Mastering Thought
 

This seems to be an ongoing battle in recovery and life in general. If we could truly do that one thing, become thoughts master instead of its servant a big chunck of the battle would be won. Thoughts give birth to feelings and states of mind so it follows that the amount of importance we give them is critical. The million dollar question seems to be just how much control we really have over all of that.

One thing I find interesting on this front is listening to a lot of different Buddhist speakers as a big part of their focus is the mind. Does anyone else find those teachings helpfull? Here are a couple of links to 2 of the speakers I've been listening to lately, https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mooji
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=adyashanti

Any thoughts or ideas on what you guys find of value in mastering the mind?

I recently read the chimp paradox a book on mind management i think youl like it

This year i got well bk into my reading and will be reading so many diffrent and varied books

thanks for the suggestion

Meditation to lock in a positive state of mind, with exercise (walking/running) to de-stress beforehand. Afterwards...and this is key...I avoid people and situations that are toxic.

I not only find Buddhism helpful when trying to enlighten my mind, but I find other Eastern religions and philosophies equally helpful.

Dharma, Nishkam Karma, Wu Wei, ZaZen and Tantra all point to the idea that thoughts and emotions originate in action rather than in intellectualization. . Thus the slogan:

"Action changes thinking better than thinking changes action".

:abcj:

The AA big book states the alcohol problem centres mainly in the mind and the eleventh step provides a solution through meditation. The early AAs were big on meditation. The instructions for this simple 24 hour way of life are found around page 85. While I have never been that good at it, I have found the way I live and think has changed to a much more intuitive and inspirational approach. Without any thought or effort I just react in a different way to how I used to.

"Sought after virtue is not true virtue".
- The original Laozi old man

My experience is; the less I use rationalization to make my decisions and the more I use principles to guide my decisions, the more I automatically do the right thing...

"without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. "
- page 85

My biggest gripe with any of this sorta of stuff is getting to sink in getting it to stick getting it to be a part of my daily practice so that I dont find myself in trouble with my mind again etc..

That being said I keep revisiting it etc.. sooner or later is going to stick. thanks for the links I'm going to check those out.

^^This, for me as well. I don't know many people who are much more interested in the inner workings of the mind than myself, and I certainly tried many things to explore it (Buddhism included). Ultimately, the conclusion I've arrived at through these investigations is pretty much the simple statement Boleo expressed here. But I perfectly allow that perhaps it's my way, or the way that works for some people and not for others. I'm a fan of meditation and have been practicing myself for years, but more recently I'm finding more and more that it's not even closely as effective to alter my mental states and my moods as actions can be. I often think that probably it's because my mind and thinking is pretty flexible by default, my thoughts and feelings change all the time to start with, so making them change even more with purely cognitive exercises won't make such a big difference. The mental "feedback" resulting from my actions can achieve change much, much more effectively. It's been quite a big realization and discovery for me after spending a good chunk of my life identifying myself with my mind and my thought processes so intensely and struggling to change the outcome (my behavior) starting with my thoughts and feelings :)

Habit is extremely powerful. If you force yourself to do something for 3 weeks you will find yourself doing it automatically after that with little to no effort. The effects can be incredible. I count this book in my top 10 of non alcoholic related self help books.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

I agree that 3 weeks of new actions can lead to new habits almost automatically with one exception - the ISM of alcohol-ISM.

I tried 3 weeks of not-drinking and the obsession was still with me 24 x 7. I kept increasing the time spent not-drinking all the way up to 20 weeks and the habit of not-drinking still did not happen automatically.

What it took was the practice of very specific principles (good Karma and Dharma) to turn not-drinking into something like a new habit (spiritual awakening). Abstinence was not one of those principles.

:abcj:

Came across "Fierce Grace" on Youtube, interesting movie. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI896NMRfuA

Hmmm I really should get back into my reading too. Not just technical books (I'm a software dev). It would be great to boost my creativity and inspiration.

I used to read a LOT.

I really like Buddhism, as well as Stoicism (as you can see in my signature). There are many parallels between both.

I do find listening to Buddhist talks helps at times, and sometimes it's a little too delicate or removed from real life for me.

A lot of Buddhist teachings resonate with me. The book, The Power of Now, was helpful to me.