How to Control your Mind

How to Control your Mind

How to control your mind ? How often do you get that strange feeling that your head is buzzing and you can’t seem to think straight? Do you often feel like you’re over-thinking and blowing things out of proportion? Are you often crying and complaining about your problems.

I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Tweet this)

It happens, and it’s not always wrong. But sometimes it’s just your mind playing tricks. It’s true when people say, “It’s all in the mind” and quite often our problems are directly proportional to what we make of them inside our head. We always have the option of magnifying or minimizing our problems by taking control of our mind and thinking about things differently.

How to control your  mind? The mind likes to wander, but you’ve got to latch on to it. There are many ways by which you can control your mind and keep it fit.

1. Take a Step Back

Quite often when faced with a problem, we tend to react. Our mind gets emotional instead of rational. That’s when we need to take a step back, control ourselves, and rationalize. The rational mind is more mature than the emotional one. It looks at things with a detachment that is important in decision-making and in problem-solving.

2. Tell Yourself the Right Things

It’s true when they say you are what you tell yourself. If we keep sending the wrong messages to our brain, sooner than later these will begin to show up in our thinking.

If we keep dwelling on our failures, over the course of time, we will stop motivating ourselves to try new things because of the fear of failure. However, if we take things as they come and try to keep calm even in difficult situations, the mind will condition itself to work that way and you won’t be bursting into tears and becoming a nervous wreck every time something goes wrong.

3. Don’t Bottle up

In the course of a day, a million things cross our mind. A lot of these get involuntarily filtered out, others get stored in momentary memory, but a few run deep. Everyone has some things that they only keep to themselves. More often than not, these are negative emotions and feelings we are afraid to share.

We may think that by closeting them in our mind, we will forget. But the truth is that bottling up starts filling up and clogging your mental space and starts showing up in your thinking and actions. How often does it happen that bottled anger causes us to pick up unnecessary fights or depression causes us to forget something totally unrelated?

Deal with your problems and emotions, don’t store them up, allowing them to fester. Cry it out, write it out, blurt it out to a confidante—the cure lies in venting not storing.

4. Mental Assistance

The mind can always use some support, much like an overworked employee. If you have too many things to do or remember, or are thinking hard about something, put it on a paper. Lists, mind maps, cue cards—there are many ways by which you can organize information without letting it take up more room inside your head. That’s why these measures also help to “clear” your mind.

5. Keeping Yourself Occupied

Even as mental assistance is helpful, it is also important to keep the mind “busy.” The mind is like a machine. If it’s not used well and oiled with positive reinforcement, it will get rusty. How to Control your mind? The best way to keep your mind healthy is to keep yourself occupied.

Do different things, some that are mechanical and don’t require too much thinking, and others that are creative and need you to think differently. For example, daily household chores or filing tasks are mechanical, while pursuing a hobby, such as reading, writing, or painting, is creative. Try to take out time for both these types of things regularly.

6. Exercise

Everyone looks at exercise as a means to physical fitness, but it’s just as important for mental well-being. Don’t think. Take out at least 150 minutes of exercise every week. Sweat it out and ensure that the exercise is at an intensity that forces you to clear out all thoughts and simply focus on your body movement.

Even if you get tired, force yourself to continue. The trick lies in pushing yourself—block the “I’m too tired” messages from your mind, and keep your body going.

7. Deep Breathing

Inhaling and exhaling deeply injects a burst of oxygen supply, which works like a tonic. When you feel overwhelmed, take a minute and deep breathe. Do this as often as you like, feel free to make it part of your daily routine.

8. Eat right

Nutritionists suggest that some nutrients like Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins like E and K, help to keep your brain healthy. So even as you diet to keep your body in shape, also ensure that your food contains nutrients that are good for your brain, too. Keep walnuts and almonds handy, munch on flax seeds, bite into an apple or include tomatoes in your salad—there are plenty of options to experiment with.

Also read : Mind Control Techniques for a Good Life

Conclusion

How to control your mind? Your mind is smart. Don’t let your thoughts rule you. Control your mind, if you don’t someone else will.  Your mind can be your greatest friend if you control it, but if it controls you it can be your greatest enemy. Force it to do your bidding. After all you are the boss of it, not the other way around.

Mind your mind. If you mind, it matters!

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About the Author

Megha has always been passionate about writing on socially relevant issues, education and careers. She works in publishing and also writes for newspapers, magazines, websites and books.

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