3 Straightforward Steps For Bringing King-Like Order Into Your Mind

Your psyche is a kingdom you must get in order.

Now imagine being the leader of said kingdom, but you forgot. It would be an unruly place, right? Yeah, welcome to your head. Wake up, and wipe the sleep from your eyes, there’s plenty of work to do.

It’s time to go in and clean house.

Step 1: Determine Who’s On Stage

You know just as well as I do that many thoughts are going through your head each day.

If you pay close attention to those thoughts, you’ll notice their origin. And it helps to picture the thoughts as being spoken by someone, some character. You may think they are all coming from you. Just you standing in your mind speaking each of these thoughts, but they are definitely not all from you. They may share your voice and seem like you, but if you dig a bit deeper, you’ll quickly realize the variety of personalities in your psyche. This was a huge wake-up call that liberated my inner life to a much more interesting place.

When I need to sort things out mentally, I like to question the ‘person’ speaking in my mind and ask them their name, why they’re coming to the top of my awareness, and what their intention is.

I invite you to suspend your unimaginative, hyper-rational left brain for a moment and dive into this experiment.

This provides me with clarity of who’s on stage and how much I should consider their proposed thought. They all deserve to be heard, but not all will get acted out.

And once they’ve shared their piece, they aren’t allowed to overextend their stay.

Step 2: Pass The Microphone

You remember back in childhood how there’d be a ball hog from time to time.

Same goes for the microphone in your mind.

The last thing you want to do is let the weak, pessimistic, no-value-added peasants rule the show.

As I said, they should be heard out, but you keep things moving and you elevate that which is of most use & importance. And this makes for a more enjoyable inner life that brings the gems to the top. 

They are in there, they just need a chance in front of you.

Step 3: Re-Install Gentle, Optimistic Authority

Put the king back in charge.

For the ladies reading, the queen deserves her royal seat back.

A tyrannical ruler is not what’s called for. Instead, opt for a leader who has everyone’s best interest at heart. The one fighting for the brightest days ahead. The one divinely guided by God. The one who puts things back in order.

The top agenda item is unity. Unify those split-up pieces in your head. Seek resolution together, not victory at the expense of another.

Play the infinite game, make it win-win, and rally around what leads to a better life for all involved.

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This could all sound totally crazy (and you could very well ignore it), but I’ve found these types of exercises to be immensely productive in straightening out my mind from time to time.

I’ve put my spin on it here, but if you’d like to learn more about the practice of Active Imagination - a way of conducting inner work that Carl Jung distilled a long time ago - check out Active Imagination 101.