Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
~Hebrews 13:4

“True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.”
― Mortimer J. Adler

F. Scott Fitzgerald thinks that will power is what separates good and evil.

Tips for Managing Wandering Mind

"Examination is the first step: becoming alert to what passes through your mind. And there is constant traffic -- so many thoughts, so many desires, so many dreams are passing by. You have to be watchful; you have to examine each and everything that passes through the mind. Not a single thought should pass unawares, because that means you were asleep. Become more and more observant." -- An excerpt from Osho’s teachings. He was and is a very wise man. Here are some helpful tips on how to be “the watchful observer” of your very own mind.

1. You are not your mind. You know that, right? The mind is a mere tool, an instrument to the functioning of the entire system of the body. Humans have about 65,000 thoughts a day, 90% of which thoughts of yesterday, repeat today. That’s a lot of clutter and noise to navigate through! Especially if they’re negative thought loops or patterns that just repeat- over and over and over again. You are a human being with thoughts, with the capacity to think, BUT you are not your mind. You are the thinker, but not which is being thunk.

2. Start to notice your patterns. So you’ve become aware of the fact that you’re not your mind—great. Now, check out the inner monologue your mind is having with itself. What are the things you think about most? Are they from the past? Are they worried on the future? What’s the noise in there that is preoccupying you from being fully present in the moment? Start to watch the stories your mind creates and WHY they even get created in the first place. Crack the code to your subconscious and unconscious thought patterns!

3. What are you thinking when you’re in conversation? This is the best way to tell how present you are with the person in front of you. Are you actually taking in what they’re saying—really listening? Or is your mind too busy conjuring up what to say as soon as this person in front of you closes their mouth? Is your mind spacing out and not receiving information that is being given right in front of you? Do you repeat the same story over and over again? Are you mindfully relaying of the language coming out of your mouth when you speak? Is your mind in conscious connection with your throat, tongue and lips? Or is your mouth enslaved to the inner workings of your mind? If your mind your dictating master or your humble servant?

4. Meditation. The ultimate technique on becoming friends with your mind and coaxing it to work with and for you versus against you is via meditation. Your mind can either be your greatest enemy or your greatest companion. It might be scary at first -- acknowledging the noise in your brain. It’s okay. Everyone goes through it. We all have to start somewhere. Find a teacher to show you how to do it properly. Yes you can learn how to do it on your own, DIY, I’m a huge fan and firm believer in creating your own experiences BUT there are some things you might miss out on that someone who has had experience and does it for a living. They might be able to teach you a thing or two. But remember, the #1 Guru is YOU.

5. Read up on it. Check out this link on the brain. It’s fascinating.

6. Honor and Respect. Your mind does so much for you. Take care of it. Wash it, clean in, purge it of all damaging and hurtful thoughts. Feed it nutritious food, water its soil, give your mind sunlight, love, care, attention and care. The more you respect your mind, the more it will serve you to it’s highest degree and potential. Your brain, along with your spine facilitate for the workings of you entire body. Your brain and nervous system communicate with one another so you can do things like read, walk, talk, listen to music, eat food, sleep, wake up, function, etc etc. Treat your mind with honor and respect.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-3987/6-Tips-to-Manage-Your-Wandering-Mind.html

How to Hack Your Brain

With a few simple tricks, you can exploit your brain's innate functionality to change just about anything about yourself.

most of what you consider part of your identity is a product of influence.

We have a tendency to think that change is difficult, but it's really just a matter of changing your influence.

While everything stored in your recent memory may not be immediately accessible, all you really need to bring something up is a trigger word.


This is a list of words synonymous with or related to ambition. It's designed to be read aloud to put you in a more ambitious mindset, focusing your thoughts and priming your brain to react ambitiously when these words, or portions of these words, come up later in your day.

-drive
-do
-go
-make
-objective
-important
-create
-commitment
-purpose
-enthusiasm
-eager
-motivation

For more reading on priming, and a look at some really interesting studies, don't forget to check out the references for this article.

Using Your Emotions

If you've ever found yourself making out-of-character decisions based on your emotional state—such as binging on ice cream after a breakup—you know how easily your feelings can overtake your actions. Rather than letting your emotions lead you towards poor judgment and irrational behavior, however, you can learn to compensate for different emotional states and to fabricate emotions to alter your mood. In order to do that you need to, simply put, get in touch with your feelings. The idea isn't so much to cry into a pillow about your wasted childhood, but understand what you're feeling when you're feeling it, what the root cause is, and what you can do about it. We're going to take a look at how you can dissect your emotional state to use it to your advantage, and also look at how you can fabricate emotion to change how you're feeling.

Make Yourself Uncomfortable
Your emotions aren't in full force if you're not really doing anything, so you need to put yourself in uncomfortable situations in order to bring them out. This doesn't mean you should make yourself feel horrible, but that you should go out and do things that you might resist because you're worried about the downsides. Meeting new people is something that makes most people uncomfortable, and it's a great place to start, especially if it's a first date. Try new things that scare you. If you notice you're glued to the couch and don't want to get up, do the opposite. Spend time with people you don't like. Go to a movie you're sure you'll hate. Your experiences won't always be pleasant, but they should incite emotion that you can later analyze and better understand.

Keep Track of How You Feel
Like an abbreviated diary, every time you have an emotional reaction to something, write it down. You don't need much detail, but just a sentence or two noting the emotion you're experiencing and the (possible) cause. For example, I get extremely irritable when I'm hungry. I will lose my temper far more easily when I'm hungry, so whenever I notice myself thinking irrational (and sometimes hateful) things, I always remind myself that I'm just hungry, I'll eat in a minute, and the "asshole" who accidentally missed the garbage can and didn't notice is mostly a result of my frustrated stomach. Until I started to pay attention, I never really noticed that I was a jerk whenever I was hungry. Instead, I just thought I was a jerk. This is a simple example, but the point is this: pay attention to how you feel and the other issues currently present, and you'll find it much easier to manage your negative emotions.

These expressions do surface from genuine emotion, so repeating them can actually make you feel happier/sadder/angrier/etc. through repetition. If you need to change your mood and your mindset, the ability to fake it ‘til you make it is very, very useful.

Always be healthy first before playing mind tricks- taking care of your body and your mind.

http://lifehacker.com/5747213/how-to-hack-your-brain#references

"Some people regard discipline as a chore. For me, it is a kind of order that sets me free to fly." - Julie Andrews.