Power of the mind

The mind can make a huge difference but unless you have personally experienced its power, it is just hearsay and sounds cliché. Without that first hand experience and commitment, you will never find its true potential. Like your physical attributes (e.g. muscles, flexibilities), if you do not train or experiment with your mind, it will just be left as one of your untapped resources. What is even worse is that you do not train / practice using your mind, just like muscles, it will deteriorate and get weaker over time.

Just want to share with you here a few of my own experiences:

• When I was about eight or nine, I don’t have any formal teachers, I have my uncles and I have my home-made punching bag inside my room. I got fascinated with people breaking boards and I came by a 7/8 inch wooden board that isn’t needed anymore and of course I want to see if I can break it. That darn board simply refuses to break the first week – the grain was running the wrong way and there was also a huge knot in the center. Furthermore, anticipating pain, I did not put everything into it either. In the second week, I visualize going right through the board and the hits get stronger but I still cannot break it. In the third week, I meditate to relax and to concentrate better before making my attempts, I still visualize going right through the board, I relax, breath from my tummy and commit by putting my whole body into the hit and the board blasted into multiple pieces flying in all directions (it did not split like regular boards because the grain does not run vertical but sideways and so the only way to break is to explode.). That was my first experience with mind plus body.
• I enjoy thinking and exploring but I hate memorization. During my high school years, subjects that require memorization was never strong suit – my Chinese history marks was my worst subject. During one of my mid-terms, the marks suck so bad that the teacher call me out “Hey, Mario. Do you know that you are ranked second last within the class! Do you think you can do something about it?” Being accountable to the parents is one thing but to be pointed out like that in front of the class, I felt totally embarrassed. I decided to do something about it and started to study and memorize the facts, dates, places and stories. Guess what, at the finals, I was second from top within the class – I redeemed myself. I can tell you that there were no generic re-engineering involved – simply making a decision to deal with the challenges and push away the thought that I don’t enjoy memorization because I enjoyed even less being pointed out.

Exercise:

• Share your own experience on the power of the mind