Is your mind friend or foe? It’s an age-old question and the answer I’ve come up with is both.

The mind opens doors to endless possibilities, different perspectives and ways of looking at things.

It provides insight and understanding in an uncertain world. The mind’s ability to synthesize diverse patterns or experiences brings innovation and new eras of advancement and growth in the arts, sciences and technology.

At the same time, the mind, in trying to make sense of emotions that arise, creates stories and triggers endless dramas that complicate life.

In its quest to assess quickly, the mind creates shortcuts or biases to determine who’s safe and who’s not. The mind uses past experience and socialization to make judgments and form opinions about people and situations that are often grossly inaccurate and unfair. The mind attaches itself to an endless train of random thoughts that distract us from the present.

We all have a mind, body and heart and need all of them to fully function.

However, the Enneagram system of personality and development shows that people tend to have a dominant center where both their gifts and challenges most arise.

There are three personality types that depend on the mental center first, over heart or body.

People that lead with their mental center are most concerned with safety, security and certainty and become fearful or anxious when those are threatened. The strengths they lead with are keen observation, seeing details others miss, deep insight, visioning possibilities and planning for a brighter future.

In our society, the mental center of intelligence takes precedence, no matter which center dominates in your personality.

In the age of information overload most of us are walking around as talking heads, like bobble heads. It’s hard not to be in the head when you are facing a screen for multiple hours a day. In the face of this, one of the biggest current challenges is to fine tune the mind for discrimination, determining what is accurate and to recognize misinformation and questionable sources. The rise of conspiracy theories shows that a significant part of the population has not developed this skill!

The mind needs time to integrate information for it to convert to long-term memory and to synthesize diverse information for creativity and innovation.

A mind constantly barraged with new input has no opportunity for this. Have you noticed how difficult it is to retain information these days? Being judicious about what you pay attention to is a smart strategy that will help you prioritize what is most important and say no to distractions.

My clients who are thought leaders often struggle with taking time out of their day to foster a quiet mind, free of internal and external distractions. Yet allowing fallow time is the only way for insights to emerge. That’s why, in my experience, many insights come when I first wake up. A good night’s sleep is great, but the mind needs more space than just that.

When part or all your role is as thought leader or subject matter expert, putting time on the calendar for a walk, bike ride or meditation first thing in the morning or the middle of the day is as important as any meeting or spending time with your inbox–and likely more productive.

The purpose of the mind is to think and you can either direct your thoughts or be directed by them.

Developing self-awareness helps in mastering our mind to be its leader, rather than a hapless victim of thoughts and storylines.

Rather than trying to force the mind to stop thinking something negative, treat it respectfully by redirecting its attention to an appealing and engaging focus. Quieting the mind is easiest when you do something physical—a walk, bike ride or competitive game of tennis or pickleball.

Daily practices like meditation, contemplation and journaling rewire the brain to focus on one thing at a time and let go of distractions. Clarity is one of the traits of executive presence. If you can’t direct your mind where you want it to go, you cannot get clear on priorities, envision a new direction or plan the right course and timeline. These daily practices create space for intuition and insight to bubble up.

Just choosing one of these practices and integrating them into your life even a few minutes at a time will make a big difference over time in mastering your mind.