From a long-term perspective, meditation practice is the best thing you can do to deal with the annoyances your brain produces. Recognizing your thoughts for the fleeting, intangibles that they are is the path to an enduring calmness of mind.
That’s not a whole lot of help if you’re currently under an onslaught of thoughts about the past or worries about the future. Both scenarios are silly from a purely logical standpoint, but logic doesn’t really seem to help when you’re in the clutches of negative thought patterns that won’t go away.
- “Rumination is when you go over the same–usually negative–thought again and again,” explains David Cox, chief medical officer for mindful meditation app Headspace. “You’re trying to work out why did it go wrong, what could you have done, and what could you do. It’s useful if you do it once, but there’s no benefit to doing it again and again.”
Fortunately, there’s a 2-step “mini-meditation” process that allows you to stop ruminating. The trick is to first recognize what’s happening. Then, focus your attention on something physical.
Essentially, if you move your attention to physical sensations, like the soles of your feet as you walk, your breath, or your seat in the chair, you can no longer maintain the mental gymnastics your mind has been performing. And guess what … if you can pull this off for two minutes, you just proved to yourself that you can meditate.
Here’s to calmer thoughts … and the strength that comes from peace of mind.
Here’s an Easy Two-Minute Trick to Calm Your Racing Mind
further: health
Go Pro (Or Pre)
“Probiotics and prebiotics are both pretty big topics in nutrition these days. Yet even though they sound similar, the two play different roles for your health. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria, while prebiotics are food for these bacteria.”
Probiotics and Prebiotics: What’s the Difference?
Stretch Your Limits
Stretching presents a paradox — the reason I hate doing it is exactly the reason I need to do it. These illustrations are pretty cool, in that they demonstrate the stretch while showing what’s happening under the hood.
These Mesmerizing Illustrations Will Help You Get the Best Stretch
Big Belly, Small Brain
More bad news for sedentary adults in middle age. We either exercise now, or we get to be out-of-shape and dim later. Lovely motivation, right?
Poor Fitness Correlates with Later Smaller Brain Volume
further: wealth
Become Unemployable (While You Still Have a Job)
Beyond typical motivations of lifestyle and economics, the rapid changes in technology and business are extra motivations to become self-sufficient while earning a living. You don’t necessarily have to take a huge risk to do it, either.
How to Become a Highly Paid Freelancer While Keeping Your Full Time Job
Live Lean to Live Large
“If you will make the sacrifices now that most people aren’t willing to make, later on you will be able to live as those folks will never be able to live.”
Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover book review
Lovable Fail
When it comes to work, we should choose to collaborate with people who are good at what they do, regardless of whether we personally like them or not. Unfortunately, that’s not what happens, which explains a lot about organizational dysfunction.
Competent Jerks, Lovable Fools, and the Formation of Social Networks
further: wisdom
Will to Distraction
Why are we constantly distracted? Because we want to be. As Friedrich Nietzsche pointed out, we “seek out distractions in order to stay mentally busy, so we can avoid facing up to the big questions—like whether we’re living genuinely meaningful lives.” Yes, you can tweet that.
Why Are We So Distracted All the Time?
Out of the Zone
If you don’t find 19th-century German philosophers persuasive on the topic of distraction, maybe a peek inside the brain is more your style. “Studies show that we spend 30 to 50 percent of our waking hours engaged in mind-wandering.”
The Neuroscience Of Paying Attention (Or Not)
Stress Test
Don’t we too often take our stress out on those in our lives, or even blame them for petty offenses that are really caused by our poor emotional state? Take on the root cause while people still put up with you. 😉
Could Stress Be Causing Your Relationship Problems?
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I’m writing this from St. Croix, and it’s fantastic. Back to the beach, carry on without me!
Thank you for sharing Further with a friend:
Keep going-
Brian Clark
Further
