Does anxiety and stress sometimes have a hold on you?
Are you looking for more peace and calm in your headspace?
If so, then this post might change your life.
You Are Not Your Mind
Part of being human is to experience negative thoughts, emotions and feelings.
However, identifying with these thoughts, feelings, and emotions affects our mental health negatively ( especially negative ones).
For example, if we tell ourselves, “We’re not good enough,” we’ll start believing it ( if we identify with this thought).
If we get physical symptoms of an illness, if we identify with our minds, we may overreact and think we have cancer ( when we don’t).
The key to freeing ourselves from the tyranny of our minds is to not take our thoughts, feelings and emotions too seriously.
For example, if you have thoughts like “ I’m not good enough” or other self-depreciating thoughts, instead of identifying with them, merely smile when you hear them and realise your mind is automatically creating these thought patterns. We don’t have to identify with them and take them seriously.
We can let go of unhelpful thoughts and emotions by simply recognising that we have them.
But suppose we start trying to get into a mental argument with our thoughts. i.e., getting a thought and then getting annoyed at yourself for having it, don’t do that because the mind-made self that you are trying to drop comes in again, albeit through a dissatisfaction with your prior thought.
The key is to break the vicious thought cycle by simply recognising when thoughts and emotions pop up in your mind and body. You don’t have to get angry or frustrated with your thoughts; you can merely watch them and acknowledge that they are there.
When you shine the light of consciousness on those unhelpful thoughts and emotions, they soon dissipate.
To Free Yourself From Your Mind Is To Experience True Peace
In essence, the practice detailed above is at the heart of meditation.
Detach from your thoughts, feelings and emotions and stay present.
Try This 10-Minute Meditation
- Pick a quiet place where you won’t get distracted.
- Sit on a chair while maintaining an erect posture.
- Close your eyes.
- Focus on the silence surrounding you.
- When you get thoughts and feelings, acknowledge them non-judgmentally.
- Don’t get into mental commentary with these thoughts and feelings you experience. Otherwise, the same mind-made self will perpetuate, contrary to meditation’s goal to detach from the mind.
- After 10 minutes, open your eyes and try to maintain a feeling of peace and presence throughout the day.
How Detaching From The Mind Helps Me
I tend to overthink things, and I get into all sorts of mental judo.
But detaching from my mind allows me to feel peace and bliss in the moment.
It has also helped me to become more present in everyday life.
And the more present you are, the more effective you’ll be.
Conversely, if you think about something that happened in the past and you’re getting stressed about it, these feelings will infect almost everything you do in the present.
A similar thing happens when we get anxious about the future. If we’re worried that the worst will happen in the future and this is on our minds, giving the present moment our full attention will be more challenging.
To Detach From Your Mind, Focus On Inner Body Awareness
If you struggle to detach from your mind and remain present, a helpful tip is to focus on the feelings within your body.
For example, focus on the feelings in your hands, legs, arms, head, etc.
By focusing on body awareness, you can divert your focus from mental commentary to the feeling of your body.
If you maintain this feeling of inner body awareness throughout the day, you’ll stay anchored in the present and in your body, and you won’t get lost in your mind.
As you go about your day maintain some inner body awareness.
Think of inner body awareness as the foundation needed to stay present.
The Bottom Line
Detaching from your mind is, in my opinion, one of the most helpful things we can learn. Our minds have tremendous power, and if we overthink and let our thoughts and emotions drive everything we do, we’ll be unable to find true peace and become truly present. We should work to attain a mind like water.
Unfortunately I know people who have been so identified with their negative thought paterns that their own thoughts have drove them to suicide.
Learn to take control of your mind before it takes control of you.
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