Having a clear mind is hugely beneficial if you want to live a happy and contented life. But while we often think of it as something that you do in a moment, more often than not it requires a lot of long-term changes instead, and that is something that you will therefore really want to be aware of. As it turns out, really clearing your mind is something that can be quite tricky to get right, but with persistence and a proper understanding of how it really works, you should be able to do just that.
In this article, we will take you through some advice on what you can do to have a clearer mind, both in the moment and in the long-term more generally. All of the following is probably going to help you a lot when it comes to that, so make sure that you are not discounting any of it. It could prove incredibly useful for you.
Learn Mindfulness
Mindfulness is all the rage right now, and with good reason, because it is one of those things that are definitely going to help you with your life if you do it right. You can think of mindfulness best as a skill that can be learned, and like any skill it might take you a while to do it, but it is nonetheless still possible to achieve. Learning mindfulness is actually quite fun and enjoyable, anyway, and you will start to notice the benefits of it right away, so there is really no reason not to start with this practice as soon as possible.
In mindfulness, you are aiming to pay attention to what is going on in your awareness with as little interruption as possible. In other words, you’re not trying to make your experience into anything in particular: rather, you are dispassionately observing what’s going on, and simply trying to notice it. Most people who try this find that it is actually harder than it sounds; we are just so used to always interfering with the mind and its contents, and it can be hard to let go of that and just let it be as it is.
Nonetheless, that’s the aim, and the more you do it, the better you will get at it. With time, your mindfulness practice is going to be such that you find yourself doing it all the time in your daily life, even when you are not officially engaging in a mindfulness act. This is when you know it’s working, and it is amazing what it can bring to your life when you start to do it automatically and frequently.
Meditate
Although the two are related, mindfulness and meditation are not quite the same thing. For one thing, in meditation you are normally sitting still with your eyes closed (though not always), and mindfulness is something you could do while driving a car or in the midst of any other activity. But meditation supports mindfulness and vice versa, and having both in your arsenal is hugely powerful if you want to make sure that you are clearing your mind as effectively as possible in your daily life.
So, start a daily meditation practice. This is as simple as taking five or ten minutes, at first, to simply sit and try to focus on the breath. When the attention wavers, as it will naturally, gently bring it back to the breath. Do that for ten minutes and see how you feel. The thing here is that, even if you don’t feel hugely different, once you are doing it every day, you will soon notice that you are calmer in your daily experience, that your mind is clearer, and that you generally feel more in control and happier. It’s really amazing what a difference it can make, and how quickly too.
Over time, you will find your skill developing and you will be able to increase your meditation time to twenty minutes, and then thirty, and then more and more. Eventually you can effortlessly sit for an hour or more a day, and then some really amazing effects will start to take place for you. So that is absolutely something that you might want to aim for. There are definitely obstacles that you will need to overcome, such as physical pain after sitting for a while, but you soon learn that this is all just part of the game: learning how to deal with that pain and allow it to come and go.
In any case, the more you practice meditation and mindfulness in tandem, the clearer your mind is going to be, so this is absolutely something that you should aim to focus on as best as you can. It’s a great skill to have, and one that will sustain you forever.
Do Away With Habits
We all have habits of some kind or another, and in one sense this is just what it’s like to have a mind in the modern world. But by their nature, habits hold us back from having a clear mind, because they take up much-needed real estate in the mind that could otherwise be used for something more important or useful. So if you want to make sure that you are really gaining control of your mind, doing away with mindless habits is going to be a really important part of that process, and one that you can’t afford to overlook.
If your habits are quite extreme, to the point of what you might call an addiction, then you will obviously want to consider getting some help with them. You might find that you need to book yourself in at a rehab clinic like https://rdoutpatientrehab.com/ or that you want to at least get some help from your friends. In any case, it’s vital that you are indeed getting the help you need here, as that is always going to make the process that much easier and simpler on the whole.
However, it might just be that you have a small habit that you want to overcome. In any case, the goal is to try and be mindful of when that habit is showing, why it is doing so, and having a plan in place for how to deal with it so that it doesn’t keep on returning. It takes persistence, but over time you should eventually be able to do away with your habits in general, and that will absolutely lead to a clearer mind soon enough, so it’s really important that you are thinking about this.
Keep A Clean Diet
You might be surprised at this, but having a clean diet actually helps a lot when it comes to trying to keep your mind clear. If you want to have a clear mind, make sure that you are not filling yourself with processed junk. It is all too often to do that sometimes, but it is really best avoided if at all possible. Eating plenty of wholesome foods, however, is going to give you a much better ability to control your own mind, so that is something that you might want to think about here.
It’s amazing how much it helps, so don’t overlook it.
And there you have it. If you do all that, you will be certain to experience a calmer mind day to day, now and into the future. The ongoing effects of that on your life can be quite profound, so don’t underestimate this really powerful practice.
