The Power of A Quiet Mind

How do you define Power?

Close your eyes. Wait, don’t close them yet. Finish reading this paragraph, then close them. OK, close your eyes and try to think about nothing for 30 seconds.

Ready? Go. (Waiting...)

It wasn’t easy was it? Chances are various thoughts and images kept popping into your head.

Now, I want you to try the same exercise again, except this time I want you to pay attention to which specific thoughts and images pop up. Try to keep track of them. Notice them, note what they are, and then let them go. See if you can do that for a minute.

Ready? Go. (Waiting...)

What were they? Maybe that fight you had with your spouse or assignment that’s due tomorrow but you’re reading this instead. Or maybe a movie you saw recently, or something saw on Facebook.

The “mind chatter” never stops. It’s always going on in your daily life. Its almost as if it has Power over you no matter what you try to not think of.

Its as if you have Two minds in control? Some therapies and practices such as Zen meditation have found many benefits to quieting the mind chatter even a little.

Current psychology has been providing evidence of the use of quieting mind chatter to alleviate many different types of issues including anger, depression and anxiety. In fact therapies such as Acceptance -Commitment-Therapy show how useful it can be to solve everyday emotional problems.

Psychology Today published research papers that validates the benefits of Quieting the mind or Mindful Meditation including the following:

It Boosts Your HEALTH

1 - Increases immune function

2 - Decreases Pain

3 - Decreases Inflammation at the Cellular Level

It Boosts Your HAPPINESS

4 - Increases Positive Emotion

5 - Decreases Depression

6 - Decreases Anxiety

7 - Decreases Stress

Its science but you don’t need to be a scientist to figure out HOW to do it. In fact I am sure you have done it before without even knowing you were Doing it! Have you ever had a TIME OUT when you were a child to gather your thoughts and CALM down?

Or perhaps you were told to count to 10 before speaking out your initial thoughts. These sound so simple but they are in fact a state of mind that Quiets the mind. So you have done this before. The benefits however can grow beyond the moment with more practice.

Let me present another useful technique to get you more interested and practicing meditation. Its easy when applied to the constant barrage of choices, information and emotional engagements we come across from the moment we wake. The neurons and nervous system are constantly agitated and stressed. Using various techniques from business,biology, philosophies,religions and psychology, we can Quiet the mind and HEAL from the inside.

Here it is:

Take a moment and take a DEEP breath now! Think about your big breath, where do you feel it, hear it see it? Release with a big Ahhhhh. Take two more deep inhalations and notice the breath and two more deep release exhalations. What do you feel or notice? You are observing the thinking mind. This is meditation in its simplistic form.

Now , you have an easy tool to Quiet the mind. The more often you use it the more you will notice the Quiet mind.

It’s a simple technique you can deploy at any moment in you're waking day. The fact is you had to stop thinking of your chatter, and mindfully focus on the breath. Nothing else was in your thoughts for those 3 breaths.

By using this simple focus of the breath, you will notice your day feel more focused , clear, relaxed.

Quiet the mind. Think of Nothing and breathe!

I hear you now, saying I don’t have time to think about NOTHING!

Thinking of Nothing may seem a waste of time , but it will actually save time in your life because it gives you the clarity to engage, focus and create.

The Quieting releases you from stress, anger and negative emotions (time out) and scientists have proven that the thinking of nothing is actually better for our emotional health. Rather than allowing the chatter to clutter your mind with negatives it clears the path for balanced emotion. Balancing the emotional stops us from negative or careless reactive behaviors.

The balance of a Quiet mind brings forth the Power inside of us for Physical, Emotional, and Mental well being.

Quiet now! Its for your health!