Quiet down your mind
and be present
I offer you three ways to quiet down your mind and one surprising emotion/body fact:
1. Make something
Give your mind a job to do, or else it will find a job to do, and you might not like the job it invents.
~ Elizabeth Gilbert Big magic
When not actively creating something, you may just end up actively destroying something (yourself, a relationship, or your own peace of mind).
Martha Beck talks about it in her book Beyond anxiety. The human mind is always making something. Always. She says:
The part of our brains that we’ve been taught to use is constantly creating concepts, stories, theories, competitive strategies, a sense of lack - and, of course, anxiety.
To stop this, we can shift our neural activity to a different set of brain structures and functions - the ones that generate curiosity, wonder, connection, compassion, and awe.
How? By connecting with more of your creative interests, which could be anything from cooking and poetry to engineering and animal husbandry!
2. Hey, Mr DJ, take a breather
Your brain has a DJ. Not the good kind that plays your favorite songs. This DJ spins a toxic mix of self-doubt, worry, and fear on repeat.
~ Jim Kwik
His advice to stop the negative DJ is to breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Think about the air moving through your nostrils. Focus on the exhale leaving your lips. Do this for just sixty seconds. This is how you rewire your brain’s response to stress.
3. Focus attention on your body
Josh Pais calls the mind a chatterbox: It’s the recycler of old statements with the intent of keeping you out of the present moment.
The more disconnected we are from our bodies, the more active our minds become:
I don’t think I can
Everyone else is better than me
Why am I so stupid? etc.
If you focus your attention on your body, you can’t also be listening to the voices in your head.
~ Josh Pais Lose your mind
Interesting! Each person feels emotions differently
Feelings are unique expressions of our emotional experience: no two people feel an emotion the same way.
Did you know this? I didn’t. I thought we all felt anger or sadness the same way.
For some people anger feels like being under pressure, your insides ready to burst through your skin. For others, anger feels like hollowness—a dark hole in the middle of your chest. There are seemingly infinite ways that the different elements that make up our emotional reactions operate within us, which are influenced not only by the situations we encounter but also by our genes, environment, and personal history.
~ Ethan Kross Shift: How to manage your emotions so they don’t manage you
That’s it,
D
