The Power to Be

Why do many of us try to keep up to date with the latest fashion trends? Why do we want to have the latest gadgets? Why do we try to mimic the celebrities?

Perhaps it’s our innate need for acknowledgement. We want to be in the league of the people that matter. We seem to think that it gives us some kind of power to be aligned with the powerful.

But, in fact, we all have innate power to be whatever we want ourselves to be. There is no need to settle only for the reflection of the power of others.

It’s been said that an average person taps only a tiny fraction of his total potential. Why? Why settle only for too little when there’s actually so much for the taking?  

It’s a choice we make, consciously or not. We seem to think it easier to be simply content with abilities that are already manifest and available. There’s no need 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. Theirs are the minds that 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.

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.

Mental rehearsal is another proven technique. It involves running a task in one’s mind before actually performing it, keenly focusing oneself on the activity as if he’s doing it for real. This procedure has worked very well with professional athletes and with people suffering from extreme shyness or lack of self-confidence.

Mental training, though, while highly possible, is not magic. Some people will find it very easy to do; others may have to expend more efforts at it. The fast learners may find it so simple that they will doubt if something this simple has value at all. On the other hand, the slow ones may find it so much trouble that they will wonder if it’s really worth the effort.

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.

It’s the same with a scientific technique called visualization, which involves seeing in one’s mind the very thing he desires. The more concrete the imagery, the better the chances of it materializing.

But mental training, 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.

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 it is now known, faith can transcend the limits of the physical body.

God is, ultimately, the only true Power within us all. It is said: “The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” God is so close to hear every desire of our heart.