It’s the time of year when many of you are feeling overwhelmed by your obligations, intentional/unintentional review of the past years’ lowlights/highlights, and thoughts about what you want to manifest in the new year.
This monkey mind chatter can stir up emotions that can cause you to lose clarity and focus. What if there could be a way to navigate through the chatter so you don’t feel stuck?
There is a very simple way: silence. People go to great lengths to avoid sitting alone in silence. We tend to seek anything that might fill that perceived empty space instead. However, silence is medicine.
I’m not suggesting that you go on a silent retreat, although this is the most powerful solution. But if you’re ready to manage your mind rather than let it manage you, then I suggest you try this easy exercise to begin:
Take yourself to a favorite place, ideally in nature but anywhere you can be alone and undisturbed for 30-minutes. Leave EVERYTHING behind (this means no phone).
Bring something you can use as a timer—or surrender to your own sense of time.
Take a few deep and grounding breaths to release the day’s activities. Begin to watch your thoughts and notice what thoughts stream in and how they fluctuate over the course of your silence.
· What triggers your mind to become activated?
· How long does it take for your mind to become quiet?
· What thoughts, positive and negative, begin to bubble up and dominate?
· If you are working through a particular health or personal challenge, what thoughts arrive related to them?
· Are you judging yourself or others?
· Can you begin to feel emotionally neutral?
At the end of the 30-minutes, try to journal about your experience. What comes up may surprise you.
You take a shower every day. Why not cleanse your mind daily as well? 😉