Use it, you lose it!

Just a quick note about your mind.
Brains and brawn, basically you have these 2 parts of your being. To perform a physical act, you will your muscles to do something. Push, push past the pain you can do it! Huff and puff. Whew! Ahhh success.
But
For your mind to do work, lets say remember your password or locker combo it is just the opposite. The more you force yourself to think the narrower it gets and presto it is gone. Someone starts talking about a movie star and just before you say the name they say the wrong name. As soon as they do your mind zeroes in on what they said and now you can't remember the name you wanted to say. "It was on the tip of my tongue". Your mind was getting the information from the periphery but as soon as you heard the wrong name it zeroed in and poof the real name is left out there.
So.
To get your mind to really work well don't force it. Let it be. It works really well on its own. Just be ready to write down the answer. This is also the way conceptual gestalt works. If you have a problem research and get as much info as you can and then set yourself a time several days or weeks hence that you want your brain to have an answer by. Then forget about it. Your mind will work in the background and presto on the date you set it will have an answer. Be prepared that sometimes the answer comes at night so have a pencil and paper ready because night thoughts are only in short term memory, so by morning it may be gone!!

So........exercise your muscles but let your mind roam free.

Oh and one other thing about the mind

as complicated as it is, there is one area that is pretty basic, black and white so to speak. You are either positive or negative. You cannot be both at the same time. So if you find yourself having negative thoughts train your mind to think of something nice. Every time it switches back to negative, give it a little pep talk, "now silly rabbit lets be happy" and think something positive. With a little practice you will be much happier. Honest.Every time I go into the bathroom and survey the chaos of my better half I have two choices, I can berate her in my mind for being so untidy or I can thank my lucky stars to have someone so wonderful and see that this is a small price to pay for all the goodness I receive. Yup you guessed it, I can clean the bathroom and close all the drawers and doors in about four and a half seconds, small price to pay for such a big benefit. And if she squeezes the toothpaste willy nilly top and bottom, uggers, then I will keep my toothpaste hidden in my drawer and let her be creative as she wants with hers. Now if only when I tell her that my mess is the price she pays for having such a great guy she would agree instead of telling me to get off my butt and get it cleaned. ........