Power Within

It’s been said many times that an average person taps only a tiny fraction of his total potential. Why does one with access to so much settle only for too little? 

Experts say it’s a choice we humans make, whether consciously or not. We probably think it easier to be simply content with abilities that are already manifest and available. We don’t have to numb our brains digging for more, and we won’t have to face possible frustration for not finding what we set out to uncover.

Our mind, for instance, only works substantially on rare occasions, when we are caught in an extremely difficult or threatening situation. Normally, we are comfortable in mediocre existence. We don’t want to tire ourselves, or we don’t want to take risks.

Only few people regularly use much of their mental power. These special ones are always eager to explore more of their personal potentials and are not cowed by whatever their search entails. In the end, they are the ones that devise technological innovations, start popular movements, or head the largest corporations, even governments. These minds largely shape the ways of the world.

Many successful and influential people are intelligent, no doubt. But, perhaps, it’s not only innate superior intellect that makes them special. There have been cases where people born with poor mental capacities are eventually able to overcome their initial deficiency and go on to equal the feats of those who were born gifted.  

Science has already been able to establish that mental ability can be enhanced by training. The IQ (intelligence quotient, so far the standard gauge of human mental aptitude) of an average person can be stretched considerably and may vary significantly from time to time, depending on the activities the person subjects his mind to.

The slow learner in school is very likely to improve his or her performance with regular, diligent study. Of course it takes self-discipline and persistence, qualities that most people find difficult to cultivate in themselves. Oftentimes, the mere thought of going outside of one’s comfort zone easily melts the casual resolve to do better. 

Scientific proof of human intellect being successfully enhanced is mounting. We can do something with our mind, to manage or take control of its workings. The field of medicine confirms this, and has advocated certain mental techniques to help promote general health, even to cure certain physical ailments.

Positive thinking is a recommended mental exercise. By keeping only pleasant thoughts, stress can be prevented from building up and wrecking the person’s mental and physical wellbeing. It is most effective with psychosomatic symptoms.

But mental training – like positive thinking, mental rehearsal, creative visualization etc. – of and by itself, cannot take us to the highest level we can ever reach. Mental power is only beneficial in the worldly realm, this place that we all are eventually going leave behind. At best, a highly honed mind is only a portal through which everyone’s journey to embrace the Divine may begin.

When I think about it, my own experience of praying is itself a kind of mental training. When I pray, images occur in my head as I murmur words. And, time and again, it’s when I pray most fervently – at times feeling with inexplicable certainty that my prayer is already answered – that I usually get my wish granted.

We don’t know exactly why our essential spiritual quest has to take off from such a very worldly, very physical platform. It is in our brain where we hold the concept of our faith. Yet, as many of us know, faith can transcend the limits of the physical body.

It is said: “The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” So then God is actually much closer than we think. God is so close that we may not even need to say words to speak with Him, especially empty words, for it shall only be “out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.”  

God is, ultimately, the only true Power within us all. If we seek, we’ll find Him; if we ask, He will grant. That’s His promise.