Training the Mind - Page 8

Ghost02 · 08-05-2009, 20:26

As I look through this topic, I find it ever more difficult to follow the rules set forth from you special forces. I, of course, consider you all the best when it comes to mental discipline, as well as physical. I myself have a difficult time resisting temptations whether they are material, like food, or mental, like the will to resist advisors. Reading this tips make me realize that I have a long way to go in order to even light a candle up to you all. I do not have the discipline to say no to a bag of chips or to stop doing things that are bad for me, such as my addiction to the computer.

I have lost a lot of the drive I used to have, and almost zero desire. I need to step up to the difficulties and become a man, not an ignorant teenager or a subserviant -dare I say- bitch. These tips are giving me motivation that I lost, I need to read them every-day, just as I used to say the our father and the pledge of alligence. I need to step it up and get a move on, and that starts today. Today I will become more able to cope with everyday challenges and take life by the horns, and to do that with grace and dignity.

Thank all of you for your tips, as you have most definatly changed one boys attitudes.

Blitzzz (RIP) · 08-06-2009, 07:25

Interesting post. A bit bleek. I suggest you've likely not been challenged much in you life. what may seem a challenge may not actually be. A bag of chips loses severity when placed against going another day in hot steamy jungle after a month of the same, or suffering painful knees and bracing one's self to exit the aircraft anyway. Knowing you've got to land.
You need to challenge yourself daily. Draw a mental line of what you want to be/do and then start saying "no" to those things that deter form that line and "yes" to those things that assist that venture.
You should start small and work toward more difficult challanges. Create the mind set to say no and not do. Starting small (like a bag of chips) and work up to getting up and doing favors for those whom you may not want to expend energy on. Eat marginally bad food and "don't" allow it to make you sick. Smile at diversity, laugh in the face of evil. Good luck Blitzzz.
NOTE: Though luck has very little to do with it.

Ghost02 · 08-06-2009, 10:16

I have started today. Starting small. Time to make some phone calls.

BMT (RIP) · 09-06-2009, 07:50

Not long ago at Fort Bragg, N.C., the country's largest military base, seven soldiers sat in a semi-circle, lights dimmed, eyes closed, two fingertips lightly pressed beneath their belly buttons to activate their "core." Electronic music thumped as the soldiers tried to silence their thoughts, the key to Warrior Mind Training, a form of meditation slowly making inroads on military bases across the country. "This is mental push-ups," Sarah Ernst told the weekly class she leads for soldiers at Fort Bragg. "There's a certain burn. It's a workout."

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Think military and you think macho, not meditation, but that's about to change now that the Army intends to train its 1.1 million soldiers in the art of mental toughness. The Defense Department hopes that giving soldiers tools to fend off mental stress will toughen its troops at war and at home. It's the first time mental combat is being mandated on a large scale, but a few thousand soldiers who have participated in a voluntary program called Warrior Mind Training have already gotten a taste of how strengthening the mind is way different — dare we say harder? — than pounding out the push-ups.
(Read a story on the health benefits of meditation.)

Warrior Mind Training is the brainchild of Ernst and two friends, who were teaching meditation and mind-training in California. In 2005, a Marine attended a class in San Diego and suggested expanding onto military bases. Ernst and her colleagues researched the military mindset, consulting with veterans who had practiced meditation on the battlefield and back home. She also delved into the science behind mind training to analyze how meditation tactics could help treat — and maybe even help prevent — post-traumatic stress disorder.

Rooted in the ancient Samurai code of self-discipline, Warrior Mind Training draws on the image of the mythic Japanese fighter, an elite swordsman who honed his battle skills along with his mental precision. The premise? Razor-sharp attention plus razor-sharp marksmanship equals fearsome warrior.
(Read about the samurai film version of King Lear by Akira Kurosawa.)

The Samurai image was selected after careful deliberation; it was certifiably anti-sissy. "We took a long time to decide how we were going to package this," says Ernst, who moved to North Carolina in 2006 and teaches classes at Fort Bragg as well as Camp Lejeune, a Marine base near the coast. "There are a lot of ways you could describe the benefits of doing mind training and meditation. Maybe from a civilian approach we would emphasize cultivating happiness or peace. But that's not generally what a young soldier is interested in. They want to become the best warrior they can be."

The benefits of Warrior Mind Training, students have told instructors, are impressive: better aim on the shooting range, higher test scores, enhanced ability to handle combat stress and slip back into life at home. No comprehensive studies have been done, though a poll of 25 participants showed 70% said they felt better able to handle stressful situations and 65% had improved self-control.

The results were intriguing enough that Warrior Mind Training has been selected to participate in a University of Pittsburgh study on sleep disruption and fatigue in service members that will kick off early next year.

For now, success is measured anecdotally.

On patrol in Iraq two years ago, John Way would notice his mind straying. "Maybe I should be watching some guy over there and instead I'm thinking, 'I'm hungry. Where's my next Twinkie?'"

With privacy at a premium, he'd often retreat to a Port-A-Potty to practice the focusing skills he'd learned from Ernst at Fort Bragg. "To have a way to shut all this off is invaluable," says Way.

The importance of the mind-body connection is being acknowledged at the highest levels of the military. The West Point-based Army Center for Enhanced Performance (ACEP), which draws on performance psychology to teach soldiers how to build confidence, set goals and channel their energy, has expanded to nine army bases in the past three years since the Army's chief-of-staff praised the program.

"The Army has always believed if we just train 'em harder, the mental toughness will come," says Lorene Petta, a psychologist at Fort Bragg who works for ACEP. "A lot of times with this population, because they're so rough and tough, they tend to say, 'This is too touchy-feely for me. No thanks.' But we talk about the importance of being a good mental warrior too."

Free to members of the military and their relatives, Warrior Mind Training classes are offered at 11 U.S. military installations and veterans centers across the country; an online option opened up this spring. At Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in California, for example, Warrior Mind instructors prep elite Navy SEALS candidates for Hell Week, when potential newbies are vetted in a 5 ½-day sleepless trial of physical and mental endurance.

Beefing up the brain for combat is one aspect of the training; another is decompression. If one day you're dodging snipers in Iraq and the next you're strolling the aisles at Wal-Mart, Warrior Mind Training techniques can ease the transition.

"It's kind of like a reset button," says Erick Burgos, a military paramedic who takes classes at Coronado. "It's a time-out for you to take a break from the chaos in your life."

If the Army's new mental-toughness initiative, set to kick off in October, is to be successful, it needs buy-in from the people it plans to train. It can be a tough sell. At Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, in N.C., Adam Credle, who teaches military, law enforcement and Coast Guard personnel how to drive boats equipped with machine guns really fast, has encouraged his students to try out the meditative techniques. So far, he's been rebuffed, though he continues to try to persuade them to give the discipline's central exercise a chance. The mental focusing technique is called deep listening and it sounds super-simple but — unless you're accustomed to meditation — it requires exquisite concentration.

To help develop this skill, Warrior Mind, relies upon music. The idea is to listen, really listen, to the wail of the guitar or the staccato tap of the drums instead of letting your mind wander. In athletics, this concept is called being in "the zone."

As with anything, practice makes perfect, which is reassuring for rookies — like me — who find it next to impossible to rein in their thoughts at first. During the course of one five-minute song, I thought repeatedly about whether I'd remembered to lock my car and turn my cell phone to vibrate. And, because I'm a reporter, I thought about what everyone else might be thinking about, which, if they were doing it right, should have been nothing at all.

Fletch · 09-09-2009, 19:06

This thread is a goldmine of information. I have been printing out multiple posts to be able to dig in them and read them regularly. It never hurts to have them hanging around my room, too.

Also, to BMT, the meditation article you posted interested me, so I have added on 15 minutes of meditation to my normal nightly workout/stretching. So far, my thoughts are far from clear, but hopefully they will get there with practice.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread,
Fletch

Richard · 09-09-2009, 20:58

Mental pilates for the battlefield? Whatever happened to training soldiers to the idea of marching to the sound of the cannons?

Richard's $.02

NousDefionsDoc · 09-12-2009, 20:37

Brother, don't let the reporter turn you off with that rhetoric. It's nothing more than stilling the mind and focusing.

Thesis · 09-20-2009, 02:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by einherjar

From the Enchridion Militis Christiani: A Guide for the Righteous Protector, by Erasmus 1503, extracted by Sergeant Chris Pascoe, Michigan State Police.

Twelfth Rule
TURN YOUR WEAKNESS INTO VIRTUE
If you are inclined to be selfish, make a deliberate effort to be giving

This is one that I currently am working on. I keep failing it because I assume that my brother man is also selfish.

GratefulCitizen · 09-20-2009, 13:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thesis

Twelfth Rule
TURN YOUR WEAKNESS INTO VIRTUE
If you are inclined to be selfish, make a deliberate effort to be giving

This is one that I currently am working on. I keep failing it because I assume that my brother man is also selfish.

Your mind is on justice. There is nothing wrong with that.
Remember that the giving is about changing your thinking, not their behavior.

My grandparents routinely gave money and meals to people who were transient or down on their luck.
One of these incidents and my grandfather's attitude clarified the issue for me:

He was on his way to a VFW meeting (post 5241 in Cortez, Colorado) and was wearing his cap.
A man on a motorcycle came up to him and said he was a Vietnam vet down on his luck, trying to make it out to family in California.

My grandfather asked him if he had eaten recently. The man said no.
Grandpa gave him some money, sent him to a local buffet, and said he would be back shortly.

The VFW post decided to give a small amount of money to cover the man's travel expenses, no questions asked.

After hearing the story, I asked my grandfather: "What if he was just scamming you and the VFW?"

Grandpa looked confused.
After a moment, he answered: "If he scammed us, then that's his problem, not ours. We did the right thing."

You can't control what others do.
You can only control your own choices.

Novice Snowflake · 09-27-2009, 12:36

Reviewing the thread on training the mind has really helped me to grow as a man. Thank you and will continue to re-read this thread for its good gems.

LongWire · 09-28-2009, 04:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by HardworkYetNotASoldier

Reviewing the thread on training the mind has really helped me to grow as a man. Thank you and will continue to re-read this thread for its good gems.

Maybe you should do just that and only that. We don't care what your post count is especially since you have only just now complied with the rules here.

Read More Post Less!!!!!!!

When were you planning on joining, or are you just going to continue to troll?

spherojon · 01-22-2010, 12:41

With this mindset, I may not be the most popular person in the world, but at least I can sleep at night knowing I did the right thing at the right time.

Lan · 12-22-2013, 15:11

Thank you NDD and other Quiet Professionals for this thread, I learned a lot.

angus mac · 08-31-2014, 12:53

I would like to ask about how to control a persons thoughts about things that happened in the past. What I am trying to say is things that if and when it comes into your thoughts you start re-living it and having the same feelings that I had when it was going on. The feelings I have ain't good,I don't want to erase entirely from my memory,just the feelings that come with it.I hope I have explained myself well enough;with all the Green Beret's and Rangers etc.I am hoping someone gets the gist of what I am asking.

**Team Sergeant** · 08-31-2014, 13:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by angus mac

I would like to ask about how to control a persons thoughts about things that happened in the past. What I am trying to say is things that if and when it comes into your thoughts you start re-living it and having the same feelings that I had when it was going on. The feelings I have ain't good,I don't want to erase entirely from my memory,just the feelings that come with it.I hope I have explained myself well enough;with all the Green Beret's and Rangers etc.I am hoping someone gets the gist of what I am asking.

If you're having issues I'd suggest you see a professional.