This Beginning Is New

"Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; awake but one, and in, what myriads rise!"
~ Alexander Pope

Our brain believes what our mind believes. Hence, using our mind in a tactical way is the key to make use of the brain so that we can enhance and enrich our lives. Our belief about our capability as individuals is often limited to our past experiences.

Consider this. A grown-up elephant can weigh more than 5 tons and it can break through anything that comes on its way. But this giant animal is controlled with a rope tied to its legs. How? Ever since its birth the baby elephant is tied to a small rope. Every time the elephant moves, the rope would restrict it. During its growing years, it can only move around as much as the rope's length. As it grows older and stronger, the rope is never changed. It looks ridiculously fragile to hold such a strong animal, but years of restricted movement have conditioned the elephant to think that the rope has the power to stop its movement. It has stopped trying to free itself long ago because it failed to do so during its early years. As a result, the elephant remains tied to the brittle rope till its death. Similarly, we often make the false hypothesis that our past occurrences equal our future prospects.

The way we work, plan and define our future depends on our mind which directs our brain.

Jean-Dominique Bauby, the author of The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (later made into a movie) was paralyzed due to a fatal accident. He could not talk and his vision was blurred. Nor could he use his hand to write. He could communicate only by blinking with his left eye. Yet in spite of all these hurdles, he succeeded in penning down one of the bestselling books which he communicated with the blinking of his left eye. His body was paralyzed, but not his mind. The negative experiences in his life were insufficient to shut the doors of his mind. In fact he opened the horizons of his mind to move and surge ahead in life.

I wish that you open the horizons of your mind to start afresh with zeal and vigour. Our mind is like the parachute, it functions only when it is opened.

Let me sign off with the words of Winston Churchill - "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind".