws up, are some of these types of challenges. Wise mind is the part of our mind that, similar to pure or choice less awareness that we learnt about a few weeks ago, can help guide us through the inevitability of life’s challenges.
sifting through an infinite number of possible outcomes, questions and scenarios
Through the stillness and silence of mindfulness, people have often found that the practices can ‘open up’ spaces in their minds and hearts which can help them find answers to some of life’s hardest and most personal questions. Thinking or rationalising problems or challenges can be helpful, but sometimes they can only get us so far, or even make things worse, as often there can be an infinite number of possible outcomes, questions and scenarios. Some problems require a deeper type of wisdom or solution, that can come from the practice of mindfulness. If we are quiet and learn to still the mind, as well as to learn to listen deeply, the answers to very personal and challenging problems can come from within — and you may feel them within your own ‘heart’.
finding what is right for you
You could think of this like filling a cup of water with silt or soil. Our minds can be so full of thoughts, thinking and worries that it can be hard to find a solution, or way through — or a solution that feels meaningful, true and ‘real’. Our inner worlds can become like the cup of water full of silt and soil, that it can be hard to find direction and see a way through. Through the practice of mindfulness, the mind can quieten and become still, like the silt settling at the bottom of the cup of water. With the mind now clear, like water, answers and solutions to problems may now become apparent, when they weren’t able to be seen or understood before. This process can be deeply personal — you, as the person ultimately responsible for your life — sometimes need to follow a path that feels right to you, even though other people around you don’t quite understand or think you should do something different. Mindfulness, through the stillness and through listening, can help us find what is right for us, and can help us listen to what is most deepest, true and real within ourselves.
You could even say that mindfulness (which by the way, in it’s original Pali definition means both ‘mind’ and ‘heart’) is ultimately about listening and fine tuning ourselves towards this strange, sometimes foreign sense we have inside ourselves — our ‘heart’.
That’s all for now — remember to tune in next week when we discuss the next topic in the experiences of meditation series, which will be ‘difficult and challenging experiences’. And remember to join us every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 19:30GMT in the Secondary School FocusRoom (we use this as a combined session for both rooms) for live and free mindfulness sessions. We look forward to seeing you there!
