Thursday, 17 September 2009 06:27

There are many ways to quiet a racing mind.

This is a life practice for all of us. When my mind is racing, I make sure to stop and pay attention to what my mind is talking about. As we all know, the mind bounces from one thing to the next from past to future and rarely sits very long in the present. Often I find a common thread running through my thoughts when I pay attention. I am either worried, angry or over excited. This is where the practice comes in. We rarely set aside time in our day to just pay attention to our mind and allow the thoughts to flow in and out without grabbing on to them. I recommend watching your mind through meditation. Create a sacred space for yourself and watch your mind. Acknowledge your thoughts and then take deep breaths and send them off as you pay attention to your body. Then sit still and wait for the next thought and repeat the process. You may want to journal about it afterwards. The point being is to develop your consciousness so you may be more in charge of your mind. Our minds are not US! Even though they trick us into thinking they are. The MIND is a servant of the heart. Its purpose is to analyze, judge and compare and it does that very well. Unfortunately our mind often and most always steers our life instead of our guided heart.  We haven’t trained our focus to hear sounds and guidance of our hearts and intuition clearly, and so our mind races out of control like a wild child at play behind the steering wheel of our life. Our thoughts are out of control and steering us in every emotional direction. Sound familiar?

Cyclical Breathing to Quiet a Racing Mind

Cyclical Breathing is a great way to calm the mind and also calm physical reactions to the racing mind.

Try a deep inhalation through your nose for a slow count of 4, hold for 2 and then exhale for the count of 4. When you feel comfortable then increase the time you are inhaling, holding and exhaling until you can inhale to 8, hold for 4 and exhale for 8. The goal here is to interrupt the adrenalyzed mind by bringing in oxygen and life force. The flush of oxygen will help your body relax. Most likely when you mind is racing your body will be contracting, you may be holding your breath and holding your muscles, so breath work is a quick way to release the stronghold the mind has.

There are many visualizations you can do along with this.
Anchoring your energy into the earth is one as well as visualizing color and light.

Finally, When looking to quiet the mind, look at what you are putting into your body. Caffeine and Sugar can create hyperactive minds, so limit your intake… especially after 5pm.

I hope this gives some insight into the epic challenge of quieting the racing mind. It is certainly a practice that over time can bring more self- compassion and peace to your life. Above all, I have learned that my racing mind is like an alarm going off when my heart is saying, “slow down, take care of me”. So I breathe and I remember that I am a part of  something greater, something far more greater than my racing thoughts… and I Surrender to it’s awesome healing presence. Practice, Breath and build your awareness.
Peace will come.


With Love,
Lauren