Hello everyone, I’m your Life Coach, Ritu Singal. I want to dive into a topic that affects every single one of us: control over your mind.

Seriously, stop for a second and ask yourself: Are you in control of your mind, or is your mind in control of you?

This question reminds me of a powerful story I want to share with you.

The Mouse, the Lion, and the Heart of Fear
Once, there was a mouse who prayed to God, “Oh God, I am terrified of cats. Please, do something.”
God transformed him into a cat.
But the new cat quickly returned, saying, “God, I am now terrified of dogs.”
So, God turned him into a dog.
Again, the dog came back: “God, I am so afraid of lions.”
Finally, God transformed him into a mighty lion.
Now, the lion was supposed to be king, but he still said, “God, I am afraid of hunters.”
God sighed and said, “My child, you will always be fearful because your heart is still that of a mouse.”
This story holds a mirror up to us. When we feel overwhelmed by fear, self-doubt, or procrastination, what is the ‘heart’ we’re operating from? Is it the heart of a powerful lion, or is it a mouse’s heart trapped inside a lion’s body?

Checkout: Major Issues in Parent Child Relationship Counselling

Your Mind: A Child or a Wise Parent?

This brings me to two important questions for you:

Is your ‘heart’—your true desire and will—yours, or is it controlled by your fears?

Does your mind work like a wise parent to you, guiding and nurturing, or do you let it behave like an unruly, spoiled child?

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Our mind is very much like a child. If a child is left to run your life, chaos ensues. They’ll tell you to eat candy, skip work, and stay up late. Similarly, if we constantly feed the mind negative, restrictive, or fear-based thoughts—those ‘mouse’ thoughts—we are essentially failing our inner child.

If you are thinking about leaving this article right now, that is your inner child saying, “Just skip it! What’s there to talk about? We know everything already.”

That voice is a lie. You learn something new every day. You may have heard this before, but have you applied it? Learning is about applying, not just listening. If you watch this whole article and apply just one thing, your life will change—mine certainly did.

The Power of Mind Control: Unlocking Your Potential for Success

Imagine you’re trying to reach a specific destination, but you keep changing direction—sometimes going left, sometimes right, sometimes turning back. Will you ever arrive? No. You need to fix your destination and follow a proper direction.

Your mind is the same. It can be like a mad, untamed horse. If you sit on it without a bit and reins, who knows where it will take you, what disaster it will cause, or what irrational thing it will make you do?

For me, sometimes my mind felt like my beautiful, very affectionate dog, Gabby. He was so lovely that he would demand all my attention, making me forget about food, rest, and work. I realized I had to be the master, deciding when and how much time to give him, or else he would take me completely off my path.

To achieve anything significant in life, we must control the mind and guide it in the right direction.

Priorities: Catching the Right Rabbits
For a long time, I explained to my mind that I had three priority ‘rabbits’ to catch every day:

My Child (family)

My Work (career)

My Spiritual Practice (inner peace)

Anything else—like fitness, beauty, or excessive socializing—I considered a fourth thing that was not my priority. You can check out my video on Time Management for more on this—it’s packed with simple, applicable tips!

When I commanded my mind to stick to these three, it obeyed. But when I realized my fitness was suffering, I purposefully tuned my mind to add it to the list. I told myself, “Fitness is non-negotiable.” Despite having excuses for years—”I can’t wake up early,” “I’m too busy”—I eventually integrated it. Guess what? I am now fitter and able to take out time for everything.

The Power of Command: The Buddha’s Lesson
We often follow our mind instead of commanding it.

There is a story of a man whose wife died, leaving him with a small, restless child who distracted him from his work. The enlightened Buddha visited his shop. The man, worried, asked for help with the child. Buddha agreed with one condition: the father must say absolutely nothing.

For seven days, Buddha returned with different activities. One day he tossed his cap, making the child pick it up. The next day, he brought a hammer and wood, telling the child to break it. The father watched, scared, but remained silent. On the last day, the child was so engrossed in the activity that the Buddha simply left his cap there and the child didn’t even notice. The child had been given direction and a command for his energy.

When we don’t give our mind clear orders, it behaves like that restless child, causing mischief and distraction. Your mind is a powerful entity—you must be its commander.

Your Mind’s Astonishing Power: The Pin and the Cobra
How powerful is the mind? This story will shock you.

A man sentenced to death was given a choice: a quick death by a cobra bite or a slow, painful death by another poisonous animal. He chose the cobra.

On the day of execution, as he watched a figure approach with what he believed was the cobra, a cloth was put over his head, and he felt a sharp prick. He instantly died.

The astonishing part? He was not bitten by a cobra. He was merely pricked by a pin.

Even more unbelievable: the post-mortem showed poison in his body!

Your mind is so powerful that what you believe, your body manifests. If you tell your mind you are dying, it will produce the chemicals to kill you. If you tell your mind you are sick, it will weaken your immune system.

If we don’t feed our mind positive, empowering commands, we are creating our own poison.

The Horse with the Invisible Rope
Here is one more story to cement this idea:

At a horse festival, a servant realized he had forgotten the rope for one horse. His master told him, “No problem. Go and act as if you are tying him with a rope.” The servant went through the motions. The horse, convinced he was tied, stood there all night!

In the morning, the servant released the ropes on all the other horses, and they walked away. But this one horse remained. The master came and said, “You tied the rope, now you must act like you’re untying it.” Only when the servant went through the motions of removing the invisible rope did the horse finally move.

Your mind is that horse! It tells you: “You don’t have time. You can’t do this. It’s too difficult. No one loves you. You have this deficiency.” These are all invisible ropes that you have to consciously remove.

Your Next Step: Be the Wise Parent

We must stop living in a state of self-righteousness, where we either think we are always right or believe we are completely incapable. Both extremes are wrong.

Your goal is to be a wise, balanced parent to your mind.

You need to:

Understand it: Know its fears and excuses.

Feed it: Command it with positive, empowering thoughts.

Direct it: Make it run in the direction you choose, not the direction it defaults to.

Stop letting your mind govern you. Start governing your mind. I hope you now feel ready to take control and guide your mind like the wise, capable person you are.