Have you ever looked at something and seen completely the opposite to others?
What they say is clearly obvious, you can’t see at all?
Well, you are not weird. Or alone. It’s a well developed human characteristic of the mind. The mind together with the brain learn. As we grow and age they are fed information. Some of which is advice, a lot though is opinion and influence from people beyond us, even conjecture. The media, and increasingly, social media have become rich sources for our thoughts and beliefs.
All of this data gets added to the mental banks and an individual viewpoint of life and the world is formed. That gets set and from now on we will only see through the lens of that mental imprint.
And what we see can be very far from the truth.
No accident at all.
Every time a disaster or shocking event occurs, our mental projections above kick in.
In November 2020 the A46 motorway in the West Midlands in the UK was shut due to a ferocious car fire. Luckily the inhabitants made it out fairly unscathed. The very same morning a driver who was passing as the fire took hold, shared a picture they snapped to a local Facebook group (this is the header picture of this blog post) soon after.
Within minutes certain members began focusing on one part of the picture. They were sure that there was a human face within the raging inferno. Egged on by this, others joined the conversation stating it was unmistakeable. Not long after, fuelled by this obvious evidence, all manner of spirit and ghost theories were put forwards. Incredibly some began inventing a previous fatal crash near the spot that killed a young man and it must have been him coming back to help. And similar. There has been no such car smash there before.
Now, of course, as you are reading this there may be a few of you who can see a face. Others ‘might’ possibly see one. And plenty who see only a car fire. Who is right? Are the face watchers spotting what the majority seemed to miss? Or are they simply joining dots that aren’t there? Maybe they are just deluded??
The truth is it’s more pareidolia rather than paranoia.
I see what you are believing.
You have probably heard of the phrase people often say, ‘I see what you are saying’.
Change that for, ‘I see what you are believing’.
For example –
Someone who is religious and experiences some unexpected good luck or has a narrow miss from an accident, may tend to see that as their chosen God’s hand at work saving their life from above.
Another person who is a staunch supporter of a political party will elect to see everything wrong with the country if they are not in power, or working hard and fixing things when their party is the ruling Government.
And let’s not forget the good old sport supporters who decide their team are being fouled all the time while they are making no fouls in return.
In each scenario our pre-set mindset witnesses what it has a pre-loaded bias for. Whether it’s UFO’s in the sky or we are a good driver while most others need lessons. If it’s in the mind, it gets projected out into the world of vision including weird and wonderful curious cases we can suddenly explain.
Which brings me back to the photo at the top and the face (or no face).
And the psychological tendency to see patterns, shapes, faces, and more in random images. Otherwise known as pareidolia.
Buildings on Mars anyone?
We’ve seen it all before.
The well known saying tells that ‘there is nothing new under the sun’.
The phrase refers to the fact that history repeats itself, just in different forms, but remains the same theme as ever. We do and see repeat things in restyled ways. A contemporary financial scheme is actually an echo of others that went belly up in the past. The great new trend is merely the modern version from sixty years ago. Stupid little wars always erupting out of pride or self inflated desire to be powerful.
You get my drift?
Turn to the picture and employ the theory. Is there a face? A real face? Or are those who believe in the spirit realms finding what they need to keep their beliefs alive? Because that’s what we all do in what we see through our mind. Keeping our beliefs alive when we look at the world and life.
Belief that God or a spirit guide had favoured us. Belief that our politics are what everyone requires. Or belief that referees are deliberately preventing our side winning because they know they are the best.
So, next time you cast a look over a situation or story or picture of an eruption with a Devil’s evil look peering out, ask yourself what your mind, not your eyes, is not only wanting to see, but expecting to see,
Because your mind has the best eyesight you could ever imagine!!
Five thoughts, ideas, insights, or quotes to power up your mind to think differently and creatively about life and who we are. Put all previous thinking away and open up a brand new world of the Supermind. YOUR SuperMind.
This week – Homelessness.
Owning our own home is a major aim when we start adult life. A place to call home, somewhere we can call ours. Safety. Security. And, in the past, it’s a goal most people achieved. Today, not so. Since the Century began we have had to face the credit crunch crash, ongoing recessions and inflation, COVID, and the current cost of living and energy crisis.
Meaning the dream of having a home has impacted millions and homelessness has begun to appear everywhere. This is a scary fact and so SuperMind Saturday has to take a look and ask some BIG questions.
1. Affected not Disaffected.
Traditionally, homeless people in the past were those who were disaffected. Those who through some trauma or affliction like drink or drugs or family troubles, especially young people who ran away from home, became homeless. People who lived on the fringe of things. Typically called the drop outs. This is increasingly NOT the reason in modern times. Homelessness is hitting people of every background. All are being affected.
How do we change our historical view of the homeless so that we can begin to deal with the issue?
2. Home Owners now Home Owers.
In the UK alone the FCA expect over 200,000 households to fall behind with their mortgage this year due to rising interest rates. That and the increase in re-mortgages in the last 2 years plus the soaring cost of living. Some 88,000 mortgage payers were 2.5% in arrears of their mortgage balance by the Summer of 2025. The risk of homelessness is a spiralling financial threat affecting the whole country.
How can we protect people from losing their homes who are trying to simply pay bills? Could it be time for homeless protection insurance to be included in mortgage premiums? Or what ideas do you have?
3. Effects not Causes.
Modern day homelessness is clearly less an effect of some personal disfunction. It stems more so from the huge monetary pressures of life and the global issues. From the deregulation of banks to the soon to follow after credit lending collapse. From ongoing international conflicts to extensive crime and immigration costs. These events are the causes, one of the ultimate effects has been homelessness. Global scenarios creating national and even localised upheaval. We have become too global. We can no longer protect our own country or state area due to issues beyond our borders.
How do we stop this incessant march away from self contained sovereign control? Is the Terminator alive in this form???
4. Poverty for more people.
in 2024 over 320,000 people in the UK were pushed into poverty due to interest rises. This figure would rise sharply for larger countries. Multiple millions around the world have been added to the numbers classed as living in poverty. People who have full time jobs, sensible spending habits, and no previous historical record of being in debt. In other words – not from their own unwise behaviour. People who didn’t know poverty before, now know it well. More and more people being pulled into a life struggle every single day.
Is poverty something no longer cared about? Have we just become a world focussed on winning and success over standards of living for all? Are we losing our humanity?
5. Homelessness for All.
All of the above points and information point to two clear truths. People of all ages and types are being dragged into the risk of homelessness. From eight to eighty. The haves are becoming less, the have nots are becoming over subscribed. And the gap is also growing. To finish I’m just going to make a statement. One that is in plain sight and obvious if you take a look.
Governments (of any political party) don’t care about the growing homeless epidemic. They do their usual talking but seem to do less and less to help everyday people. They just seek to tax citizens in as many ways as possible. We need some Robin Hoods. The Sheriff of Nottingham has returned and wants more than before from the people.
** A rare personal point from me but this one had to be said. If you lead you have responsibility. Those that lead are not honouring theirs**
Go well all SuperMind friends.
Ok, that’s another SuperMind Saturday done. Thank you for being here for the SuperMind time. Keep thinking about these. We need more minds thinking about this issue and the others issue on SuperMind Saturdays. Why? Because it’s needed. Because the world requires new thoughts and ideas. Ones from people like you!!
See you next time for more super thinking.
References – Lendology.org.uk – Rising Mortgage Debt.
Ukfinance.org.uk – Arrears and possessions.
Ifs.org.uk – 320,000 pushed into poverty.
Photo attribution – Free to use under the Pixabay content license by Digital Dreamer.
Are you seeking a breakthrough somewhere in your life?
Especially if you want to achieve something with who you are?
It’s easy to get stuck. We get so used to acting and thinking a certain way that nothing will really change because we are not changing those. As the famous phrase by Henry Ford goes, ‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got’.
Us humans are, by genetics, predisposed to living by the norm. Otherwise known as convention. It’s a survival reaction instinct. If we do what everyone else is doing we increase our chances of staying alive, and perhaps even thriving. It’s why every time a trend develops (coffee shops, internet marketing, yep Bitcoin too etc), people pile on the bandwagon and it all becomes saturated.
It seems a sensible behaviour, but it’s those who break with convention who often breakthrough into a far more memorable life.
And that’s as true in history as now.
What’s in a name?
With billions of humans on Earth, how truly different is a different name.
Where everyone used to be called Martin or Megan, parents today are trying to outdo each other with more bizarre names for their offspring like Glade, or Magenta or Meteor. They may sound cool, but this very rarely creates anything notable by having the snazzy name alone.
But one person who DID make a mark through her name was Lucy Stone.
I can guarantee virtually no-one will have heard of her, but she made a huge ground shift in what she did with her surname. A shift that millions of females have followed since without ever knowing about her pioneering stance.
So what was so unconventional about her?
It’s the mid 1840’s in the USA and it’s very much a man’s world. But not for independent Lucy. As an advocate and promoter of women’s rights when she got married she did something no other woman had ever been known to have done. What do you think it was?
The answer – she refused to take her husband’s surname and continued to be known as her maiden name. She wanted to stand as a individual rather than be hidden behind her male partner’s title. She broke the mould and went on to win the rights for women to divorce abusive husbands and that wives could earn independent income that was theirs rather than belonging to their husband as tradition dictated.
Lucy Stone made a stand with her own name and broke convention to further women in the world.
Forget what they say.
Fancy a beer? A craft beer?
They are pretty popular these days. Go to any town or city and you can find a pub or bar with a quality ale available. But it wasn’t always that way. Just ask Martyn Hillier.
In 2005 he saw a gap in the market no-one else saw. Or even believed existed. In the small village of Herne in Kent, UK, he decided to open a micropub at The Butcher’s Arms, the old butchers shop. The term micropub still isn’t that widespread today. Twenty years ago it didn’t exist at all. It did in Martyn’s mind.
His concept was to start a small pub with seating for just 12 people where you could only buy cask ales. That was it. No lager or other beer types. He also banned live music, jukeboxes, serving any food, and no TV’s showing sport. In fact the only two things you could get there was a fabulous real ale and conversation due to the intimate nature of the size of the pub. That was against all trends, and everyone’s advice not least the bank manager.
The Butchers Arms has just celebrated its 20th anniversary and is still going strong. It’s now firmly on the beer tour for ale aficionados with drinkers coming from all round the country for a simple pint in quaint surroundings and happy chat with others.
Martyn broke with the typical convention about the size of a pub and what it serves. It succeeded and so did he as he was awarded an MBE in the 2024 Honours List for services to business and hospitality. Today there are over 500 micropubs in the UK. He didn’t break the mould, he made it.
Like Lucy Stone, Martyn Hiller knew his mind, the unconventional one.
The Alternative Approach.
The world hasn’t been chocked full of people breaking with convention.
Those that have done so though have furthered their lives in very visible and incredibly unforeseen beneficial ways.
They faced the blocks and opinions and restrictions that signposted they should follow the usual routes and actions. The same ones that had left them precisely where they were to begin with. Stuck. Unfulfilled. Not honouring themselves.
And that’s your cue. If things haven’t quite worked out for you maybe it’s time to breakthrough those imagined limitations and do something avant-garde, braver, or plain opposite to the norm.
Hey, maybe the only alternative you really ever needed was to take the alternative approach all along.
Because the biggest breakthrough just needs to be in your mind.
References – Wikipedia – Lucy Stone.
TamaraWhite.com – Lucy Stone.
Micropubadventures.co.uk – herne-the-first-micropub.
The Sun Newspaper – Thurs Oct 23rd – Ale’s Well That Ends Well.
Photo attribution – Free to use under the Pixabay Content License by Vika_Glitter.
With the best will in the world we all believe that we are generally strong minded.
Yeah, sure there are times of stress and challenge when we’re not so mentally tough, but overall we would say that we’ve got reasonable thinking. But, everybody has regular weak thinking they don’t even realise occurs at certain points.
We tend to identify our weaker mental moments with dramas and sad happenings – relationship issues and break ups, losing a job, financial woes, Christmas and a sense of pressure to make it right, and losing family members. It’s OK and normal to expect our minds not to be in their best place at such times.
But, right in front of our eyes every day, week, or month are reoccurring hot spots we fail to notice that are the real culprits in our mental state. The ghosts in our machine.
And that’s precisely what this post is for. Finding your weak thinking hot spots.
Weak spots be gone.
We are going to shake down your schedule.
Shake it down and shake it up. In your everyday are the triggers that flip your mind from, ‘I got this’, to, ‘This has got me’. And we’re going to discover those little critters. So, let’s get on with it.
Firstly, you have to go day to day.
If you are REALLY committed to this (you are, aren’t you?) and getting rid of your weaker mentality, grab a piece of paper and write out the full seven days, Monday to Sunday, day by day on the left hand side. This is going to table a typical week. Your usual weekly experience when there are no holidays, special events, national breaks like Easter and similar. Nothing but the humdrum days when you do what you always do.
Start on a Monday and reflect on what usually happens from the second that alarm goes off and the week calls. When you open your eyes and think about what you are about to do and what’s ahead. Because I guarantee you that this is where it all kicks off. Right in that uninspired/frustrated (*fill in you descriptive word) mind when Monday morning arrives.
What are your routine thoughts and beliefs?
‘Why am I doing this?’.
‘I’m hate my life’.
”I am worth nothing, look where I’ve ended up.
‘I am never going to be happy’.
Those early mindset messages are your first mental red flags. They set up the rest of the week based on their theme. You MUST bring them out into the open and know the ones that juggle around your head.
They are the ones running the show.
Day by Day dynamics.
Carry on and snapshot the seven days.
Begin to identify your tiring or lacklustre or stressful times that are limiting your thinking. Known situations that leave you feeling less than optimistic or in a funk.
Maybe it’s the team meeting every Tuesday that drags your mind down into the dumps. Or Friday’s after work when you used to go for an end of week few drinks that you can’t afford to do anymore. Perhaps it’s those phone calls to your grown up kids that live away from home now.
You have repeat offenders in your world (your head). They keep stealing a positive outlook from your mind, thieves who make you feel victim to something. The good news is it’s an inside job. When you discover the days and times and specific scenarios that are dogging your mind, you can begin to put them right.
So, to make them right, get writing!!
From this exercise you want to shine light on TWO big results.
- When your mind is lapsing into weak mode.
- What you then think and feel.
Truly one leads to another.
When it’s all written up keep that naughty mind calendar and have a good look at it. Spy the weak thinking spots. See and solve.
You want a new week and less weakness!
Hot space instead of hot spots.
Now you’re going to stop the drops.
A daily diary, a reminder on your phone, a check set on your email calendar. Whatever it takes to keep your head up and strong reminding you not to think wrong. Something that’s got your back while you get your mind back on its A-game. A kind of substitute voice saying, ‘You got this’!!
Then when you have mastered this turn your attention to the other well established head busters that you find your mind begins to weaken on.
Your birthday – hey, you don’t feel you get the love anymore.
Wage talks each year with the boss – you always cave in and never negotiate the pay rise you seek and deserve.
Christmas – you spend too much trying to please while everyone else gives you cool but less expensive stuff.
You know the type. You’ve been there before. Often. Anniversaries. Events. Holiday occasions, even family gatherings or first dates etc.
These road blockers to your mental progression in the year have to be factored in too like this. Your pesky mind deflators that keep coming round you let flatten you time after time. Yep, you gotta add a good dose of honesty here. You won’t be beating any scenario you keep allowing to beat you up inside on a constant basis.
Take a look at them all. It may not be as many as you fear when you read this post. There may just be a couple of doozies that dunk you in doom that you finally have to face down. Your life may have come down to little hot spots of lowdown thinking each week interspersed with a couple of other weaker moments across the year that have got in your mental space. Picking them out enables you to get that space back. A good space. A strong space. Hey, even a hot space.
In one week you are going to start being less weak in your mind. Where will you be in one year??
Photo attribute – Free to use under Pixabay content license by Simedblack.
We all have a mind. And we all use a mind.
But, the majority of us are using our mind wrongly in ways we don’t realise. That’s because we do it every single day as an unconscious habit so that we barely notice it. Thinking that has developed into an unhealthy pattern.
Some limit us very little. Personal trains of thought that can be annoying or quirky but do no overall harm. There are others though that change everything. They kill our hopes, depress our moods, and redefine our life to the negative. Of these, there are 3 keys ways we use our mind wrongly that keep us stuck on the floor rather than climbing much higher.
So, read on and see if you too use the trouble making three in your mind.
Like most people, chances are you do.
1. They believe their thoughts.
It is a modern myth that thoughts can’t be stopped.
The belief (a thought in itself) is that the thoughts are created by the mind which is formulating them all on its own. It’s like a ghost in the machine and out of control. The result are thoughts we don’t like or agree with but have to accept. We are victim to them rather than the owner of them.
That idea couldn’t be more wrong.
Thoughts are generated from our own patterns of thinking. Over time this develops strong neural pathways across areas of the brain like a trail worn away through the woods due to regular use. Without realising every time we have a negative or dismissive or despondent thought, the neural pathway is triggered to fly these to our conscious awareness. The response to this trigger are thoughts that seem to come from nowhere we believe we don’t want. Except we effectively delivered them in the first place.
The good news therefore means as we started the whole ball rolling, we don’t have to believe them at all. We might have changed our viewpoint since we constructed our previous neural messages or circumstances may have changed from when they were initially formed. Or perhaps we have just matured up. We can always change what we want back again. Simply keep telling yourself when a thought pops in that you don’t like, ‘I don’t believe that, I believe this’, and add the new thought then and there in its place. Replace, renew, reinstall.
You will be on your way to building new neural pathways with every new thought you have like adding a brick to a sturdy wall.
2. They use them to fear rather than to imagine.
The future hasn’t happened yet, so what will happen?
A question first encountered by our neanderthal ancestors as they fumbled their way through early Earth. For them though there was a very real prehistoric threat that they would end up as some creatures dinner. It’s pretty obvious we don’t live in such times anymore. Well, not physically, but mentally many people still do.
Modern mindsets remain in threat mode on a virtual permanent basis. They have become overstimulated due to 24 hour news, the negative media, fake social media posts, constant world issues that now effect local lives, and a general worry about where life is going. Fear has become their not very good friend. The one their mind spends far too much time in the company of.
Remember, the mind can be directed.
It obeys what we use it to look for. And it’s looking for not the very best. With constant everyday use at seeking the wrong, the worrying, the dangerous, and the problematic, it has become skilful at finding them. Or to be more exact, finding them when they are not even there. Thus we live in a mindset of vague concern and background trepidation forever anticipating some downfall is coming. We hear T-Rex’s hunting for us.
The mind needs to be reversed. If we can see all manner of potential harm it can also be switched to finding all manner of possible good fortune. It’s only a matter of guiding the mind to see where the sun could shine and not where the dark clouds could gather. They are one and the same just the other way round.
Let the mind wander to imagine the best and beneficial, the fantastic and the fantasy.
It’s good for our health, good for our mind, and very good for our future.
3. They use it for the trivial.
We typically have 30,000 thoughts a day.
That’s a lot. It seems a lot more when you consider that at least 75% of those thoughts are often of the same variety. And that variety, when not relating to concerns as mentioned above, are usually centred around the unimportant and trivial.
We waste our head space with thinking that just doesn’t matter to our lives.
You know the sort. Hey, you may have the sort. Frustrated with traffic. Down about the weather. Work colleagues being annoying. Our sports teams performances. Politicians we don’t like. A favourite TV show has changed times on the schedule. Busy at the supermarket on the days we are free.
In the big scheme of things (having a better life), they are basic and negligible for ruining our future. They mind wind us up, but they ae hardly earth shattering. Everyday pains rather than major hurdles to happier life.
We focus our minds so much on the trivial it hasn’t got time or a chance to start contemplating something different. Something like following up our ideas for a business, working on investing to retire early, writing the book or the music we always wanted to, and other various good life building actions.
The mind can’t work well when it’s held prisoner by minor nothings. It works best and most potently when it’s free to fly to greater possibilities.
Dump the dump thinking, harness the higher mindset.
Three to be free.
There’s your three to be free.
Three antidotes to bad mental activity. Three keys to developing a mind that’s going to help you, not hold you back. Get your head back in the good game by using your mind for what it’s meant for. Potential, advancement, and progress. There’s another three, the three you will end up with if you get started today and using the mind right.
Why wait, your future will only be waiting if you do.
Photo attribute – free to use under the Pixabay content license by martymaine.
