9 Ways To Calm Your Mind

Have you had the feeling that your mind is something separate from you? You can let it run with out you, or you can train it to follow your lead. Yes, you have more control of your mind than you think.

There are many ways you can use to calm your mind. Here I'm giving you the 9 methods I've used depending on how I feel. 

If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place. -Lao Tzu

1. Meditate

The main purpose of meditating is to calm the mind so you can begin feeling better emotionally.

There are many different ways to do so but here are the most common ones:

1. You can meditate on your thoughts and try to gain understanding from them.
2. You can do guided meditation like ones Oprah and Deepak Chopra created.
3. You can visualize an expected positive outcome in your life like Shakti Gawain teaches in her book.
4. You can meditate just to empty your mind and reach a sleep like state where all possibilities are possible. Here is when you can connect with the Infinite Intelligence to get your answers.

The most common type of meditation is to empty your mind, but I recommend you to use whatever method you need at the moment.

There are many ways to empty your mind, the ones I do are recite mantras, recite Our Father, listen relaxed music, do the erasing of the white board technique, and do conscious breathing and counting.

2. Attention to breathing

This is my favorite method to empty my mind and this is what I do:

1. While inhaling air, count to 4. Don't inhale 4 times, just count 4 seconds while inhaling.
2. Hold your breath while counting 4 seconds
3. While exhaling, count 6 seconds. 

Repeat this process for whatever time feels right. You can start doing it 3 times, then increase it to 6 times, then to 12 times, etc. I think 15-20 minutes of conscious breathing and counting is enough, but you decide what is enough for you.

Do this process while you are seated with your back straight and don't lean your back against anything because you might fall asleep. This means you can also do this exercise while you're having a hard time falling asleep on your bed or want to fall asleep fast.

3. Pray

Praying is one of the most common ways to calm your mind. This  is where out of our own free will, we decide to get to this place where we can ask for help from a much higher Force than ourselves.

Here's when we surrender our struggles and let them go. We put them in the hands of God and hope for a positive and harmonious outcome some time in the near future.

4. Appreciate

There is nothing that makes you forget faster what you don't like in your life, or what is not going well, than appreciating what you do like of it or what is going well for you.

You can see, you can read, you can think, you can enjoy sun light, you can see the stars, you are breathing, you are able to taste food, you have feelings, you are conscious, you are learning, you are growing, you are here.

By doing this you stop focusing on the negative side of things and begin focusing on the positive side of things. You begin to feel good emotions and get moving to the positive side of The Joy Scale -which is always the goal.

5. Contemplate

Contemplation is looking at something without the intent to understand or learn but with the intent to see and reflect.

You can contemplate your child, your pet, your niece, your nephew, the sunset, the chirping of birds from nearby trees, the movement of the trees after the wind, the rain hitting the ground, the clouds moving though the sky, the water in the river, etc.

​Find the one that feels better for you at the moment and use it to calm your mind.

6. Write

Writing is like safe speaking. You can say on paper whatever you want without the fear of negative reaction from others. You can write stories of how your life is or how you want your life to be. There are no rules to writing.

​Who said that you have to write just facts? you write whatever serves you to calm your mind. If writing your "dream story" or your "perfect relationship" or your "happy ending" feels better to you and calms your mind, use that then.

7. Get moving

Do any kind of movement that puts you in a flow state. If your flow is in running, do that. If your flow is in working out, do that. If your flow is in yoga, do that. My flow is in dancing, so I do that. 

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 Being in a STATE of FLOW is when you can close your eyes, breath deeply and smile at the same time." -Claudia LeBaron

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8. Connect with nature

Connecting with nature is paying attention, appreciating and deeply "seeing" to everything that is not man made.

You can "see" animals, plants, minerals, water, fire, the sky, anything that reminds you of the incredible Force that keeps everything running perfectly and smoothly, and that It's also inside of you.

9. Take a Trip

There is nothing better to get you out of the routine than taking a trip.

Doesn't have to be a trip to Italy, India or Indonesia. It can be a trip in your own country, in your own state, or even in our own city. I mean, when was the last time you went to the other side of town? 

The purpose of the trip is to adjust your view and allow you to "see" again.

I'm sure you have noticed that after moving to a new house, you notice all kinds of details that you loved about the house. The high ceilings, the tile in the bathroom, all the storage space throughout the house, the walk-in closet, etc. 

But after a while, you no longer pay attention to those details and you just take them from granted. The same happens with everything in our lives, in our business, our job, our neighborhood, our friends, our loved ones, etc.

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Every once in a while is good to separate yourself from your world so when you come back to it you can contemplate, appreciate and enjoy all the things you placed in it." -Claudia LeBaron

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​You can use any of these methods to calm your mind, or use a combination of them. Whatever works for you is what you need. But for sure taking a nap is the best option as long as when you wake up you don't go back to thinking about the problem you wanted to get away from.

Do you have any other methods to calm the mind that you want to share?