Spend more time with your operating system (OS)

I don’t mean IOS, Android, Windows or any digital OS of choice.

I’m talking about the original OS. The thing that’s in all our heads, the thing that we can’t help but avoid any type of stillness with for more than 60 seconds.

I’m talking about your mind.

I bet that 99% of you reading this are more familiar with the functions and features of your phones OS than you are of your own mind. Don’t worry, because I’m in the exact same boat as you.

Most days I don’t want to spend more than 5 minutes delving into the chaos my mind has to offer. I can be found plugged into the mini-matrix of IOS as I trawl through my iPhone looking for distractions.

I know this is not healthy. We all know that this is not healthy, yet we do it all the same.

The Buddha famously said “It is better to conquer yourself than win a thousand battles.”

And he’s right. I’m sure all of us would rather conquer or make peace with our mind and it’s constant ramblings then continue to battle everyday.

It’s odd how little we know about our own minds. It’s been said we only use 10% of our cognitive capacity. So, the questions begs, what is the other 90% doing?

In recent years, we’ve had a massive spotlight on mental wellbeing and it feels like for the first time, we as a species are globally starting to seek more understanding of our internal operating system.

Sometimes my mind is a beautiful place and other times it can be the darkest thing I’ve experienced. On those dark days, I hope for those endless notifications about rubbish that can come through my device, just to escape some of the narrative my own OS has to offer.

I’m sure many can relate to this too.

The rise of phone addiction makes more sense to me when I put this lens of my own escapism from the thought train on it.

So, with all this being said, surely it makes more sense to face this reality head on? for more of us to spend some quality time with, well, us?

How much do you really know about yourself? how much is created through outside influences? from expectations of peers, parents and society? who are you really?

These are the answers which lay inside our own operating system.

As a society we are spending billions on our wellbeing. If you said that back in the 90’s, people would have thought the world had gone mad. But we know better now, we know what’s important.

Meditation and mindfulness are heralded as the gateway to finding peace, calm and getting to know one’s operating system better. I’m sure for some this method works, but not for all.

For some, it’s talking with others to make sense of the highways in our heads. For others, like me it’s moments of solitude when I’m in the flow of a workout and I’m sure there’s a million more ways that others look within too.

No matter how and what you do. What matters is that you do it.

The greatest loss for all of us is not to know oneself.

Perhaps, a better use of our time would be to stop salivating over the new features of our devices OS and get to know the ultimate OS that’s with us everywhere? better yet, you could use that tiny little OS in your device to better understand your own.

Technology is a powerful tool. Why not let it enable your understanding of your own mind and sift through the endless reams of notifications too.

Bottom line, we hear it all the time these days but the route to understanding is within.

How about we leave the flashy new version of IOS for a minute and look to better understand the ultimate OS that shapes our world?

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