Racing thoughts? Too much on your mind? Can’t get your mind to shut up so you can sleep? These are all symptoms of a lack of focus, and a lack of harmony within your being as well as your life. Simplifying the life around you requires first simplifying the life within you, and that means getting to a place of peaceful thinking rather than obsessive thinking. This can be easily achieved through a daily meditation practice, alongside a mindfulness practice throughout your day so that you can fully integrate your sense of peace into your conscious mind. Do you experience burnout? Stress? Fatigue? Insomnia? This could be caused by unchecked thoughts running in your mind without you being aware of what is running. Let’s take a look at some key elements of quieting your mind and allowing yourself to feel better.
What do I mean by “allowing yourself to feel better?” Oftentimes we hold ourselves back due to a subconscious or hidden sense of guilt for having a good time, enjoying our lives, healing ourselves, being happy, or being successful because maybe some people we care about are struggling or we can’t help everyone we want to.
Beating up on yourself over it is not the way to make the situation better for yourself, or anyone else, for that matter. That guilt? That’s your emotion. Wherever that guilt may come from, it’s within you like a puzzle only you can solve. Letting go of any resistance you have about moving forward is important for your long-term well-being, so take a moment now to reflect upon where any of these feelings might be coming from. Forgive, let go, and allow yourself to move forward for your own sake and the sake of your life, because other people’s lives are not your responsibility.
Letting this go will allow you to move forward in a more positive direction and gain control over your focus through release and surrender. As counter-intuitive as that sounds, only experience teaches, so you will not know whether it works unless and until you try it for a while. The longer you practice daily meditation, the more positive benefits you will experience.
Did you know that 80% of our thoughts are negative and 95% of our thoughts are repetitive?* That means we’re literally always thinking negative things, worrying about the future, ruminating over the past, wondering what everyone around us is thinking about us (even though the chances are slim that they are thinking about anyone but themselves, let’s be real here)… these are all neurotic thought patterns people can fall into by leaving their thoughts unchecked and running on autopilot.
Where do they come from? Our conditioning. What we tell ourselves regularly. How we feel about ourselves, what other people tell us about ourselves, and so on. This has been accumulating in your subconscious mind for your entire life and forms your belief systems, which contribute to the negative thought loops running on autopilot in the background. You may not even be “hearing” these thoughts on a conscious level. You may not be aware. Although some of them might jump out, which is where recognizing them in the moment comes into play.
Meditation can help you to be in the moment more, enjoy more aspects of your life on more levels, and generally have a more robust and joyful life experience overall. If you’re ready to get started with daily mindfulness practice, we invite you to enroll in the My Mindful Moments 30-Day program, which is currently in clinical testing. The reviews so far are overwhelmingly positive, so if you’re interested in learning more about that, please click the following link:
https://www.executivecoachinguniversity.com/landing/my_mindful_moments/
Aside from meditation, there are a few other ways to take control of your focus and experience less mental chatter. Let’s discuss how you can “do” this in the moment as you experience life.
Observation
Observing your thoughts, especially when you’re feeling bad, low, depressed, angry, or otherwise hurting, can really help you to identify where those emotions are coming from. If you’re feeling badly, especially if it seems to come from nowhere or you are easily triggered into a bad mood, then this will allow you to evaluate what your thoughts are saying and “shine a light” on them and really see if they’re true, if you want to believe them, or if you would like to have a different belief.
Evaluation
To evaluate your thoughts, ask yourself if this is something you actually believe or if this is something that other people have told you or given you the impression of throughout your life. If you come to the conclusion that you do actually believe it, then you have to decide whether you want to believe it. Is this belief helping you or hurting you? Is it holding you back or making you unhappy? It is your choice whether you want to continue holding onto it or whether you want to let it go… whether you want to continue harming yourself or would rather heal yourself.
Letting Go
To let go, you must deeply and honestly consider whether you want to continue to damage yourself by holding on to a toxic emotion. When we hold on to hatred, resentment, and bitterness, we are essentially poisoning ourselves from the inside. The best way for us to live our best lives is to stop worrying about other people and just live our lives. To stop focusing on everything that’s “wrong” and “terrible” and choose to shift our focus to the positive, creative, constructive, and beautiful.
Simplifying your thoughts is up to you, and letting go of some of the clutter by healing it and understanding where it came from can allow you to do just that. When you clear all of this negative energy out of your being, you can expect good things to begin showing up in your life simply because you are healthier and happier.
Mindfulness in each moment allows you to truly enjoy the moment and not think your way through everything so you’re only half paying attention and creating stories around things that aren’t accurate because you missed out on half of the conversation being lost in thought. The simple act of paying attention to your life playing out before you can create miracles in your life experiences.
We hope that you experience some interesting and incredible things in your life from here on out!
Thank you so much for being here, learning, and growing with us! For more information about the Mindfulness Movement or the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:
http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement
* 80% of Thoughts Are Negative, 95% Are Repetitive
