Though taking time to clean your mind is always in season, with Spring nearly upon us, now is the perfect time to tidy up and make some mental space. Detoxing old thoughts can be just like cleaning out the closet, cabinets, pantry, etc… And can do so much for you!
You mind has about 6000+ thoughts (or more) a day. Most of them are not your own and instead are created by things on TV and random online ads. All of this external stimulation leads you down the rabbit hole of complete chaos, which is never fun.
The clarity from cleaning up your thoughts can be beneficial to you in many ways, like freeing up space on a computer hard drive.
This concept is closely related to something known as the Bucket Blueprint.
Imagine your thoughts are the water that fills a metaphorical bucket. When that bucket is full with old habits & thoughts, there is no room for growth.
Any addition of new habits or thoughts causes the bucket overflow. Until you release the load in your bucket, there are no words, ideas, tasks, strategic funnels that will have space to adsorbed.
So many people fall back into the same bad habits or routines. That’s why you need a simple plan to offload the unnecessary mental bandwidth and make room for growth…
Here are 4 Simple Action Solutions to Rebuild Laser Focus & Concentration:
1. Power Word Focus:
Create a daily ritual of selecting a Power Word or Phrase (examples: Love, Hope, Confidence, Strength, etc).
Spend 5-10 minutes focused on and/or repeating this word to yourself. By repeating the same word or phrase throughout a, the sound of the words can create a pathway into deeper awareness, and thereby helping you ground into deeper focus.
2. Awareness Meditation:
Set aside 1 to 5 minutes – If you’re new to meditation, start small! I like to focus on and utilize nostril breathing: Inhale through your nose & exhale through your nose.
Any kind of meditation can calm your inner being and supercharge your awareness. By cultivating awareness, you’re allowing in your mental software time to reboot.
3. Morning Gratitude:
Every day (in the morning if possible) make time to write a gratitude list. This doesn’t have to be a long list (in fact, I recommend you keep it brief.) Take a few minutes to brainstorm and write down at least 3 things you’re really grateful for in life.
This simple practice will attune your brain to the things you love (and want more of), and help you declutter your mind of the extraneous thoughts that get in the way of your priorities.
4. Become Aware of Your Thoughts:
“Be careful how you are talking to yourself, because you are listening.” (credit: Lisa M Hayes)
Take a few short moments each day to listen to your thoughts – Review them as if reviewing a film frame by frame. As you review, ask yourself:
- “Do I believe this thought to be true?”
- “Can I welcome other thoughts or am I closed off from them?”
- “What feelings does this thought bring up in me?”
You can explore answers to these questions, or you can simply open the space in your mind for the questions to exist. What’s important is to ask them, and then listen to your thoughts.
The questions along with this practice are a wonderful device for sweeping away some pretty thick mental cobwebs and clearing space for more positive focus.
