Quiet Your Frazzled Mind

No matter who you are or what you do, every one of us feels like we’re in a whirlwind sometimes. We feel like our mind is running around like a chicken with its head cut off and we can catch it. It’s juggling our mile-long to-do list on top of worrying about everything it could possibly handle worrying about at once. It’s thinking about the laundry, dinner, tomorrow’s dentist appointment, the kid’s homework, the car that needs to be washed, etc. And if we let it, our brain will go on and on… and on, and on.

When your mind is on overload it gets very loud. You get to where you can’t hear your thoughts over your thoughts. Someone is trying to tell you something and you can’t focus on what they’re saying. You just drove to the bank and back, yet you can’t really remember the drive.

To stop the mayhem you have to get quiet.

Here are some simple things you can do to quiet your mind and gain clarity.

Take a minute to listen to your thoughts. When we don’t take the time to listen to our thoughts they repeat themselves until we do listen. They want to be heard and if we don’t acknowledge them they won’t get resolved.

List your thoughts. You probably already have a grocery list, honey-do list and random lists coming out of your eyeballs, but your never-ending thoughts are telling you something. That something is that you’re not giving things priority. In your mind everything has to be done NOW, so everything is getting jumbled into one big feeling of “I have to get all of this done!” List everything from highest priority to what is least important. Then start form the top and work your way down.

Sit in complete silence. Do nothing, even if just for a few minutes. Put your phone away. Turn off the background noise and take a moment to relax. Five minutes of this isn’t going to throw your day out of whack. In fact, if you take a minute to yourself, you’ll be reenergized for the rest of the day ahead.

Be grateful. When we’re running late, when we’re rushing through the super market, when we can’t seem to get the kids ready fast enough, we’re at a loss for gratitude. Do you ever feel like your day is going to be a complete disaster if you don’t accomplish everything everyone needs you to? Do you ever feel like a failure when you run out of hours in the day? Be grateful for the roles you play and trust that you are still valuable and worthy of those roles no matter how your day pans out.

Once you feel gratitude you can feel peace. Wherever you are in your day, you can start it over just by using these tools.

What helps you calm down and quiet your mind? Tell me in the comments!