Over the course of your life you have experiences, you act and react to situations, and you develop various ‘beliefs’ about life which create Automatic Thoughts that click into action the next time a similar situation arises. These automatic thoughts are the land mines of our mind. You don’t know they are there until you step on one and ……. KABOOM!!

Our minds set these automatic thoughts in place so you can emotionally deal with a situation that you have experienced before. It’s how we learn and keep moving forward, but automatic thoughts also build up and take up space in the hard drive of our mind.

Not all automatic thoughts are bad and many of them protect us from bad situations, but there are a lot of automatic emotions that are bad, and keep us locked in a narrow minded life, which breeds intolerance and ignorance. These are the ‘Land Mines’ of the mind. They are not good for our health when we set one off.

To clear your Mind Field of these harmful automatic thoughts and emotions requires you to be very aware of how you react in certain circumstances. Often our unshakeable opinions on various issues are the surface of these land mines. When you notice you have a strong opinion on a particular topic or person, or race, or religion, this is like the bomb disposal expert brushing the soil off and discovering the top of a land mine.

Now that you’ve become aware of the strong opinion it’s time to investigate and find out if this is a good land mine or a bad land mine. Is it one that will help you be a better person, or is it one that keeps you stuck in an outdated mindset? Once you identify all the bad ones then it’s time to diffuse them and throw them out.

Defusing these automatic thoughts/emotions/opinions is not an easy process and does not happen overnight, but being aware that you have these land mines in your mind is the first step. Keep a look out for these situations -

Emotions – anger, resentment, jealousy, depression

Behaviours – aggressiveness, the need to defend my opinions, selfishness

Surroundings – Negative people, negative news, acquaintances

Goals – Things that were important once but are now only being held onto for sentiment

Every area and facet of your life should be examined, these are just a few examples above.

Clearing the Mind Field