7 Simple Techniques to Quiet Your Mind
Trying to quiet an overactive mind can be an enormous task if you don’t know how to go about it. Read on for 7 simple techniques to quiet your mind. Even if you do know what to do, it will take daily practice for about a month before you start noticing a difference in your mental state.
Nevertheless, this is a worthy pursuit because a calm and quiet mind will lead to a better and more productive life.
Meditation
No list on mind calming techniques would be complete without mentioning meditation. This is one of the most powerful ways to quiet your mind and is used by some of the most successful people
Meditation helps you to focus and gives you clarity. While there are several different ways to meditate, the goal is often the same – to prevent your mind from overthinking and being flighty. It does take practice. An easy way into meditation, might be to follow a guided meditation, which is kind of like meditation with instructions.
In a world filled with distractions, being able to focus on one thing is becoming a rare skill. Meditation will help you harness your concentration and increase your focus while reducing any mental stress you may have. It is a very underrated skill, that can be life changing, once mastered.
Self-reflection
Self-reflection is a lot easier than meditation, but it can be more painful. With self-reflection, you’ll be looking at the way you think and act… and more importantly, asking yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing/thinking.
Almost always, there will be an emotional reason attached to it. It could be bad experiences from the past, childhood trauma, etc. Once you discover what is eating you deep down in your heart and soul, then you can begin the healing process.
You’ll need to learn to let go and understand that the past is just a mental construct. Whatever has happened is over, and moving on will be in your best interest.
If you’re still filled with bitterness, anger or other negative emotions, it would be a good idea to find a professional therapist to work through these issues. It will be cathartic and you’ll find inner peace and a quieter mind that’s not plagued by turmoil.
Brain dump
There’s always so much to do in our lives. Chores, deadlines, bills, commitments, etc. It never ends. Complete 2 tasks and 4 more appear as if by magic.
So how is one to make sense of this never-ending chaos?
The first and most important thing to do, will be to write it all down. Write down all your tasks, thoughts and emotions. Lists are an excellent way of focusing the mind and taking the pressure off you.
After that, make a list of the tasks/chores that need to get done. Then do them and strike them off one by one. This is an excellent way of feeling like you are achieving something, no matter how small, throughout the day.
This brain dump approach works for two reasons – it gives you an outlet to release your pent-up stress… and it gives you clarity on exactly what needs to be done.
When everything is floating around your head, it just seems like a lot more to do and your mind never gets a break.
Stretching
Practice stretching exercises throughout the day. This will help to release tension in the body. Pay special attention to your shoulder, neck, back, hip flexors and hamstrings.
When you stretch your body, your muscles will relax. Your entire body will feel ‘lighter’ and not as tight. Your mind will automatically calm down because your entire being is not as taut.
Tension is held in the body by tight muscles, so relaxing them will help the tension from settling.
Mindful breathing
Mindful breathing is a technique where you pay attention to your breaths, feel the air being inhaled and exhaled and the expansion and contraction of your lungs.
You’re an observer of your breaths but you don’t interfere in the process. Breathe naturally and focus on your breathing and be aware of how your body moves.
This will help you to quiet your mind as you only focus on your breathing.
Listen to Calming Music
Put some headphones on and lose yourself in a piece of beautiful music. Music really can touch the soul and is a powerful way of calming the mind and relaxing the body.
You will usually find that you get drawn to a particular piece of music and it turns out to be exactly what you needed to hear in order to calm you down and relax you. Music takes you on journeys away from all of your stresses and pressures.
Spend Time in Nature
Another very simple easy way to relax the mind, is to get a change of scenery and walk outside in nature. The very act of spending time around trees and other green spaces raises ones vibrations and distracts the mind.
Just the feeling of being outside, helps change the focus of your mind, because there are infinite things that you can focus on birds singing, trees swaying in the wind, the breeze on your face.
Choose one method and start on it today, once mastered, you can move on and try one of the other techniques.
