Where Does Your Absent Mind Go?

đŸȘ‘ A Short Story and a big Realization

A forty-year-old gentleman, John, is seated in a seminar room. The speaker is his favorite, and the topic too. This type of seminar he enjoys a lot. He noticed one thing and became astonished. A seminar usually takes 2 or 3 hours. A speaker speaks continuously for 30 to 40 minutes. During this time, he cannot attentively listen to him. Very often, every 3 to 5 minutes, his mind wanders—his mind becomes absent from the seminar room, no longer present in the place where he is right now. In that absent-mind moment, everything happens naturally, but the conscious mind’s activities remain absent. He was missing important notes in that absent-mind mode. Though he can collect those by watching the video of the seminar, he was thinking about the very deep nature of his mind.
 Is this happening only to him? Is this natural? Is this happening only at that moment?

🚗 Driving on Autopilot

 

On the way back home while he was driving, he found that he was losing his conscious mind, and very often his subconscious mind was in charge. He was driving his car in autopilot mode. He had to catch himself again and again to bring back his conscious mind. Every 3 to 5 minutes, he was lost in thoughts—his mind became absent, went on thinking things he had no control over. It happens spontaneously. Sometimes he has no idea how long he was lost in thoughts, ideas, worries, anxiety, or analyzing conversations. He catches himself when he has to face another car very close to him—that brings him to the present and gives charge to the conscious mind.

🧳 The Forgotten Items and the Big Question

This mystery continued the next day as he forgot important materials while going to the office. His boss asked him, “Were you absent-minded while leaving home? Was your mind not present there?”

 If our mind is not always  present in the place where we are and becomes absent, then the question John asked himself is:


Where does our mind go when it becomes absent? 

🔍 Searching for the Mind’s Nature

 

Looking for the answer to this question and these discoveries of his mind made him curious to know the mind’s true nature. He studied some books and blogs about the mind and watched some videos about it. What he found, the gist is:

Our mind has three phases of working: the conscious mind, subconscious mind, and unconscious mind. It’s perfectly normal if anyone loses their conscious mind and gets lost in thoughts—that happens when the subconscious mind takes charge. That goes deeper when it comes to the unconscious mind. It is said that more than 90 percent of our activities are controlled by our subconscious mind.

“It’s perfectly normal to lose conscious control; the subconscious takes charge.”

The Reality: We Are on Autopilot

 

We see most of our actions are influenced and controlled by our subconscious mind, as it gets the charge of our mind and our actions most of the time. The truth is, no one can stay with their conscious mind for long. Even monks who practice their entire lives to get control over the mind cannot pull out of autopilot mode entirely.  We all live in autopilot more than we realize.

By questioning where our mind goes, we begin to uncover our true selves.

Questioning our mind—Where does our absent mind go?—and getting the answers can reveal our true self. And we will be able to see our beliefs and desires that are hidden so deep that we never realized them. By analyzing our absent mind, we get to know what assumptions and illusions are going on in the back of our minds and driving us.

If we can discover our true self and all our beliefs, desires, assumptions, and illusions that are hidden in the back of our minds—and then try to change those which are not serving us for good into the information that will work for our well-being—that can change everything in our life for good.
 Isn’t it?

A Real-Life Example: The Destructive Absent Mind

 

Recalling his early adulthood, John found a good example of how destructive absent-mind reactions could be. It was about a security personnel he met while his mind was absent, thinking about problems. It was a fine morning. He was walking by the side of the road. A security personnel stopped him and asked some basic questions: “What do you do?”, “Where are you coming from?”, “Where are you going now?” In the middle of the conversation, for no reason, John hit that security personnel—punched him, a knock on his face. And the consequences after that everyone can imagine.

 

Analyzing that past event, he tried to figure out what was actually the matter. Why did he do that?

It was his absent mind where he had misconceptions about security personnel. These misconceptions were created in his childhood. In childhood, he had to face some unfair mistreatment from security personnel. He was passing through a road when a security personnel slapped him for no reason. As he was a child, he couldn’t tell anyone. A fear engulfed him. From that day, he developed the misconception that security personnel were always against him. A mixture of the emotions of fear, anger, revenge, and disbelief made him destructive toward security personnel. Though he is no longer a child now, and not all security personnel are bad, the misconceptions he got are still influencing him and driving him toward destructive actions. It happens all of a sudden—no one can resist.



👀 The Power of Noticing

Here is the successful thing that happened to John: he noticed. John’s win wasn’t that he didn’t act destructively—it was that he noticed what was going on in his mind.

 Everyone has a lot of misconceptions, illusions, false beliefs, disbeliefs, and illogical fears hidden in our subconscious and unconscious minds that often go unnoticed.
So, noticing by observing our mind is the first step to discovering our absent mind and understanding our true self. That is the first step toward success.

đŸ§˜â€â™€ïž Bringing the Mind Back to the Present

Bringing the absent mind to the present, understanding the absent mind and its reactions, and changing those for good is difficult—but it is possible through daily practice.

✅ The Four-Step Practice

  • First step: Identify the moments when your mind goes absent and the associate thoughts
  • Second: Question the thoughts: Are they true?
  • Third: hold your questions in mind for a while;don’t rush for answers. your answers will come out automatically.
  • Finally: journal all the answers on paper.Journal the insights you receive.

🌬 A Breathing Practice to Catch the Absent Mind

To identify the absent mind, you need to sit quietly and observe your mind. You can take help from the breath. Focus on the breath. How the fresh air is entering into you and how it is leaving you. Consciously watch your breathing for 3 to 5 minutes.

Wait, are you still watching your breathing? Question yourself. If not, where was your mind? What were you thinking? Was it a thought, an idea, worry, anxiety, a to-do task, or a past memory? Whatever it is—mark it, note it, and get back to your focus: your breathing.
 Examine yourself every 3 to 5 minutes. Catch yourself again and again and come back to your breath. Do this practice for half an hour or as much time as you can. Write down your findings on paper.

Ask yourself: Are all your findings true? Where have these come from?

 Do not push yourself to get the answers. Even don’t try. Just hold those questions for a while. Do not try to fix anything. You will have your answers in time. Wait with patience. Write everything on paper.

đŸŒ± Reforming Beliefs Through Awareness

Finding the roots of your beliefs and desires is the way you can reform them. In most cases, just clearly observing and understanding can reform every misconception, illusion,  disbelief, and illogical fear. The target is not to eliminate everything entirely, but to manage them properly so they can cause you less damage—and to feed the mind proper information so it can drive you toward success.

💡 Bonus Thoughts: Try Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a powerful tool to help you observe, understand, and retrain your mind. Use it to unlock yourself and move toward peace, purpose, and success.

👉 Explore the other blogs on this site to dive deeper into the mind’s magic.

Related Posts

Where Does Your Absent Mind Go?

đŸȘ‘ A Short Story and a big Realization

A forty-year-old gentleman, John, is seated in a seminar room. The speaker is his favorite, and the topic too. This type of seminar he enjoys a lot. He noticed one thing and became astonished. A seminar usually takes 2 or 3 hours. A speaker speaks continuously for 30 to 40 minutes. During this time, he cannot attentively listen to him. Very often, every 3 to 5 minutes, his mind wanders—his mind becomes absent from the seminar room, no longer present in the place where he is right now. In that absent-mind moment, everything happens naturally, but the conscious mind’s activities remain absent. He was missing important notes in that absent-mind mode. Though he can collect those by watching the video of the seminar, he was thinking about the very deep nature of his mind.
 Is this happening only to him? Is this natural? Is this happening only at that moment?

🚗 Driving on Autopilot

 

On the way back home while he was driving, he found that he was losing his conscious mind, and very often his subconscious mind was in charge. He was driving his car in autopilot mode. He had to catch himself again and again to bring back his conscious mind. Every 3 to 5 minutes, he was lost in thoughts—his mind became absent, went on thinking things he had no control over. It happens spontaneously. Sometimes he has no idea how long he was lost in thoughts, ideas, worries, anxiety, or analyzing conversations. He catches himself when he has to face another car very close to him—that brings him to the present and gives charge to the conscious mind.

🧳 The Forgotten Items and the Big Question

This mystery continued the next day as he forgot important materials while going to the office. His boss asked him, “Were you absent-minded while leaving home? Was your mind not present there?”

 If our mind is not always  present in the place where we are and becomes absent, then the question John asked himself is:


Where does our mind go when it becomes absent? 

🔍 Searching for the Mind’s Nature

 

Looking for the answer to this question and these discoveries of his mind made him curious to know the mind’s true nature. He studied some books and blogs about the mind and watched some videos about it. What he found, the gist is:

Our mind has three phases of working: the conscious mind, subconscious mind, and unconscious mind. It’s perfectly normal if anyone loses their conscious mind and gets lost in thoughts—that happens when the subconscious mind takes charge. That goes deeper when it comes to the unconscious mind. It is said that more than 90 percent of our activities are controlled by our subconscious mind.

“It’s perfectly normal to lose conscious control; the subconscious takes charge.”

The Reality: We Are on Autopilot

 

We see most of our actions are influenced and controlled by our subconscious mind, as it gets the charge of our mind and our actions most of the time. The truth is, no one can stay with their conscious mind for long. Even monks who practice their entire lives to get control over the mind cannot pull out of autopilot mode entirely.  We all live in autopilot more than we realize.

By questioning where our mind goes, we begin to uncover our true selves.

Questioning our mind—Where does our absent mind go?—and getting the answers can reveal our true self. And we will be able to see our beliefs and desires that are hidden so deep that we never realized them. By analyzing our absent mind, we get to know what assumptions and illusions are going on in the back of our minds and driving us.

If we can discover our true self and all our beliefs, desires, assumptions, and illusions that are hidden in the back of our minds—and then try to change those which are not serving us for good into the information that will work for our well-being—that can change everything in our life for good.
 Isn’t it?

A Real-Life Example: The Destructive Absent Mind

 

Recalling his early adulthood, John found a good example of how destructive absent-mind reactions could be. It was about a security personnel he met while his mind was absent, thinking about problems. It was a fine morning. He was walking by the side of the road. A security personnel stopped him and asked some basic questions: “What do you do?”, “Where are you coming from?”, “Where are you going now?” In the middle of the conversation, for no reason, John hit that security personnel—punched him, a knock on his face. And the consequences after that everyone can imagine.

 

Analyzing that past event, he tried to figure out what was actually the matter. Why did he do that?

It was his absent mind where he had misconceptions about security personnel. These misconceptions were created in his childhood. In childhood, he had to face some unfair mistreatment from security personnel. He was passing through a road when a security personnel slapped him for no reason. As he was a child, he couldn’t tell anyone. A fear engulfed him. From that day, he developed the misconception that security personnel were always against him. A mixture of the emotions of fear, anger, revenge, and disbelief made him destructive toward security personnel. Though he is no longer a child now, and not all security personnel are bad, the misconceptions he got are still influencing him and driving him toward destructive actions. It happens all of a sudden—no one can resist.



👀 The Power of Noticing

Here is the successful thing that happened to John: he noticed. John’s win wasn’t that he didn’t act destructively—it was that he noticed what was going on in his mind.

 Everyone has a lot of misconceptions, illusions, false beliefs, disbeliefs, and illogical fears hidden in our subconscious and unconscious minds that often go unnoticed.
So, noticing by observing our mind is the first step to discovering our absent mind and understanding our true self. That is the first step toward success.

đŸ§˜â€â™€ïž Bringing the Mind Back to the Present

Bringing the absent mind to the present, understanding the absent mind and its reactions, and changing those for good is difficult—but it is possible through daily practice.

✅ The Four-Step Practice

  • First step: Identify the moments when your mind goes absent and the associate thoughts
  • Second: Question the thoughts: Are they true?
  • Third: hold your questions in mind for a while;don’t rush for answers. your answers will come out automatically.
  • Finally: journal all the answers on paper.Journal the insights you receive.

🌬 A Breathing Practice to Catch the Absent Mind

To identify the absent mind, you need to sit quietly and observe your mind. You can take help from the breath. Focus on the breath. How the fresh air is entering into you and how it is leaving you. Consciously watch your breathing for 3 to 5 minutes.

Wait, are you still watching your breathing? Question yourself. If not, where was your mind? What were you thinking? Was it a thought, an idea, worry, anxiety, a to-do task, or a past memory? Whatever it is—mark it, note it, and get back to your focus: your breathing.
 Examine yourself every 3 to 5 minutes. Catch yourself again and again and come back to your breath. Do this practice for half an hour or as much time as you can. Write down your findings on paper.

Ask yourself: Are all your findings true? Where have these come from?

 Do not push yourself to get the answers. Even don’t try. Just hold those questions for a while. Do not try to fix anything. You will have your answers in time. Wait with patience. Write everything on paper.

đŸŒ± Reforming Beliefs Through Awareness

Finding the roots of your beliefs and desires is the way you can reform them. In most cases, just clearly observing and understanding can reform every misconception, illusion,  disbelief, and illogical fear. The target is not to eliminate everything entirely, but to manage them properly so they can cause you less damage—and to feed the mind proper information so it can drive you toward success.

💡 Bonus Thoughts: Try Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a powerful tool to help you observe, understand, and retrain your mind. Use it to unlock yourself and move toward peace, purpose, and success.

👉 Explore the other blogs on this site to dive deeper into the mind’s magic.

Related Posts

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