It is not a question of choice whether to train the mind or not.

The mind is constantly in demand and uses whatever it is asked to do as a means of learning. That is what it is there for, it establishes the ground for our ability to adapt to the change we are subject to. It’s how it protects us.

One of these recurring changes the mind assists us with is our needs. But it can’t do much more than make us aware of them. How we address these needs and, for example, under what emotional circumstances, is something our past choices have trained the mind with.

If the outcome of those choices doesn’t, please us today, doesn’t mean that our past learning was wrong. It most certainly means that our circumstances are different now and didn’t pay attention to the new outcome. Instead, we’ve kept to old choices and are now training the mind to believe in them. Now hope settled in that eventually they’ll create the result are looking for and once felt our behavior made attainable.

Maybe it’s time to revisit the way we train the mind?

If one is constantly looking out for the better, the good might have become invisible.

If the past was always better than the moment one is in, why attend to the moment?

And if the future will bring what one is looking for, how can it appear in the here and now?

It makes sense to opt for the better, to value the past, and to appreciate future opportunities. But it may not make sense to make these the sole focus as the mind may have been trained to do it until now. It might be time to opt for a new training method.