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Mental Transformation

All feelings are preceded by corresponding thoughts. Positive thoughts give us positive feelings while negative thoughts lead to negative feelings. So, whether we are happy or sad, the cause is our thoughts. Although it may be easy to understand this, it is not at all easy to control how our mind thinks. This is because our mind has been conditioned to think in a certain way.

The goal of Mind Transformation is to cultivate our mind and to regain control over how we think. We train our mind to focus on what is positive and useful instead on the negative. Eventually, this would allow us to have more control over our thoughts.

To achieve this goal, we need to improve our mental skills in these areas:

Mindfulness
Discernment
Samatha Meditation

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is an important mental skill in personal transformation. Mindfulness is the process of paying attention to an object in a non-judgmental way that leads to acceptance and allowing. This process leads to a lot of insight and self knowledge.

Here are some articles on mindfulness:

Discernment

Discernment is defined as the act or process of exhibiting keen insight or good judgment. Our ability to be discerning is sharpened with good mindfulness and concentration. Discernment is a mental skill that can be improved with constant practice, and is of great benefits for both worldly (mundane) or spiritual (supramundane) pursuits.

Here are some good websites that can help you to improve your discerning skill:

Samatha Meditation

The goal of samatha meditation is to attain perfect concentration or composure of the mind. This is done by training our mind to focus our attention onto a single object and holding our attention there for as long as we can.

A perfectly concentrated mind is a mind that is one-pointed, calm, clear and totally mindful. Having such concentration helps us to become even more discerning – enabling us to see things as they really are.

Thinking Error

"When you are in pain, you (your thinking) are in error." - Dr. Michael Ryce

Byron Katie's Judge Your Neighbor Worksheet

This is a simple, yet powerful worksheet to help you recognize your thinking error. You can get this worksheet for free here.

Dr. Michael Ryce's Reality Management Worksheet

This worksheet also helps you see the error of your thinking. It is a little bit more complicated and long, but works well for some people. Click here for the Reality Management worksheet.