My mind is racing!
Is this an experience that you are familiar with?
When we have a really busy mind, the worst thing we can do is add more thinking.
Anxiety and stress is associated with racing thoughts, which is a high and fast brainwave state. In this mind space we often struggle to think clearly, and if we’re being faced with getting serious work done or even worse, trying to deal with existential “life issues”, the spinning nature of thousands of thoughts per second make finding solutions almost impossible.
And then… the all too often conclusion to our lack of finding answers is that we need to “think harder”….
Can you see how this is pouring fuel on the fire? When we try and “out-think” an already busy mind? When our solution to too many thoughts is to add more thinking?
The brain science on this is clear, every time we do this it drives our brain in only one direction – even higher and faster brain waves.
What we need in these moments is to go in the opposite direction, away from the head and into the body.
“To go out of your mind at least once a day is tremendously important. By going out of your mind, you come to your senses.” – Alan Watts
“A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So he loses touch with Reality, and lives in a world of illusion.” – Alan Watts
When you deliberately re-direct your thinking away from being just in your head, down into what your body is feeling, your brain waves don’t have much of a choice but to slow down.
Your brain will naturally want to get right back to busy thoughts, but you can take some control of that by continuing to explore what each of your senses are feeling and perhaps even cycle through them a few times, until your thoughts become slower.
Taking a break from what you’re dealing with, dropping out of your mind and into your senses, will enable you to return to whatever needs to get done with just a little more calm and clarity.
To cultivate a calmer mind, consider these practices:
- Mindful Breathing: Take a few deep, slow breaths, focusing on the sensation of the breath entering and leaving your body.
- Sensory Awareness: Pay attention to the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures around you.
- Nature Walks: Spend time in nature, immersing yourself in the sights, sounds, and smells of the natural world.
- Movement. Motion moves emotion. So any time we take ourselves to the gym, or go for a walk, or make time for any kind of movement, we drop from our head into our body.
By engaging your senses, you can anchor yourself in the present moment and interrupt the cycle of racing thoughts. This practice can help you to reduce stress, improve focus, and enhance your overall well-being.
Join us for today’s meditation, and come to your senses.
– pierre –
Today’s LIVE meditation is: Come to your senses.