I’m not going to tell you to go for a run.
It’s exhausting isn’t it?
A million thoughts running through your head. Ideas, worries, money, the future, the present. You just want to stop thinking! You tell yourself to calm down and start counting numbers. 30 minutes later you’re still thinking. Your mind is still racing. Is it anxiety? Excitement? It doesn’t matter because whatever it is, it’s bloody exhausting.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Every one of us experiences these mental marathons. Yes, the invincible internet gurus too. In fact, training yourself to be at peace when your mind is running faster than a shinkansen can be the biggest determinant of your present and future success.
So how can you achieve mental peace when things are going crazy?
Turn your wifi off
No seriously, turn it off. You don’t need notifications popping up on your phone when your mind is already full of things. You don’t need to watch more cat videos. You don’t need to know how someone made $10,000 dollars on medium. Just cut it all off. You see, your brain is very penetrable and everyone on the internet is trying to get inside it at the same time. How many attacks can you defend? Turning off your wifi is the perfect temporary shield to stop this army of minions trying to get inside. Now you only have to deal with whatever is already inside, not more. It would be nice if you could maintain a balance between being connected and being calm but unfortunately, most of us can’t. Which is why it becomes necessary to temporarily keep yourself disconnected from technology.
Watch a predictable movie
You know the kind where a group of friends goes to an island and go missing one by one? Amusing enough to take your mind off of things but predictable enough to not excite you more. More people turn to YouTube than to the TV now. Times have changed. The reason we like YouTube is because there’s always something new. But you know what? You don’t need new. Not when you’re not in control of your mind. Tired minds don’t need more processing. They need slowing. You can make a conscious choice to slow down but it’s not easy which is why it can be useful to let the pace of an external factor do it for you instead.
Doodle
When’s the last time you did that? Draw a flower, a mandala, anything. If you can color it in, that’s even better. Creative work is super relaxing and doodling is the easiest way to do that. You need nothing except a pen and paper. Technology has taken most of us away from art. It’s a well known fact that art alleviates stress. It reduces cortisol and helps regulate your mood. If you’re feeling dismissive about this one or think doodling’s not worth your time, check out Ryan Germick’s Net Worth :P
Think about sex
Have you ever done multitasking while watching porn? Or having sex? It’s impossible. You just can’t. Same goes for thinking about sex. You don’t get other thoughts, try it.
Have an inner dialogue.
The reason you want to achieve mental peace is because you already know where you’d be once you do. In a much better place and doing much better things. So remind yourself of that repeatedly. Anxiety and stress tend to upset your inner dialogue and have you believe that things are much worse than they actually are. You need to reinforce this dialogue so it does the exact opposite. Turn negative into positive.
Overthinking is unpaid work. It takes away your time and energy and doesn’t give you anything in return. Train yourself to snap out of it. Repeatedly. It will do wonders for your mental health.
