The human mind is rarely quiet. Questions, ideas and projects seem to pass through our consciousness at times without a specific order or purpose. This abundance can be good, but it can also make us distracted and anxious. Knowing how to clear your mind can help with anxiety, depression and even insomnia. This article contains techniques and tricks that will allow you to clear your mind better.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Finding Catharsis
Step 1. Express your feelings through writing
If your mind is a tangled tangle of thoughts, writing them down might help. Start writing them in free form: recording how you feel, why you feel that way, and how you would like to act accordingly. After recording this information, you will have something concrete to think about; writing down your thoughts will help you feel 'accomplished', even if you have not done anything.
This very interesting trick will help you really get your thoughts out of your mind. Tell your problems on a sheet of paper, express the reasons for your annoyance in words. After that, tear it up and throw it away. Yes, literally throw it away. Researchers found that people who throw away their written problems tend to be less worried
Step 2. Express your feelings through drawing
You may not become as famous as Van Gogh, but you don't need to create some kind of art. All you will need is a paper and a drawing object. Have fun with multicolored pastels, experiment with oil on canvas, look for the right shade with charcoal. Releasing your worries and clearing your mind through drawing can have amazing empowering effects.
Step 3. Discuss with another person
Maybe you are one of those people who let thoughts and emotions boil inside you. This is not necessarily a bad thing but, in this way, small problems could quickly escalate, becoming dangerous avalanches in a short time. To be able to clear your mind of worries - whether it's heart, health, or work problems - learn to talk to someone about it.
- Start by engaging in dialogue with friends and family. Your friends and family love you and are able to understand you. They will not need to rationalize every thought and will not try to 'sugar' their advice. Tell us what you are going through and listen to their suggestions.
- If you believe that your friends and family are not the right people to ask for help, consider seeing a therapist. A therapist is trained to listen and find solutions based on research and empirical evidence. Don't feel undermined by your need to seek help from a therapist.
- Have a long conversation with someone. Deepening a conversation with someone may seem like no easy feat, but it will definitely be worth it. Research has found that intense conversations, where you go beyond the surface, sharing annoying or intimate thoughts, in the long run, can make people happier.
Step 4. Spend time with a pet
While there is no scientific evidence to show that owning an animal helps clear the mind, there is another set of evidence worth considering. Owning a pet reduces the risk of depression; lowers blood pressure; raises serotonin and dopamine; as well as reducing the risk of you having to see a doctor if you are over 65. Being happier and healthier will help you get rid of worries more easily, allowing you to focus on the many positive things in your life.
Step 5. Remind yourself what the really important things in life are
Sometimes, our minds let itself be invaded by thoughts that, seen in retrospect, don't really matter. Maybe you lost your job, or your girlfriend just left you. While these are certainly important facts, the world is likely not to cease to exist. Remind your mind how many and what really important things are still present in your life:
- Friends and family
- Health & Safety
- Food and shelter
- Opportunity and freedom
Method 2 of 3: Finding Clarity in Meditation
Step 1. Try walking meditation
Meditating while walking means exactly what it sounds like: use the outdoors and the beauty of nature to inspire calm, positive thoughts into your mind. Be like Henry David Thoreau and walk in nature in search of your space to live. Or imagine that you are Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish scientist, who has classified many species of animals and plants. Being outside on a warm sunny day can do wonders for your mood.
Step 2. Calm your eyes
This is a meditation technique that helps you clear your mind by erasing the sense of time. Here's how to do it:
- Focus your gaze on a distant point. Any object stationary about 3 meters away from you will be fine; do not choose an object that is too distant because you would hardly be able to stay focused for long. The object can be a wall, a vase, a speck of dust - the important thing is that it doesn't move.
- Dim the presence of your conscious mind and keep focusing on the object. Your intellect will be fully channeled into this one task. Even if your mind tends to get distracted or your eyes tend to drift away, don't lose your focus on the object.
- After a certain point, time will start to slow down. You will have entered the zone. Your concentration will stop wavering. You will no longer be troubled by your previous worries because your concentration will be completely absorbed by the observation of the object. When you feel ready, relax your concentration. Your mind should feel slightly exhausted, as if it had just been doing mental exercise. You should feel better.
Step 3. Try some breathing exercises
Breathing is an essential part of meditation, which in turn can be an essential part of clearing the mind. By mastering different breathing techniques you will be able to achieve mental clarity that comes from transcendence. Learn this quick breathing technique - the full breathing - to improve your meditation ability:
- Standing upright, exhale fully.
- When you start to inhale, relax your belly muscles. Focus on feeling the air entering your belly.
- When your belly is completely filled with air, keep breathing, expanding your chest and rib cage.
- Hold your breath temporarily, fighting the urge to exhale.
- Breathe out slowly - as slowly as possible. Feel the air coming out of your lips.
- Relax your chest and ribcage, pull your belly back to force the air out.
- Close your eyes, focus on your normal breathing, and clear your mind.
- Repeat the process for 5 - 30 minutes.
Step 4. Try different types of meditation
Meditation is not an easy activity to learn, but with practice you will be able to find your form of meditation. Experiment with mantra meditation and Zen meditation for example.
Step 5. Once you have learned how to meditate, deepen your meditative skills
Once you have mastered the basics of meditation, you can learn how to enhance the effects of your efforts. There are many ways to do this:
- Relax your body completely. Make sure your body does not have any involuntary tension as you enter a state of unconsciousness. Try to tense your body voluntarily, and then relax the tension. Repeat this exercise until you feel that your body is completely relaxed.
- During meditation, try to stay completely still. When the body is in motion, sending sensations and asking for answers from the brain, it is not easy to reach a state of enlightened unawareness. Strive to remain completely still.
- Let your breath flow naturally. After a few initial breathing exercises, let go of your breath control. Let him move as he wishes. Focus your awareness on the extremities of your body, and as you do so, eliminate that awareness.
Method 3 of 3: Finding Productive Ways to Distract You
Step 1. Play a sport or play with reality
Sometimes, clearing your mind can mean distracting yourself from the negative thoughts that creep into your consciousness. Nothing will be able to distract you more than an addictive sport or a game extracted with imagination from the normal daily routine.
- Exercise by playing sports, you will feel better and will be able to distract your mind from worries. Exercising is a great way to defeat psychological illnesses and alleviate their ailments.
- Turn any ordinary activity into a game. Do you need to tidy up your room? Turn it into a game by throwing the dirty laundry into the laundry basket. Do you have to run errands? Challenge yourself and try to spend only half of the money you would normally spend.
Step 2. Challenge yourself to a permanent task
It is said that those who sleep do not catch fish and the best thing to do to be able to free your mind is to keep busy. Keep yourself metaphorically busy and challenge yourself to a long-term task to successfully clear your mind. Here are some ideas you can take to keep busy:
- Take a picture every day of the year. At the end you will be able to assemble the images and add a background music, creating the chronicle of your life in the last year. It is a fun and affordable idea for everyone. Remember that you will need to be patient and consistent to do this every day of the year.
- Every day you perform an action that scares you. Just as Eleanor Roosevelt and so many other people suggested. Perhaps you fear interaction with others (many people share this fear.) You leave the house and stop a stranger to ask him for directions, then start a conversation. Over time, you will begin to overcome your fear, and your mind will begin to realize that it can deal with other problems as well.
Advice
- Don't worry about the time it takes to clear your mind. Otherwise you risk ruining the whole process.
- Relaxing your body muscles can help clear your mind and promote good sleep!
- Take a run. Running will help you relax your mind and body. Listen to music while you run.
- Have an intention. Use it to keep your mind focused.
- Thinking excessively can cause migraines, as if you were a light bulb plugged into a power plant. Clear your mind.
