When I was growing up, I had a friend whose family threw her a ‘half birthday party’ halfway through the year. To me, autumn is just like that half birthday party in nature; a gift just a little past the halfway mark in our year. We have the opportunity during this time of year to reflect on the the first half of the year and and to release what no longer serves us. This is a transitional time which allows us the opportunity to gently detoxify our thoughts, our bodies and our spiritual essence. This week we’ll start where it all begins: THE mind.
DETOX Series : THE mind
Our culture is prone to emphasis the importance of detoxing the body from toxins. When you detox, your works hard to remove impurities. While the benefits of a physical detox are many, a mental detox is of equal or maybe even greater importance. The body and mind work together, in harmony. No matter how good your physical condition is, if your mind is filled with toxic thoughts, beliefs and perceptions, you will still feel heavy, unclear, and unhappy.
How to start:
1. Barricade Bad Mojo
In our 24/7 information culture, we have to be careful what we let into our mind. Too much bad news can bring you down, cause mental overwhelm and a sense of gloom, without even realizing why. Think about where your news and information come from. Is it the TV? The newspaper? A person? Can your access to these things be limited or maybe even cut out all together?
An added bonus for removing this negativity from your mind, you have more time to work on positive things, goals, visions.
2. Let The Good Vibes In
Our mind is a sponge. It absorbs almost everything it encounters. Once you’ve cut back on some of the negativity coming into your world, you'll have made room for the positive perceptions that bring peace into your mind. If you find it difficult to make the switch, try this:
For one full month, anytime your mind wanders to the negative, you get caught up in gossip or watching a news show and you start overthinking, catch these thoughts and counteract them by putting in some positive thoughts. Do this by having inspirational items or things that
make you happy handy. Listen to a podcast or music, watch a video, read a magazine or a book that are inspirational or motivational in nature. Start to take charge of what goes into your mind and make a choice to fill it with informative and positive thoughts.By proactively putting only positive things into your mind you’ll start to feel as though that overthinking transforms into optimism.
3. Change Your “I am”.
Words are like electricity…wonderful when it provides lights for our home…negative when lightning
strikes and causes destruction. Your words are the same. So often our " I am" is followed with words like old, tired and unlucky. When we use these negative verses, not only do we invite that negativity into our life, but we believe ourselves and it then becomes our reality. Make changing your "I am: a priority. Tell yourself “I am beautiful” and “I am blessed”. Repeat it as many times a day as you can, there is no limit or magic number.
You may be surprised to see an immediate change with some of your "I am"' talk, especially ones like "I am focused" or "I am energized". Some of the deeper self beliefs may take you longer to embrace as you have spent a lifetime believing false self perceptions. This will take time. Start catching yourself. Don’t give negative words life.
4. Get Going
Overthinking will slow you down, weigh you down, make things seem heavier than they actually are.
Distract that overthinking mind. Get to work on the good stuff instead. Take action, physically get
up from where you are, change locations and start working on something different. Start the work you’ve been putting off…writing that business plan, mapping out that next big trip or start that backyard project you’ve been daydreaming about. This moves your physical body along with your mind which in turn makes your mind concentrate on the thing your physical body is working on.
4. Be Still.
Alternatively, sometimes finding stillness and quieting the mind brings clarity. It allows for us to truly tune into the things that are being whispered to us on a daily basis. There are times when we cannot hear these whispers because we are too busy talking or looking in another direction.
Trying just one of the practices will begin to help bring clarity to your mind and start to bring harmony into your life. This mental detox is the first step in your journey to overall wellness. It begins here.
“Listen for the instruction instead of begging for the direction.” -Iyanla Vanzant