In this section the steps, exercises and practices are discussed of dealing with daily
mental problems and difficulties from the inside, through active individual mental
engagement, individual mental work and effort. It involves writing down and considering
daily experiences and feelings of mental problems - mental disorder, instability, doubt,
confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of fear, stress, anxiety, frustration and
depression. Externalizing and putting down on paper experience and feelings of mental
problems to get a better view and understanding of them. On paper, issues, experiences and
feelings, problems and difficulties, demands and challenges are less elusive and fleeting,
and they can more easily be confronted and dealt with. On paper, in front of us, they are
visible and can more easily be considered and dealt with. We can see and understand them
more clearly when on paper in front of us, consider the conditions that lie behind them,
and how to deal with them.
Exercises and Practices
The first step dealing with daily mental problems, problems and
difficulties understanding and managing the mind and mental existence is to write them
down. Write down the experiences and feelings of mental problems -- experience of mental
disorder, instability, doubt, confusion, uncertainty or insecurity, feelings of fear,
stress, anxiety, frustration or depression. The objective is not to keep a daily diary,
but to write down experiences and feelings of specific mental problems and difficulties.
The purpose is to put on paper what takes place, what you experience and become aware of
in the mind in problems and difficulties. Start with the most immediate experience and
feeling of mental problems, particularly experiences and feelings that appear to be
chronic and recurring, which appear over and again.
Write them down in whatever way possible, starting with describing the most obvious and
self-evident of them. Do not worry about proper language, spelling, grammar, etc. Leave
this until later, when going over your notes a second or third time.
Keep note pads and pens handy at all times. Keep one in every room, to overcome inertia,
low levels of energy and difficulties mobilizing yourself when it comes to capture and
write down experiences and feelings of mental problems when they come to you. Have a note
pad and pen beside your bed. Keep a small notepad with you when leaving the house.
Visualize and picture in the mind what you are going to do. Picture and visualize writing
down the experience and feeling, the mental problem and difficulty you are confronted
with. It helps putting into words and writing down on paper what you are confronted with
in the mind.
Set aside and schedule time, at the end of the day if necessary, to go over your notes and
consider the experiences and feelings you have written down.
In considering your notes, the experiences and feelings, mental problems and difficulties
you have noted down, you need to go beyond considering them just in terms of likes and
dislikes. The question is not how you feel about them, but what they tell you about the
conditions, demands and challenges in your existence you must deal with, to which you must
respond and adjust. Going over your notes, you need to ask yourself, what am I in doubt or
confused about, what am I uncertain or insecure about, what am I in fear of, stressed,
anxious, frustrated or depressed about.
Consider where your experiences and feelings of mental problems come from and what they
are about.
Consider what they tell you about the conditions of existence, your own mental and
physical existence or the world around you, changes in them, and how to deal with, respond
and adjust to them.
Consider whether your experiences and feelings, sense of disorder, instability, doubt,
confusion, uncertainty or insecurity, feelings of fear, stress, anxiety, frustration or
depression are about the world around you. Are they about others, those around you,
family, friends or relationships? Are they about work, employment, colleagues or
superiors, social, political or economic conditions and developments in the community,
society, country or the world? Or are they about yourself, your own physical existence,
health and well-being, concerns about physical illness or disease? Or are they about your
mind, your mental conditions or state of mind, your sense of yourself, your mental health
and mental well-being?
Consider whether your experiences and feelings are primary experiences of the conditions,
needs, demands and challenges of your own mental or physical existence, or of the world
around you. Consider whether your experiences and feelings are about perceptions of the
world around you, sensations of the conditions of your own physical existence, or if they
are feelings of the state of your mind and the conditions of your mental existence. Or,
whether they are secondary experiences, your first impressions, instant reactions, urges
and impulses, thoughts and ideas about your primary experience, feelings and emotions
about the conditions of your existence or the world around you. Add the details to your
notes.
Consider the relevance and importance to your life, existence and well-being of your
experiences and feelings and the conditions that lie behind them. Also, consider the order
in which you need to address and deal with them. The conditions, needs, demands and
challenges of the mind and mental existence need to be address first. Next, we need to
deal with the conditions, needs, demands and challenges of our physical existence. Only
then can we deal with external conditions, demands and challenges of others and the world
around us. Again, add the details to your notes.
We must first establish the necessary internal mental conditions, clarity of mind and
understanding about what we face and have to deal with, before taking action, before
dealing with our own physical existence, others and the world around us. We need to
establish clarity of mind and understanding about our experiences, the conditions that lie
behind them, and how to deal with them, before dealing with them. We need to establish a
sense of order, stability, clarity of mind and understanding, a sense of certainty,
security and confidence in the mind before we can deal with the conditions, demands and
challenges we face and must deal with.
Repeat the process of going over your notes, considering the experiences and feelings,
problems and difficulties noted down until a clear picture emerges and forms in your mind
about what it is you are confronted with and how to deal with it. The answers and
solutions to problems and difficulties lie in clarity of mind and understanding about
them.
Reasons
The purpose of this step is to externalize and put on paper what takes place in the
mind, to get a better view and understanding of it. The objective is to write down what
you experience and feel in the mind, and consider it at some length, in depth and detail.
On paper, issues, experiences, feelings, demands, challenges, problems and difficulties
are less elusive and fleeting. They are more real and concrete on paper than in the mind,
and they can more easily be dealt with. We can see and consider them more clearly when on
paper in front of us.
The aim is to be able to sort out experiences and feelings of mental problems and
difficulties. Putting them into words and on paper we can focus and concentrate on them,
and consider them one at a time. It makes them more obvious, making it easier to establish
clarity of mind and understanding about them, and how to deal with them. The answers and
solutions to problems and difficulties lie in and they require establishing clarity of
mind and understanding about them, their nature and the causes that lie behind them.
Externalizing, putting into words and on paper issues, experiences, feelings, thoughts and
ideas makes it easier to keep track of them. It is easier to keep track of them on paper
than to juggle them in the mind and not have them disappear into memory before we have
dealt with them. Externalizing and putting them on paper reduces mental stress and
pressure. It is a way to keep track of issues without them preoccupying the mind, or
worrying about loosing track of them. There are limits to what we can manage and keep
track of in the mind at the same time.
Externalizing, putting into words and on paper issues, experiences, feelings, thoughts and
ideas also clears the mind. They no longer preoccupy our mind and attention. Making it
possible to focus and concentrate the mind and attention on specific issues, experiences,
feelings, problems or difficulties one at a time, considering them at some length, in
depth and detail, the conditions that lie behind them, and how to deal with them. It frees
up mental space and energy to establish clarity of mind and detailed understanding about
given issues and concerns before acting on and dealing with them. Externalizing issues,
experiences, feelings, thoughts and ideas, about mental problems in this case, reduces
mental disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, fear,
stress, anxiety, frustration and depression.
Moreover, being mentally active and engaged, considering and dealing with experiences and
feelings of mental problems we have no time, we are too busy and less inclined to dwell on
or worry about them.
Benefits
The benefits of this step, writing down and considering daily mental problems and
difficulties include getting in touch with and establishing a sense of the mental self,
our mental existence, what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence.
Getting in touch with and paying attention to what enters the mind and awareness, our
experiences, perceptions, sensations and feelings, thoughts and ideas. We pay attention
and take serious what takes place and what we do in the mind and how we deal with it.
We exercise and practice understanding and managing the mind and mental existence, mental
conditions, needs, demands and challenges and how to deal with them. We develop a sense
and understanding of the role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence that by
nature are individually ours to understand and manage. Establishing the necessary internal
mental conditions, clarity of mind and understanding, before engaging and dealing with
external conditions beyond the mind, with others and with the world around us. Putting
mental work and effort before physical action, connecting and integrating mental and
physical existence, behaviour and actions, work and effort into an interactive process. We
exercise and practice acting on clarity of mind and understanding, not on feelings and
emotions, on likes and dislikes. Being guided and directed in our behaviour and actions by
the clarity of our mind and understanding, in contrast to just reacting to feelings and
emotions, the conditions, demands and challenges that lie behind them.
We exercise and practice being actively engaged, in charge, in control, and taking
responsibility for what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence, our
mental behaviour and actions. In turn, we practice being actively engaged, in charge, in
control, and taking responsibility for our physical existence, our physical behaviour and
actions, how we relate, interact and deal with others and the world around us.
Specifically, we exercise and practice mentally processing what enters and takes place in
the mind, before it slips into memory. Sorting out, ordering and arranging the
experiences, perceptions, sensations and feelings, thoughts and ideas that enter the mind
and awareness. Distinguishing and differentiating between perceptions of the world around
us, sensations of the conditions of our own physical existence and body, and feelings of
our mental conditions and state of mind, first impressions and instant reactions.
Considering and making sense of the experiences, perceptions, sensations and feelings,
thoughts and ideas that enter the mind and awareness, and the conditions that lie behind
them. Considering what they tell us about the conditions, demands and challenges of
existence, our own mental and physical existence and development and the world around us
and changes within them, how and the order in which to deal them.
We exercise and practice establishing a sense of self, identity, a sense of order and
stability, clarity of mind and understanding, a sense of certainty and security in the
mind, instead of looking for them externally in the world around us. Recognizing,
acknowledging and dealing with, responding and adjusting to change, changing conditions,
demands and challenges, in our own mental and physical existence and development and in
the world around us. Dealing with, responding and adjusting to them before they develop
into larger problems and difficulties, when only a minimum in mental work, effort and
adjustment are required.
We exercise, practice, and develop our mental faculties, our natural mental potential,
natural mental powers and abilities, necessary mental skills and practices. We exercise,
practice and develop our mental power and ability to be mentally alert, active and
engaged, to direct, focus and concentrate the mind and attention, to exercise mental
discipline and mental flexibility. We develop, exercise and practice the power and ability
to visualize, see, and form clear pictures in the mind. We exercise and practice to
reason, to see, recognize, deduce, conclude and understand underlying causes and effects,
forces, processes and developments, through considering experiences, issues and conditions
systematically, step-by-step, at some length, in depth and detail. Starting with the
self-evident and obvious to uncover the less obvious and self-evident which does not
impress itself on our awareness. From the experiential evidence, details and specifics
deducing and concluding about the hidden, underlying causes and effects, forces, processes
and developments that lie beyond human experience, which we are not able to experience, to
perceive, sense or feel.
We exercise and practice the mental power and ability to recall and recollect from memory.
Mentally processing what enters and takes place in the mind before it slips into memory,
we ensure everything is stored in memory in ways to easily recall and recollect it. Making
sure what is stored in memory has passed through our awareness, has been mentally
processed and considered, and integrate into larger mental picture.
We also develop, exercise and practice the mental skills and practices that are required,
and the mental work and effort in which we must engage to understand and manage the mind
and mental existence from the inside, understand and manage our role and responsibility in
them, establish and maintain the necessary internal mental conditions. We develop,
exercise and practice making informed and considered choices and decisions, defining
necessary and appropriate aims, goals and objectives, considering, planning, organizing
and managing our behaviour and actions.
We exercise and practice engaging in a process of continuous conceptual and mental
self-development and growth. Reconsidering, updating, changing, correcting and improving,
in light of change and changing conditions, the understanding, the mental powers and
abilities, mental skills and practices, mental work and effort we develop, on which we
rely, how we develop and use them. Reconsidering, updating, changing, correcting and
improving, when necessary and required, the choices and decisions we make, and how we make
them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue, and how we define them, the behaviour and
actions in which we engage, and how we consider, plan, organize and manage them.
In addition, we exercise and practice coming out of ourselves, articulating, putting into
words, externalizing and explaining, to ourselves on paper in this case, what takes place
and what we do in the mind. We exercise and practice to be open and up front about
ourselves, explaining, accounting for and taking responsibility for ourselves, for what we
do in the mind, our mental behaviour and actions. To be open about, explain, account for
and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do in the mind, the mental
behaviour and actions, mental work and effort in which we engage. What lies behind, define
and govern our outward physical behaviour and actions, how we manage and conduct
ourselves, how we relate and interact with others and the world around us.
We exercise and practice revealing ourselves, our mental self, our views and
understanding, our thoughts and ideas. How in the mind we deal with issues, and how we
respond and adjust to change, changing conditions, demands and challenges. The choices and
decisions we make, and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue, and how
we define them, the behaviour and actions, both mental and physical behaviour and actions
in which we engage, and how we plan, organize and manage them.
The benefits of this step are, we exercise and practice improving ourselves, to be more
effective and efficient, and ultimately more successful, in what we do and we engage in,
what we set out to do and accomplish, in connecting, communicating and cooperating with
others. The first step in being more effective, efficient and successful in what we do is
to establish the necessary internal mental conditions, clarity of mind and understanding.
Visualize and establish a clear picture in the mind about what we plan to do or engage in,
what we try to accomplish and how we plan to proceed and go about it, before acting.
Including explaining ourselves to others, to those with whom we interact and cooperate,
communicate and explain our views and understanding, our choices and decisions, our goals
and objectives and how we plan to go about them.