5 Techniques to Quiet Your Mind

In many ways, the uncontrolled mind resembles a five-year-old child wanting to run amok through the city streets, only able to sit still for a few seconds before jumping up again. If you allow your brain to run a mile a minute without interjecting, it will only press on with the madness until you discover that your mind has slowly become a prison.

“Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart.” – Unknown

However, you can actually free your mind, even if it seems impossible in the beginning. Humans are very adaptable creatures, and pick up on new habits throughout their lives. So, in this way, our brains become rewired because we have installed a new operating system in our minds: chaos. To create a peaceful mind, you just need to revert back to your original nature of harmony and balance.

Sound difficult? Well, here are some effective techniques to help you regain control of your mind again.

5 techniques to quiet the mind:

1. Focus on the positive aspects of yourself and your surroundings.

In short, we have collectively created the mass disorder and confusion we observe around us daily with our thoughts. We have all allowed negative thinking to prevail for many millennia, so the physical world is merely a product of our thoughts. By simply shifting your focus to what makes you happy or what you’re thankful for, you can start to retrain your mind to think more positively. Consequently, you will start to feel more peaceful since you no longer emphasize the negativity you perceive within yourself and elsewhere.

Remember, energy flows where attention goes – you can achieve peace by creating awareness behind your thoughts.

2. Repeat peaceful words to yourself throughout your day.

Pay attention to your brain at this very moment…what kinds of thoughts do you observe? Most likely, you will notice that most of your thoughts center around what you have to do today, what someone said that made you angry, or even degrading thoughts about yourself. Don’t feel bad, though; maintaining a consistent positive mindset isn’t always easy with so much negativity around us. However, you can counter negative, stress-inducing thoughts with simple, peaceful words.

Anytime you feel a bout of anxiety coming on, introduce calming words into your awareness, such as: Tranquil. Calm. Peaceful. Serenity. Light. Love. Relaxing. Breeze. Beach. The last two words in the sequence describe scenery, which you can do as well if it makes you feel peaceful. Words carry a lot of meaning and power, so use them to your advantage whenever you feel stressed out.

3. Meditate on a regular basis.

We suggest meditation a whole lot on our website, but for good reason. When you meditate, you stop the flow of thoughts bombarding your consciousness every second, and instead move into space where stillness takes precedence. While you don’t have to turn off your brain to meditate, many people feel that their thoughts slow down incredibly, and they can observe themselves much easier with controlled breaths and closed eyes. Meditation simply brings awareness into the body and makes it much easier to cope with daily challenges.

If you want to cultivate more peace in your mind and life, start meditating, or sitting quietly focusing on nothing but your breath for at least ten minutes a day on a daily basis. You will find that adopting a more peaceful mindset becomes much more attainable.

4. Live in the here and now.

Forget about the errands you have to run tomorrow after work, the bills you must pay next week, or the uncertainty of your future that you haven’t even gotten to yet. When you let thoughts like these ruminate, it can cause great dis-ease within the body and even lead to anxiety, depression, chronic stress, and other serious problems. Most anxiety is caused by simply living in a time other than the one we have right now, so bring yourself back to the present whenever you feel your thoughts taking you elsewhere.

By allowing yourself to flow from one moment to the next, just as you did as a child, you will recapture what it means to feel true peace.

5. Leave the city for a while and reconnect with nature.

This could mean going on your lunch break in a nearby park or going on a vacation to escape the stress of daily life. Anything you can do to strengthen your bond with nature will greatly benefit your mind, and help you remember that we create most stress we feel in our mind and body.

We originated in a pure harmony, and most of what we see around us is just a persistent illusion. Remember that nature doesn’t struggle through life, and you don’t have to. Don’t get too caught up with the trivial matters of the material world, because you won’t find peace in numbers or possessions.

Truthfully, peace resides within your heart already, but Mother Earth can help you remember this by providing solace from the strains of modern society.