What are the Three Parts of Your Mind?

Blog: The Decision Maker, the Critic & the Observer The mind is our power source. Spirit channels into the mind and we use this energy to think, motivate, and accomplish. Therefore to develop mastery we must understand the way the mind works. In this way you get to embrace the daily choices you face that will determine the quality of your experience. The Course in Miracles described three parts to the mind – the decision maker, and the critic and the performer. In this chapter we will deal with the critic and the performer. Others names for these parts of the mind are the ego and the True Self or the Contrived Self and the Real Self. As you might recognize, one is negative and the other positive. The critic inputs judgments, opinions, and comments. It operates on the mental level. It plants doubt and it is disempowering. We might even call it the devil or deceiver. If your inner dialogue sounds like this, You can’t do that; who do you think you are; you don’t have the right education, contacts, skill, or perseverance. You will never amount to anything, then you know the critic well. Everyone has an inner critic. It will not help you achieve anything worthwhile. It is up to you to recognize it and decide how to deal with it /or simply ignore it. Beyond the critic, on a deeper spiritual level, is the performer. The performer takes action, know you can do what you set out to do, doesn’t analyze the problem forever, and keeps moving. An example of a performer would be the little boy who wants to learn to ride his bike. He jumps on it with a determined mind and attempts to ride it and he falls off. Then he tries riding it another way. He keeps at his quest until he eventually works it out and becomes a great bike rider. He has no concern for the number of times he falls off because his goal is to ride the bike and through all his trials and errors he ultimately finds a way to do it. The same would be true of hitting a baseball, setting up a computer program, painting a room, learning how to bake a cake - in fact, anything. Arnold Schwarzenegger is an example of a performer. He came from humble beginnings growing up near Graz, Austria. His family had no electricity or running water, so he and his brother would walk for miles carrying water to their home so that they could bath, clean, and cook. Schwarzenegger did not consider this a detriment or problem but a situation to be dealt with. He did not see himself as underprivileged. He kept moving. As a child, he saw a movie with cowboys and decided that he was going to be a cowboy/movie actor in the United States. He fulfilled his version of that dream by becoming the youngest world famous body builder, Mr. Universe. From there he followed the opportunities and eventually moved to the United States, trained celebrities, built a real estate portfolio, and ultimately got his chance to act in movies. This is not a small accomplishment when you consider he did not even know the language when he arrives in the U.S. But that is not all, because from movie stardom he went on to become the governor of California. In other words, Arnold Schwarzenegger set his sights and then went into action. He is the personification of the performer. When it came time to write his autobiography, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story, Schwarzenegger, had a hard time remembering the timelines and particulars of his life. He had to call upon others who kept photographs and notes. Remembering these details was difficult because Schwarzenegger kept his focus forward. With each step along his path, he concentrated on where he was and where he was going. It is important that you get to know these two parts of your mind. Awareness demands it. Many people get stuck in the critic and make their lives miserable. Nothing is right, everything is cruelly judged, and they maintain focus on the “wrongs” of the world. Yet at any moment you can make another choice. Step back; take note of your situation, and decide what action is needed. This is the decision maker. performer. Learning to ascertain fact versus the dramatic conclusions of the critic is imperative if you are to achieve mastery. You are always the decision maker. It is important that you recognize your susceptibility to negativity. Often it shows up as other people, perhaps even your family. Negativity is toxic. You must identify it and counter act it. Whether the negativity is yours or others, you have the ability to protect yourself and move beyond it. There are many people who exist as lazy, indifferent and willing to accept all suggestions that harmonize with their own weakness. It gives them an excuse to stay weak. So attention is warranted. Will power is the ability to use your will to make decisions. You must make decisions in life. What direction do you choose to go? By developing habits that maintain positivity, you are deliberate in building inner strength (like Schwarzenegger and others) and keep yourself from caving in to the critic. The most common weakness is the habit of leaving your mind open to the negative influence of others and that includes the broadcast news. If you become unconscious of this tendency, you are cursed to work harder to achieve your goals. The idea is to spot negativity and close off to it immediately. You want to live in high vibrancy, not low, depressed energy. You are not a lazy person. This is the work that must be done to master your mind and operate as the decision maker. It is your life. Make the best of it. Ask yourself, what do I know for sure in this situation, about this person? What am I making up, reacting to, or assuming? Don’t decide what to do until you have sorted fact from fiction or illusion. When you are caught up in the critic, you can draw conclusions based on your past – who does this person reminds you of, what is my issue? Am I experiencing jealousy, or competition? None of these deductions will be accurate. The performer has clarity about what he wants and where he is going. When he spots an obstacle he begins to calculate his options. What will it take to blast through it, climb over it, side step it, or reduce it to rubble? When you decide your course of action, there will always be a way to accomplish it. This blog was taken from the book: The Keys to the Kingdom: Techniques to Achieve Self Mastery by Jean Walters to be published in 2017 Jean@spiritualtranformation.com website: spiritualtransformation.com Twitter.com/LightandJoy facebook.com/jeanmwalters1 Books available on Amazon.com and spiritualtransformation.com