Photo courtesy of Hemlit and Flickr
In the first article of this series (a re-run of a series I ran a few years ago), we explored how an increase in your clarity of understanding is your biggest leverage point for making a difference in your life. In this article we’re going to look at the second leverage point, a factor that has a huge impact on your moment-to-moment experience. It influences everything from focus and motivation to creativity and decision-making. As such, it’s incredibly valuable when it comes to achieving goals and creating results while enjoying each step of the journey.
Leverage Point #2 – Clarity of Mind
Here’s how I describe this leverage point in my #1 bestselling book, CLARITY: Clear Mind, Better Performance, Bigger Results (©2013 Jamie Smart)
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DISTINCTION: Clarity of mind vs. Clarity of understanding
We all experience clarity of mind from time to time; present and in the moment, with our heads free from contaminated thinking. While the flow states regularly enjoyed by athletes, musicians and dancers (among others) are a familiar example of clarity of mind, we all experience this in different ways and at various times in our own lives. Clarity of mind is, by its nature, fleeting; no one has it all the time.
Clarity of understanding is the degree to which you insightfully understand the inside-out nature of reality; the realisation that 100% of your felt experience of life is coming from THOUGHT in the moment. The fact that you’re reading this book means that you’re in the process of becoming one of those exceptional people who has clarity of understanding about the inside-out nature of life. Clarity of understanding is permanent. Once you experience an increase in your level of understanding, you never lose it. You’ll lose sight of it from time to time (if you’re anything like me, it’ll be on a daily basis), but your insights into the inside-out nature of life are still there within you; it’s only a matter of time before your wisdom reminds you and guides you back to clarity.
Of course, we all have an innate understanding of the inside-out nature of life at the core of our consciousness; it’s what we’re ‘made of’ at the most essential level. So, as you keep looking in this direction, and allowing insight to dissolve the outside-in misunderstanding, it’s inevitable that your increasing clarity of understanding will continue rising. And the higher it rises, the more clarity of mind you’ll find yourself experiencing.
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This distinction raises a few important questions:
– What do I mean by “THOUGHT” (and why is it capitalised)?
– What do I mean by “contaminated thinking”?
– How does understanding this help you reach your goals, bring your dreams to life and enjoy life more?
– Most importantly, how can you experience more clarity of mind, more of the time?
1) What do I mean by “THOUGHT” (and why is it capitalised)?
You can define THOUGHT as “the reality principle”. Our perceptual experience of life, moment-to-moment, looks like it’s “out there” (and for practical purposes, it often is). But we don’t experience “out there” directly. Instead, we each live in a THOUGHT-generated experiential reality. We each walk around in a unique, individual world that’s “upholstered” with our thinking.
For example: Two people can be watching the same movie, sitting side-by-side, and sharing the same bucket of popcorn. But they each have their own unique perceptual experience of the movie, the seat and the popcorn. Their perceptual reality is THOUGHT-generated.
I capitalise the word “THOUGHT” when I’m referring to the principle of THOUGHT, in order to differentiate it from the more common form of the word “thought” (eg. “I thought I saw a puddy-cat”, “Penny for your thoughts” etc).
2) What do I mean by “contaminated thinking”?
“Contaminated thinking” refers to thoughts that arise from the “outside-in illusion”; the mistaken belief that you’re feeling something other than your thinking in the moment. We’re always feeling our thinking, but it often appears that we’re feeling something other than our thinking. When we believe we’re feeling something other than our thinking in the moment, our heads fill up with contaminated thoughts and we’re at risk of feeling insecure, stressed and agitated. Your “clarity of understanding” is the degree to which you “get” that we’re always feeling our thinking (and nothing else).
3) How does understanding this help you reach your goals, bring your dreams to life and enjoy life more?
Great question. When you’ve got nothing on your mind, you’re free to give your best. Clarity of mind has you deeply connected with life, and seeing “reality” clearly. This allows you to be aware of your environment, make good decisions, trust your intuition, tap into your creativity and take action. When a person’s mind is clogged with contaminated thinking, they often become hesitant, fearful and stuck. But when you’ve got clarity of mind, it often seems like you can’t put a foot wrong. Of course, when it comes to creating what you want to create in the world, this is a powerful place to act from (and to learn from).
4) Most importantly, how can you experience more clarity of mind, more of the time?
I’ve got some good news and some bad news. Bad news first: There’s nothing I recommend you “do” in the moment to restore you to clarity of mind. Your mind is a self-correcting system, and clarity is its set-point. Any externally imposed “mind-clearing methodology” runs the risk of interfering with the natural process of self-correction.
Now the good news: Like I said, your mind is a self-correcting system, and clarity is its set-point. As such, its already and always in the process of returning you to clarity. As your understanding of CLARITY continues increasing (see leverage point number 1), you free this self-correcting system to do what it does best. As a result, you’ll find yourself experiencing more clarity more often, with briefer periods of contaminated thinking in between.
The moment you insightfully realise that you’re feeling your thinking, you’re already being restored to clarity of mind. In the moment, it might occur to you to have a rest / go for a walk / listen to some music or take some specific action, but here’s the thing: It’s not these “things” that clear your mind; they’re just examples of what your wisdom is guiding you to do while your mind’s self-clearing process continues to do its stuff.
You can increase your clarity of understanding of CLARITY at www.JamieSmart.com where you’ll find more great free stuff, including articles, audios and videos. In the next article we’ll be exploring Leverage Point #3 – Clarity of Connection.
Have a wonderful week!