Your Mind is Not the Enemy – You've Just Been Misusing It All Along
- Mar 5
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 20
Written by Guy Van de Putte, Spiritual Guide & Mentor
Guy Van de Putte works as a guide for those looking for help navigating life's challenges or finding themselves at a crossroads. Blending shamanism, breathwork and constellation therapy with the non-dual and yogic traditions, he has a wide toolkit to support the power of presence and the healing words to accommodate lasting change.
As a guide for those navigating life’s challenges or crossroads, Guy Van de Putte sheds light on how our minds often become obstacles, trapping us in cycles of self-doubt, fear, and negativity. In his work, he emphasizes that while we try to control our thoughts, this only strengthens their hold over us. By observing and retraining our minds, we can shift from being controlled by them to using them as powerful tools for personal growth and creativity. This shift ultimately helps create a life that aligns with our true potential.
We often hear this these days, from self-help books or spiritual teachers: "You are not the mind." You are not your thoughts. So simple, yet so true. Once I started to observe my thoughts, I realized how poisonous they are most of the time. So, I turned to meditation, trying to slow them down, even make them disappear altogether, which, of course, didn’t work and let me fall into that familiar pattern of failing all over again. Before long, the voice in my head was back, reminding me of what I already believed to be true: that I was a failure and not good enough. What could I believe? The thoughts kept coming. The proof was there! That was when I still believed meditation was about stopping the thoughts and controlling the mind – that enemy that ruined my life.
Unfortunately, this idea is something I still frequently hear during my sessions with clients: "I tried meditation, but it's not for me. I can't do it. The thoughts keep on coming. I can't reach that silence that everybody is talking about." Therefore, something as wonderful as meditation can turn into yet another thing to reaffirm all those strongly held beliefs we have about ourselves. Even if we do succeed in short moments of blissful quiet, we lose it as soon as the outside world reenters our awareness.
Thoughts come and go. It's not about stopping them; it's about observing them without losing yourself in them. It's not about stopping your mind; it's about using it in a way that it will work for you, not against you. So, it really is a matter of retraining it. We're used to an overactive mind, scanning our surroundings, interpreting other people's words and actions. We're on full alert all the time, filtering whatever is going on around us through lenses that are nothing more than the product of the lies we've been telling ourselves all along.
Our mind is in the driver's seat and is terrified to give the keys to anyone else. It's in a state of survival because, probably at one point in our lives, it had to be. Our surroundings weren't safe enough, either physically or emotionally, and our minds took over, trying everything they could to keep us safe and help us move forward. And it has done so for so long, and in such an amazing way, that it doesn't know anything else to do anymore. Whenever you feel anxious about the future, whenever you feel sad or angry about something that happened in the past, the voice in your head takes over. And you're being possessed, so to speak—not by an entity or a poltergeist, but by a mind that's always in fear, always feeling the need to control, to know what will happen, how it will happen, and always thinking of the next step to take to either attract what it wants or avoid what it doesn’t want to happen.
The truth is, we have let it. Up to that point, it had no other choice because we weren't there. We were zoned out, lost in the things going on around us, unable to make sense of it. But if we truly want a life of peace and happiness, in love and faith, it is time to take the driver's seat. Not by pushing the mind aside, not by making it the enemy in the movie of our life, but by addressing it, talking to it, and taking care of it. And by stepping up, in gratitude. It has done its job, and it has done so in the best way it could. But now, it is time to create your own life—not your mind's life.
Your mind is a tool, an amazing tool, maybe even the most amazing tool we have received. But once you finish using your blender or your power drill, you shut it off. You decide how many holes you want in your wall; you don’t let the drill decide. Your life is not a Disney movie, where all the coffee cups and spoons start singing and dancing whenever they feel like it, making a mess of things. Yet, when it comes to the mind, we let it do whatever it wants, whenever it wants.
By observing the mind, we become conscious of its need to control. We start seeing the patterns we live out and the choices we make over and over again. And in that awareness lies the freedom we all long for: the freedom to make our own choices and create the life we want. By remaining the observer, we can detach and comfort the mind that lives in constant fear. And out of that, we can start using it in the way it is meant to be used.
For conscious creation, to create a better life for yourself and others. All the great artists, inventors, innovators… have used their minds to translate the thoughts, the ideas, and the inspiration running through them. We use it to plan, to organize, and so on. And that's what it's there for. But not to bring you down and keep you trapped in an endless loop of negative self-talk and fear. Start using it for something creative that will contribute to life on Earth (and, therefore, your life as well), and it will lose its need to control. It will feel safe because it's been seen and heard, and you will get out of that control seat and let your higher mind take over. It will let the voice of truth, love, and wisdom take over. And before you know it, life will start to transform in ways you can't imagine yet.
If you also want to break free from the limitations of your mind but could use some direction, don't hesitate to reach out to me.
Read more from Guy Van de Putte
Guy Van de Putte, Spiritual Guide & Mentor
Guy Van de Putte works as a guide for all those looking for help navigating life's challenges or finding themselves at a crossroads. His passion is helping people who are ready to wake up go beyond the stories and patterns that unconsciously run their life. Thereby helping them to debunk the lies they told themselves, that are at the root of all the drama in their life, and take back the power over their own lives. So the old wounds from the past can be permanently healed and a new life of true freedom can emerge out of that. A fulfilled life in service off and in harmony with their true calling.
