Understand the Mind: Knowledge is Power

We can break the mind down to three main areas: Instinctive, Intellectual and Intuitive.

Instinctive areas include things like digestion, basic cravings like hunger, the emotional systems that work with the physical body, etc. These things happen automatically; we don’t have to think about blood flow, it just happens on its own.

The intellectual area of the mind is both a natural summation of previous knowledge we have accrued over time, and also something we cultivate throughout life. This knowledge usually has to do with things outside of the self. Humans rarely turn inward and reflect on what’s going on inside—where the intellect comes from.

Third is the intuitive area of the mind. We can also call this the super-conscious area. It deals with the higher part of us, the moments of deep reflection, intuition and love for those around us without judgment or reason. When our energy is spent in this area, we are regularly on time for everything, we consistently have those great days, we’re in control of our feelings and everyone around us just clicks. Creativity comes out of us from this area as well. We all know what that feels like.

The instinctive mind is not bad. In fact, we need it to survive since that’s where self preservation, hunger and thirst is born. But we don’t have to give all of our energy to it. What comes out of this area are the base emotions of fear, greed, hatred, anger, lust and jealousy. Those are all instinctive forces. They are very real and we all know what acting with those traits feels like. What makes this area dangerous for us, is that these emotions generally stem from the sexual nature. We are not conscious of this, since it happens instinctively. This is the fight or flight reflex as well. In a moment of emergency, the instinctive mind can take over and guide us on how to act next.

For our recovery, and for our general peace of mind and wellness in life, we want to express ourselves through the other two areas of the mind: the intellectual and intuitive/super-conscious. It’s within these two areas that we better ourselves and our situation tremendously. We create by writing, painting, producing music, teaching, reflecting. All these things come from the two other phases of our mind. We do this by observation and by observing ourselves. The intellect and intuitive minds thrive on observation—being aware of what’s going on around you. If we are not consciously aware, we could lose our sense of the higher faculties and resort back to instinct. An example of this is our reaction to something and the emotional bearing we give to it. Are we reacting to that co-worker with anger? Have we stopped and thought before speaking? When well-trained, we can cut off the instinctive part of us and react with intelligence and also with love. We can have a greater insight into a situation and prevent arguments from happening and saying something we later regret.

I will end by saying: the training ground for a greater and sharper intellect and intuition is in the field of daily meditation. It’s there that we can sit still, in between the world we are about to enter and the world we feel most comfort in, right there inside ourselves. Building that foundation of regular contemplation will seep out into your day and have an impact on your life.