26 Jan Embrace the power of your mind and eliminate distraction
Today I want to focus on your amazing mind.
Your mind is capable of the most amazing adventures, ingenious inventions, courageous acts, daring of deeds, divine romances, hilarious scenarios and interesting stories – and you don’t even have to move off your sofa, school chair, or for some of you out of your bed, to create all these things in your magnificent mind.
How amazing is your mind?
Your imagination creates whole fantasy worlds where you escape at will into another dimension in your waking hours, for those daydreamers out there, or when you go to bed at night as your eyes close, your consciousness goes on standby and you drift into a world of dreams.
“If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won’t, you most assuredly won’t. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad.” Denis Waitley
Where do you go?
When you escape from reality, what alternate reality do you seek?
Is it a safe and calming space, an action-packed environment or a wondrous secret place? Your mind’s eye conjures magic, superheroes and magnificent super-powers that create the seeds and thoughts that turn into the great storybooks, movies and games that you might play out throughout life.
The power of your mind is how you learn and expand, and subsequently discover new things that inspire you to do things differently in the real world. Everything around you was created by a seed of thought in someone’s mind. Did you ever stop to think about how magnificent your mind really is?
In times of worry your mind is so awesome that you can escape to a wonder-filled land of adventure or borrow the imagination of someone else through a book, a film or an audiobook. And as you disappear into a world of guided imagination, you feel the thrill of adventure, the suspense of mystery or the excitement of romance – you get to choose.
The story of buried treasure
There’s an old tale called ‘Buried Treasure’ by Paulo Coelho from his book The Alchemist that has a powerful moral. Let’s see what you think…
Many years ago, in a remote part of Wales lived a young man. He was a shepherd and spent his days and nights looking after the few sheep he’d inherited from his parents. He was a poor man because the sheep bought him little income and he barely had enough to eat or warm clothes, but he had his dreams. Vibrant dreams of a successful future, in which he saw himself studying and using his knowledge to make a great impression on the world.
He dreamed of a world in which all young people would have an opportunity to go to school and study in order to improve the quality of their lives and multiply their opportunities. Although he loved the sheep in his care, the beauty of the countryside, the passing of the seasons and the joy of waking to each new day, he sensed there was more to life. Somehow he knew that to achieve what he wanted he would have to make his own fortune.
A dream of inspiration
In the summer months the shepherd would spend time in the high pastures of the quiet solitary Welsh hills. Often he would sleep in the ruins of an abandoned chapel, curled up beside the stone walls, sheltering under what remained of the roof and protected from the weather by the leaves of a giant oak tree that grew within.
One night as he slept, the young man had a dream that planted a seed. In his dream, a strange figure dressed in white and green robes came to him and said “Why do you remain here if you wish to follow your dreams? Wake up, and take action, do not wait for the world to give you what you seek. Go to London, find your fortune on London Bridge.”
And so the acorn in the young man’s mind began to grow.
The power of your mind
Soon after his dream revelation, the young man sold his sheep and planned his walk to London. Packed with sheep’s cheese to eat and pure Welsh spring water to drink, he crossed wide valleys and roaring rivers, skirted sprawling cities and peaked high hills. He traced the tracks of traders, always heading South and East until finally he arrived at the great metropolis of London.
In those days London Bridge was rather different than it is today. It had many arches with a multitude of shops and houses on its banks. The bridge was crowded, bristling with all kinds of life, merchants shouting from their doorways, horses and carts bringing people and animals to and from the market. The rich passing by in their carriages and the poor passing by on foot, peering into shop windows at things they couldn’t afford. All the world was there in all its richness, the sights, smells and sounds of bustling city life.
The young shepherd was mesmerised, he had never seen so much activity, heard so much noise or felt so much excitement in his life, but he was on a mission to find his fortune. He walked along the length of the bridge to find his destiny and then he walked back to see where he might have missed it. He retraced his steps, backwards and forwards and searched long into the night until he was exhausted and finally slumped in a shop doorway and slept.
Finding his fortune
The young man dreamed of his sheep that he now very much missed. At 6am he was woken suddenly by a sharp kick in the ribs “Oi get up!,” roared the merchant whose doorway the shepherd had slept in. “I watched you yesterday afternoon and evening walking up and down staring into shops, looking at cracks in the paving stones and watching people and carts. I’ve a good mind to turn you over to the law. What’s your game son?”
“I came here to look for my fortune,” stammered the shepherd, “I had a dream.”
As a small crowd gathered the merchant rolled his eyes, “You’ll have to do better than that sunshine. Tell us about the dream of yours.”
The shepherd described the stranger in the white and green robe and how he’d foreseen his fortune on London Bridge, sold his sheep and travelled here for weeks from Wales.
The merchant roared with laughter. “Pay no attention to dreams son, they are for fools, children, old women and priests – get a proper job and get on with your life. I had a dream last night, but I’d soon as cut my own throat as take any notice of it. I was on a high Welsh hillside in an old ruined church made of stone with no roof and an enormous oak tree. There I see buried deep under the soil between the roots of that vast oak, a chest of treasure hidden in haste a long time ago by a one-eyed pirate. It’s just a dream, a childish fantasy that’s all, nothing more.”
But the young shepherd had already gone, heading back North and West to the hills towards the sweet-smelling pastures of the uplands he had left behind many weeks ago.
A destiny not far from home
As soon as the shepherd arrived back in the mountains he started digging. He never did go to a seat of learning, but he did something else instead. He used his fortune, the pirate’s treasure, profitably and in time became a wealthy merchant, the richest in those parts. With his profits he built schools, attracted the best teachers, offered scholarships for the poor and it wasn’t long before his native land had a rich and a diverse culture as any other place in the kingdom.
Today you can find his statue at the centre of the town where he built his first seat of learning for the poor and under privileged. On the pedestal are written the words: ‘Follow your dream and seek it out, your fortune may be closer than you think. Notice all that is around you for it is all there to serve you. Do not miss an acorn however small, for the acorn is father to the oak.’
“What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.” Wayne Dyer
Choose the life you want to lead
I love a happy ending. It’s so great to be distracted by great writing even for a few minutes.
This week, I want to challenge you to pull out your favourite old stories or find some new adventures that you’ve been meaning to watch, listen to or read and share with us the wisdom you take from them. Connect with us on social media so that we can inspire each other, learn from tales and morals.
Until next time, have a story-filled week and think big for your future by using the power of your mind.
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