How big is your mind?

Of course your mind doesn’t really have a size because it’s not a physical thing. However we can assume a size for the mind, and that assumption can affect our experience. There is a tendency to equate the mind with the brain and our thoughts with activity in the brain. There is of course a correlation there, but that is very different from saying they are the same thing. (This mini talk won’t go into theories of consciousness, but if you are interested see part 5 of the meditation course.)

So we tend to assume that the size of the mind is the size of our head, our skull, our brain. This assumption can lead us to think of all our thoughts as happening inside our head, inside that small space occupied by our brain. That can leave our heads feeling quite crowded, busy and stressful.

We can change this assumption, quite naturally and easily, if we simply think of the brain inside our head as not being the container of our thoughts but being the receiver and transmitter of thoughts. Just as a radio receives signals and transmits sounds, our brain receives ideas and feeling and transmits thoughts and emotions. The signals and sounds of a radio are not inside the radio; the signals are all around us and the sound can emit across a large space. So too with our brain: thoughts and feelings are outside of us in the environment surrounding us, we pick up on them, we sense them and receive them; and we emit our own sounds, our own thoughts and emotions emanate back out into the environment.

So give yourself more space, more inner space. Assume, imagine or feel that your mind is the size of the room you are in. Allow all your thoughts and feelings to flow out into the space of the room. Feel the sense of inner freedom that this brings, the easing  of tension and stress as we open up and give our mind more room to breathe. It can feel like stepping out of a crowded stuffy and noisy train into the fresh air of the open countryside.

And no need to stop at the size of the room, allow your mind to be as big as your awareness and imagination can go, out to the horizon, across the open sky, into unlimited space.

So how big is your mind? It is as vast, open and spacious as you want it to be.