Mind Training

Modern life is full of trials and events that test our resolve and often throw us in a spin, making it hard for many of us to cope.

Here is a small three step programme of exercises to help gain back control and face moments that often hold us back from enjoying life.

Try these techniques to develop a mind that will free you from excessive over thinking and help you gain back some control of life.

Use this to help every day stress, anxiety and life situations. and take control of the one thing that can change your life - YOUR MIND!

STEP 1 - Mindfulness

This is one of the easiest ways of calming the mind, especially if you take time to go somewhere peaceful, like a forest walk or somewhere equally pleasant. If you stop and slowly look about you, at the same time listen to what is around you, do this for a few minutes, focusing on something specific like a tree or a leaf as you turn. Over time this will become easier the more you practice and you will find that this can also be done anywhere:

• Walking
• Driving the car
• While doing your chores
• While waiting in a queue

Because you are so focused you can pretty much do it anywhere at any time and the beauty of this means you can perform any activity safely, you will be exercising your mind at the same time without anybody else knowing and be fully aware of your task that you are doing. There is no reason not to try this and the benefits are huge, we can spend a lot of our time letting our minds wonder aimlessly, creating chatter and noise which has no benefit at all and will ultimately distract us to such a degree as to limit your mind recall, have you ever gone into a room and forgot what you went in there for? Your mind is distracted and influenced by your subconscious ruminations and deliberation, you didn't forget anything, your purpose was temporarily pushed to one side by background disturbances which are constantly going on in the mind, you are often not aware it is happening until it is physically obvious. How many times have you been on a journey and you have forgotten how you have got to your destination or the steps in which it took to get there. While this can be disturbing when we start to think about it, it also can be a great risk, especially while we are driving and our minds decide to wonder off and then suddenly having to react to some incident on the road.

We need to do this for the sake of our health, our bodies start with a healthy mind and this can be used to great effect just by being present. Our bodies will react to this positive stimulus and start to work in harmony with our thoughts instead of being influenced by any negative distractions.

Quiet the mind

Feel what it is like to be totally present

All our lives we have been conditioned to think a certain way, reacting to stimulus and taking on board what we have been taught by our parents, friends and media. We believe that we have control of our minds but illnesses such as anxiety and depression are all too common and are physical manifestation of a mind in ill health, which would indicate that we really aren't as much in control as we would like to believe. It may be hard to believe that we have control at any given moment and this is what the mind training is going to uncover, so that you can make the choice on what you are going to believe and keep your mind free and healthy. The first exercise will introduce the notion of what it is like to be fully focused and free from distraction. You may or may not be aware of how your constant thoughts dictate your present, such as bringing up interactions that might not happen, what you are going to do for the day or playing a tune in your head that you may have recently heard. Internal dialogue and noise is something everyone has to contend with, we need to be free from this influence which manifests in our lives in a number of different ways, quite often with physical consequence.

Exercise 1

Go for a short 10 to 15 minute walk, all the while you want to be fully aware of your surroundings. Take in the colours of the buildings and how well they are maintained or the colour of the trees and leaves and how they differ between each other. Listen to sounds and see how far your awareness can identify where the sound is coming from and from what direction.

Feel each step and how your body reacts as the pressure is felt in each foot. Try and use all the senses, filling your mind with stimulus instead of your mind leading you, you are leading it with data but don't dwell on anything, identify and let it go, moving on to the next input from your senses. I always find making shapes from clouds is good as part of this exercise especially for those who can't get out for whatever reason. If you are at home and not readily mobile, you can try opening a window and look out and observe; you will still find lots of things to keep the mind occupied.

Try repeating those exercises on a daily basis for a week, if need be you can time yourself but the most important thing is to be aware of your surroundings while you complete the exercise and this will be like giving your mind a break from excessive overthinking. You may be pleasantly surprised how much better you feel from this one exercise alone.

STEP 2 - Meditation

Many people meditate for many different reasons but whatever the reason there is no denying the benefits, some of these include:

• Reduce stress
• Self Awareness
• Calm the mind
• Pain relief
• Improve concentration
• Good Health

As each person has a varying mind condition, it will invariably lead each person to meditate slightly differently in one of many different ways. The exercises will introduce you to a way you can free yourself.

The ultimate goal will be to enable you to free your mind from the constant chatter that is inside your head to which you may not even be fully aware of. My own realisation came after walking my dog one day and when the walk was finished I realised I hadn’t taken any notice of my surroundings or what was happening around me as I walked. I used to suffer badly with migraines and it was only after researching stress did I realise that this was exactly what I was suffering from; my brain was constantly going over and over past events or possible future occurrences, I was never really fully at rest. It was at this stage I decided to try Mindfulness and meditation.

There are many techniques which can be explored using different tools such as prayer beads, sound, vibration, incense, visualisation, breathing, Tai Chi etc. The list is endless and there are many resources from reference books to YouTube channels which may help you and are worth exploring to find what works for you. I would start by keeping it simple, try a guided meditation, go to a class and learn the techniques by experienced teachers. However you do it, just give it a go and know that you are not going to gain life changing results without trying something and nothing is achieved without putting in some effort, keep at it and you will start to see the difference over a period of time. Start a life journal and document your efforts, this will allow you to see how you are progressing and by writing down your thoughts you will discover a deeper, inward unfolding of where your mind is and its current state of awareness.

Watch the mind

Thoughts may seem to keep producing without the need of any effort and thought is the creative process but behind those thoughts is freedom, you need to be able to become the watcher of your thoughts, seeing them rise and then watching them fade without the need to interact. There is no need to try and repress them or stop them, you just have to evaluate their worth and let them go. Some thoughts are generated from your spirit within as a way of communication but this a deeper subject and is usually for those looking for guidance. This exercise should be practised often to get yourself in a habit of freeing the mind from going out of control. It will be tempting to linger on details which seem relevant to your circumstance but in this exercise you will have nothing you need to focus on other then freeing your mind and be in the moment, you may even start to become aware of how expansive your consciousness is.

Exercise 2

Sit comfortably (but not too relaxed, we don’t want to fall asleep), eyes closed with your limbs unfolded and resting without tension as you don’t want to be distracted by your body being uncomfortable or by noisy surroundings, also make sure you are not going to be disturbed in this 5 minute meditation. As you sit, first focus on the breath and notice the sensation on the nose and lips, even think the word "In" as you breath in and think the word "Out" as you breath out. Then when you are ready, just breath normally and focus your attention on your thoughts which will inevitably arise, you may not even be aware that they do but by regularly performing this exercise you will suddenly become aware of them and in mid sentence just let the internal dialogue taper off, you have no need to see it finish as you will have no investment in the content. There is no need for focus, you are just being aware of your inner world and where you have no dialogue, you can bathe in the silence but you will probably find that the mind will repeatedly generate other thoughts and you can then repeatedly have no investment in them too.

With practice, this will become easier over time and eventually you can then start to do this exercise while you are not trying to be in a meditative state, activities such as taking a shower, preparing food, going for a walk etc. The important thing is to make it a habit so it becomes a natural part of your mind control and who you are, you can choose what you invest your time thinking about.

STEP 3 - Past, Future & Present

At present, the past and future are just moments that have already gone or yet to happen, this may seem an obvious statement but we often don't dwell on what this means to us and how it can affect our present moment. Some people spend their whole lives living in the past, especially after some traumatic event, wishing things could be different, not being able to see a future where circumstances can get any better. Constantly being in this state does not allow us to fully live our lives in the present, keeping us in the past in a moment of misery, this is not healthy and eventually our bodies will echo the state of our mind and manifest in physical illnesses. There are other people who look back at the past and see a more simple time which represents an ideal which they would like to return to; this also on the surface doesn't seem like a bad thing but we can often unwittingly take a gift, be it physical or non-physical and turn it into something limited in its use, not fully appreciating what life is trying to do in guiding our way to a fulfilled destiny.

Being present doesn't mean ignoring what is about to happen or planning for the future as we have to be open to what life presents to us. We have to adapt and react to the journey through life so that we may learn and look forward to a more fuller experience of what life has to offer. It is no good wishing for better times or waiting for a time when circumstances may change to allow freedom in some way, freedom is of the mind. In this freedom we change our thoughts about what we perceive and this in turn changes the circumstance of why we are in this situation. We can never fully know when a circumstance is really good for us or bad as we do not know where it will lead us in the future, what seems like good fortune, for instance winning some money may turn into grief when it is forcibly taken away from us, or you could have an accident which stops you going to a certain destination only to find that if you had, your circumstance would have been a lot worse and in this situation you consider yourself lucky.

You can mentally transport yourself into the past or future and this will become your reality while at the same time living in the present, this becomes a conflict of physical presence and can only lead to dis-ease and a dichotomy of living experiences. Becoming present in every moment allows the body, mind and spirit to exist harmoniously without conflict and then every interaction is fully expressive from the heart of who you really are.

Being Present

A lot of your thinking revolves around things that happened, that's going to happen or that is currently happening. This may seem like an obvious and natural state of affairs as our lives have to be planned and our past experiences help us not to repeat mistakes we once made and if we didn’t react to the present then how can life function in any other way. This all seems logical but this also keeps you in a constant loop of overthinking, you have to decide what serves your needs.

Past, Present & Future

There is nothing in the past that can affect your present, it is behind you and physically impossible, you may feel like there are consequences and repercussions that you have to deal with but you will never be free of the past if you think this way. You can take a moment and let the past go, it is no concern for you right now, this doesn't mean that you can't delve back and take heed of past lessons, think of moments which were happy, memorable or practicable. In the mind training exercises the past is of no value once you are totally focused on the present moment, with practice you may recognise that all time is present but this is a much deeper topic which we won't get into just now.

Nothing in the future is concrete, you always have a choice and sometimes having that choice can give you comfort, whatever you do, don’t let scenarios play out in your head and don’t plan your words, let them come naturally in the moment, in this way they come from the heart. Quite often when we go over conversations and how they may pan out, we think we may resolve something or create a way of controlling the potential interaction with somebody so that we feel in control or getting our point across but quite often events never usually flow in the way you expect and so all that thought and anxiety is for no reason.

The present or as the mystics call it "The Eternal Now" is where most of your attention should be based. We have to also be aware that there are many distractions which stop us from being fully present, such as watching something on TV, reading a paper, phone, tablet, book, playing a game etc. While there is nothing wrong with these activities, they are still distractions and your mind needs a break from external influences from time to time. It doesn't stop us from noticing outside influences, we just don't have to be internally influenced by them, you have a choice in your state of being no matter what presents itself, your reaction to the outside world should come from the heart.

Exercise 3

We have various levels of conversations with people on a regular basis, some of which will be uncomfortable and awkward, such as talking with your boss or a family member who is being difficult or talking in front of a crowd of people.

Use one of the moments and make this your exercise.

Do not role play your conversation before hand, if thoughts arise about the encounter, then let them go, otherwise you are trying to create your future before your body has had a chance to get there.

As the time comes, take a moment to empty yourself of thought and keep yourself in the present moment, in this you will find clarity as your mind is allowed to be free of chatter and distraction.

Engage in the conversation with a clear mind and speak from the heart, this is usually the most constructive use of our interactions and will benefit us the most.