Finding Purpose and Understanding
Excerpts from Live Your Ultimate Life by Dr. Mao Shing Ni
The Integral Mind - Intellect, Emotions, and Intuition
Mind health is about cultivating the integral mind, which is the balance of your intellect, emotions, and intuition. Most people overly develop their intellectual minds and neglect to nurture their emotional and spiritual minds. Achieving mind health increases your effectiveness in life by building on your intuition and creativity.
Mind health is also about transcending emotions and resolving any entanglements. The mind is in charge of managing all your affairs and actions. Emotions arise when your expectations and belief systems conflict with reality, and you find yourself unable to reconcile the gap. Cultivating the unconditioned mind will help you respond to any situation appropriately so that you are free to move beyond your old emotional and behavioral patterns.
Attain a Calm and Peaceful Mind
Your mind health is the key to your body health, as the mind orchestrates all aspects of your worldly life. Your physical health, in turn, greatly impacts your mind, thoughts and emotions. Spiritual health is also largely dependent on mind health, as a peaceful mind enlivens a joyful spirit. The I Ching inspired the development of practices like chi gong, tai chi, and meditation as ways to cultivate a calm and peaceful mind. People often notice that when they practice tai chi or chi gong, they become calmer and more effective in their current tasks. Meditation is another effective way to improve mind health as it helps you let go of stale and stuck emotions and allows your mind to become calm and aware. These practices nurture your intuition and develop your spiritual awareness, which gently guides your actions and brings greater peace to our life.
Freedom From Emotional Entanglement
Emotions are a natural part of life that communicates and expresses your inner world. Understanding your emotions can help you to improve and grow, but unhealthy emotions can also block you from seeing the truth. You may be a genius when it comes to helping others solve their emotional problems and yet paralyzed by your own. This is because you can be a detached and objective observer when you analyze other peoples’ issues, but often lose the objectivity when you are in the midst of experiencing your own upheaval and turmoil. Healthy emotion comes from healing past traumas as well as full acceptance of yourself and others. It provides the vehicle for self-discovery, deeper connection with others, and a richer life experience.
Develop Your Intuition and Creativity
Intuition and creativity are your higher mind, which comes from nurturing your subconscious and trusting its expressions. Intellectual learning helps you acquire knowledge, and yet a busy mind filled with excessive knowledge can inhibit the development of intuition and block your access to creativity. Incessant mental distractions, survival worries and ruminations, and negative emotions all act like a cloudy sky separating you from the North Star. It’s easy to see why many people lose their way and never reach their potential. The most effective way to clear these patterns is to nurture self-awareness and the reflective mind. Use contemplation, invocation, and meditation to awaken the power inherent within you to help guide and manifest your life.
Cultivate a Balanced Personality by Balancing Your Five Elements
Your personality mirrors your core Element. Wood is Authoritative, Heart is Passionate, Earth is Caring, Metal is Methodical and Water is Wise. Your inherent talent supports and builds your confidence and helps you to meet your challenges. The key to a healthy personality is to understand your core personality, strengths, and weakness, and to work on overcoming your challenges so that you are balanced. Challenges are like rocks—they can either be a stepping-stone or a stumbling block. The ultimate objective is to cultivate the positive attributes of all Five Elements for a balanced personality. The joy in life is a dance between accepting your gifts and exploring new ones.
Take the quiz to find your element here, then read about your personality trait in Dr. Mao's Live Your Ultimate Life.