Your mind is an extremely powerful tool. It has played a crucial role in allowing humans to evolve and progress the way we have. It has truly revolutionised our lives. Surprisingly a lot of what goes on in our minds is outside our conscious awareness. Research estimates that we are unaware of around 95% of our brains’ activities. So, do we have control over our minds?

Have you ever had a thought, feeling, memory or mental image just pop out of nowhere? Do you find it difficult to try and suppress or avoid them? You are not alone in feeling this way as we tend to overestimate how much control we have over our minds.

To illustrate this, for the next 60 seconds, I want you NOT to think about a cat wearing a pink cowboy hat. Could you do it?

Now I want you to never experience sadness ever again. Try to remove all sad thoughts, memories and images from your mind and never think of them again. Difficult right?

Finally, for another 60 seconds, whilst focusing on the dot below, I want you to stop all thoughts from coming into your mind. Clear your mind of everything. 

I’m willing to bet that you found it extremely difficult to do the tasks above. Hopefully, this has shown that you have less control over these things than you may have previously thought.

Remember you are not alone in feeling this way, everyone experiences both positive and negative thoughts and feelings from time to time. Both will come and go as they please and we have very limited control over this. Trying to suppress or ignore intrusive thoughts, images and emotions can be exhausting and detrimental to your physical and mental health.

We can’t erase or suppress difficult memories, distressing thoughts, or overwhelming emotions. But learning just to sit back and observe what our mind throws at us, whilst keeping an open mind can help us cope and take back some control.