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How To Slow A Racing Mind – Background Noise

How To Slow A Racing Mind – Background Noise

By Charles A. Francis

Background noise is another major source of mental agitation, and much of it is unnecessary. Often when we’re driving home after a busy day at work, we’ll turn on the radio in our car to help us unwind—all the while, still thinking about work or things we need to do at home, such as checking on the kids or making dinner.

When we get home, we might turn on the television while we settle in, not really paying attention to what’s on. We usually do this unconsciously to drown out the constant chatter in our mind. What we may not realize is that this background noise is agitating our mind even more, and when it becomes too much, we might pour ourselves a drink to help us relax.

Some people play the radio or television while they work, thinking this will help them concentrate. The reason this seems to help is because the extra noise prevents uncomfortable thoughts from rising to the surface, but the background noise only creates more agitation.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with watching TV or listening to the radio. The problem arises when we simply use them as background noise. Of course, we should also use some discretion concerning what we watch or listen to. Remember, whichever seeds in your mind you water, those will be the ones that grow.

I would suggest turning off the radio or television (or any other entertainment device) when you’re doing something else. This will help you concentrate on what you’re doing. Try it for a week. I think you’ll be surprised at how much of a difference it makes.

Copyright 2013 Charles A. Francis
All Rights Reserved

Charles A. Francis is the founder and director of the Mindfulness Meditation Institute. The Institute is dedicated to providing people with the tools they need to realize their full potential as human and spiritual beings through the practice of mindfulness meditation.

How To Slow A Racing Mind – Too Many Commitments

How To Slow A Racing Mind – Too Many Commitments

By Charles A. Francis

Most of us are unaware that our daily activities are the primary sources of our mental agitation. Once we become aware of these sources, we can do something about them. So when people ask me how to stop their minds from racing, I tell them to start by taking their foot off the accelerator.

Some of us have too many commitments in our lives. Every waking moment of our day is packed with activities, and we never have time to rest. We all want to be productive because it gives us a sense of accomplishment and purpose. The problem with having too many commitments is that all the activities agitate our minds so much that it becomes increasingly harder to slow it down. This makes it harder to think clearly, therefore, lowering our effectiveness and productivity.

To address this problem, I suggest making a list of all your activities and commitments, including meditation. Remember that your spiritual development is important to your family’s happiness, because it will enable you to truly be there for them. Then prioritize your commitments according to how much they contribute to your and your family’s happiness, and give up the least important ones to make time for your personal needs, such as rest and meditation.

With many of our commitments, we have no choice in the short-run. We can’t quit our jobs or abandon our families, but we can consider more carefully what we truly need to survive and be happy. For example, do all our material possessions really make our family happier, or do they take us away from our loved ones? With mindfulness, we can determine the real sources of happiness and strive to incorporate them into our lives.

Copyright 2013 Charles A. Francis
All Rights Reserved

Charles A. Francis has studied the practice of mindfulness with Zen Master Thich Nhat anh, and teaches mindfulness meditation through clear and simple instructions. He has over 17 years of experience helping people find true happiness and inner peace with the practice. Find out more about Charles and the Mindfulness Meditation Institute.

How to Slow a Racing Mind – Sources of Mental Agitation

How to Slow a Racing Mind – Sources of Mental Agitation

By Charles A. Francis

Do you ever find it difficult to slow down your mind? For some of us, a racing mind is a serious problem. When we’re agitated, we have no control over our mind, and it becomes extremely difficult to meditate.

An agitated mind leads to stress and a whole host of health problems, such as high blood pressure and heart disease. It even disrupts our relationships and sleep.

Fortunately, there’s a simple solution to this problem. No matter how fast your mind is racing, you can learn how to cultivate a calm and serene mind, and the good news is that it’s a lot easier than you might think. The only catch is that you have to be willing to take a few simple suggestions.

Sources of Mental Agitation

Some people have the misconception that they need to calm their minds before they start meditating. They often think that they’re “the type of person” who just can’t sit still. Having a calm mind is not a matter of who you are, but rather what you do.

To understand why our minds get so agitated, it would help to understand a little about how they work. The primary mechanism by which we perceive the world is through our five senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell). These are our receptors. They are connected to our brains and send us raw information about what is taking place around us at any given moment.

Each time our senses are stimulated, our brain reacts by trying to interpret the signals it receives and tries to determine the proper response. In other words, each stimulus triggers a thought, either conscious or unconscious.

There are four main sources of mental agitation: 1) Too many commitments, 2) background noise, 3) painful memories, and 4) worrying. There are short-term solutions for dealing with too many commitments and background noise. Painful memories and worrying will take more time to overcome, but they will resolve themselves through a regular meditation practice.

Copyright 2013 Charles A. Francis
All Rights Reserved

Charles A. Francis is the founder and director of the Mindfulness Meditation Institute. The Institute is dedicated to providing people with the tools they need to realize their full potential as human and spiritual beings through the practice of mindfulness meditation.

Better Living through Mindfulness – Univ. of Utah News

Better Living through Mindfulness – Univ. of Utah News

March 07, 2013 – A new study from the University of Utah shows that individuals who describe themselves as being more mindful have more stable emotions and perceive themselves to have better control over their mood and behavior throughout the day. Higher mindful people also describe less cognitive and physiological activation before bedtime, suggesting that greater emotional stability during the day might even translate into better sleep. The study results will be presented later this month at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society.

Read the rest of the article at U Study Connects Traits of Mindfulness to Emotional Well-Being.

Making Lemonade Out Of Lemons

Making Lemonade Out Of Lemons

By Linda-Ann Stewart

A month ago, I took my car into the dealership for some routine maintenance, as well as to address a recall for the automatic window switch. The closest dealer is 60 miles away in Prescott. I contacted a friend there, and mixed a chore with pleasure. While my car was being worked on, we had lunch and visited.

Two days later, when I rolled the car window down, I discovered that the whole mechanism was loose. I had to make another trip to the dealership to get it checked. Again, I was able to have something fun to do while I was there. Jeff and I had a picnic by one of their lakes.

Unfortunately, the part was broken and they had to order it, which would necessitate a third visit to the dealership. At the last minute, I was able to schedule a lunch with another friend the day it was finally repaired.

Although it was annoying that each visit took several hours out of my day, I did my best to create something good out of each of them. I got to visit with two friends I don’t get to see very often, and Jeff and I created the space for a picnic. That  doesn’t mean that I didn’t vent a bit about the inconvenience. But I decided I wanted to use my energy to make lemons into lemonade.

When you have something irritating happen, you can either waste your energy on being unhappy or you can find some way to have fun with it. It’s your choice and all in your perspective. I invite you to empower yourself. Engage your creativity and find a way to put your energy to constructive use.

Arizona Renaissance Festival 2013

Arizona Renaissance Festival 2013

Jeff and I recently made our annual pilgrimage to the Arizona Renaissance Festival. This year, I’d developed a cold the previous week and successfully recovered enough for our weekend. The weather was lovely and, as usual, we had a wonderful time.

Jeff regularly wins awards for hitting the target with axes or stars. I just throw stars, and usually, I’m just thrilled when I get them to stick into the back board. But for the first time, I won an award for hitting the target with a star.

We attended some of our favorite entertainments and a new one. At Don Juan and Miguel’s show, when Don Juan used his whip to clip the pasta from Miguel’s mouth, some of it landed in my lap.

At the Fare-Thee-Well, where entertainers and attendees dance to the beat of drums, a couple of little girls grabbed my hand and started twirling with me. After they ran off, I danced until the cannon boomed and signaled the end of the day.

*Sigh.* Until next year.

 

What can I do to cope with the stress?

What can I do to cope with the stress?

Question: I have an extremely stressful job, supervising many people, with schedule changes every few hours or days. What can I do to cope with the stress?

Answer: I’ve given seminars on stress reduction, and define stress as “any adjustment that has to be done to the normal routine.” So if your schedule changes several times a day, just the having to adjust to something new will create stress.

Doing meditation, relaxation, or self-hypnosis will help to reduce the stress. Any of these mimics the end process of the stress response, namely the “let-down” period. By doing self-hypnosis, you’re telling the mind that all is well now, and it’s safe to let go and relax. It doesn’t have to take long, just 15 minutes a day.

I know that when I do this after a stressful day, it gives me a lift, and I feel much more refreshed. My clients and the seminar attendees also say the same. You’ll be amazed. You can find the instructions to do self-hypnosis on my site at
Self-Hypnosis Steps.

In the space where you are to put in your suggestions, just imagine yourself in a special place of peace and comfort. It may be someplace you enjoy visiting, or someplace imaginary. And it may change from time to time. You’re giving yourself a mental vacation.

Copyright 2003, 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

Tools For Change

Tools For Change

Reading self-help and personal development books, and listening to CD’s of them, is helpful to expand the awareness of the possibilities for yourself. It also can uplift you and put you in a more constructive mindset. But if you don’t start using some of the tools that you learn about, the improvements won’t last long. You need to create your own foundation so that you can build a strong structure that can withstand the winds of storms.

Here are a few techniques for you to begin with, if you need to start somewhere.

  • Meditation – Studies show that meditation actually changes the structure of the brain. It establishes a sense of well being, allows us to think more quickly and make better decisions, along with a whole host of other positive results.
  • Mindfulness – This type of meditation means that you just remain aware of the present moment. As with meditation, it changes brain structure, reducing fear, improving memory and productivity.
  • Self-hypnosis – This is a process of communication with the inner mind that can change ideas at level where they were programmed. It can reduce stress and anxiety, help change habits, grow self-confidence and improve all sorts of physical issues.
  • Cognitive techniques – This technique instructs you how to become conscious of negative ideas and change them. It’s effective for improving depression, anxiety, and negative self-talk.
  • Journaling – Studies have shown that when you write about your feelings, your situations, or your life, this can improve the way you feel physically and mentally. It helps the mind to reprocess the information at a deep level and builds inner resources.
  • Affirmations/self-talk – When you change the way you talk to yourself, you change the way you believe and behave. It helps increase optimism and is a key to stress management.

Choose one of these to begin practicing consistently and you’ll notice an improvement in your life in a very short time. It will give you the tool you need to hold onto when life gets a little bumpy. You’ll get through the challenges much more smoothly when you have been making time for your personal development.

Neuroscience, Meditation and Well-being

Neuroscience, Meditation and Well-being

An article from ” The Review: The Weekly Beaker,” states that Buddhist monks compared the mind in a meditative state to malleable gold. Modern neuroscience is proving that to be true.

Meditation changes the brain in many ways. And these changes can improve the quality of our lives. It:

  • Decreases stress
  • Increases the sense of well-being and peace
  • Contributes to being positive
  • Improves mood
  • Quickens thinking and mental processing
  • Establishes thoughts and habits more easily
  • Improves health
  • Decreases pain

Meditation and self-hypnosis access the same types of brain waves and can induce these kinds of changes in the brain. Practicing either of these can give you these kinds of results.

Our western culture values success, achievement and accomplishment, but that it comes at a cost. We physically and mentally run ourselves into the ground. Modern neuroscience is proving that we can literally improve our brains. Meditation and/or self-hypnosis help us to rebuild those inner resources and cultivate awareness and insight. And that could further our productivity and success.

Read the full article: The Weekly Beaker: The Neuroscience of Wellbeing – Meditation.

Your Personal Efficient Biofeedback Instrument

Your Personal Efficient Biofeedback Instrument

Are your shoulders ever tense? Do you ever clench your teeth? When you’re entering an uncomfortable situation, do you ever have butterflies in your abdomen? All of these just show that your body is an efficient biofeedback tool. It shows you what you’re thinking and feeling, even if you aren’t aware of it.

Whenever you’re stressed, your back muscles will tighten up in preparation to handle the threat. You may not even know that you’re stressed until you check in with your body.

Mentally or verbally rehearsing an argument after the fact may cause an upset stomach. It may not be happening in real life, but that doesn’t mean that your body doesn’t respond as if it’s happening now.

When you’re worried about something, you may unconsciously frown and furrow your forehead. You may even get a headache from tense neck muscles.

Your body shows you what you’re thinking about. Start listening to what it’s telling you. Check in with your body, and ask yourself, “What am I thinking about?” “What’s going on?” This will give you an indication of where your focus has been driving you.

Next, ask yourself, “What needs to change?” Stress, upset, anxiety, worry just keeps you immobilized. It cuts you off from creativity, inner resources and your problem solving abilities.

As soon as you redirect your attention to what you can do improve things, you instruct your subconscious mind to begin accessing those resources. Your subconscious mind will change its direction and begin seeking a solution. You can help it along by taking time to consciously relax. That will give it more energy to do its work.

The next time you feel out of sorts, reconnect with your body. It’ll give you all the guidance you need.

~ Linda-Ann