Quiet The Noise

COVID-19 has presented mankind with the greatest opportunity to slow down and learn how to navigate and quiet our mental noise. When you remove the usual brain stimulation from before the pandemic, you’re still left with about 50,000 daily thoughts; many of which are outrageous and false. These thoughts impede our ability to be happy and fully immersed in the present. Toxic negative thoughts are also a current epidemic and are contagious. Most people relate more to mental exhaustion than physical exhaustion, commonly agreeing that they “think too much.”

Now is the time to learn how to give yourself a mental break and relegate these thoughts to the background. Let them be ambient noise. Be tough with them and make your brain be the servant, not the master. Use your mind to train your brain. Allowing your brain to take you down negative paths accomplishes nothing but making things worse than they already have to be.

The goal is to create a cessation or marked reduction in mental activity. It’s that simple. The most important step, especially for beginners, is to place your attention on the physical process of breathing. Make it the focal point. Realistically, you don’t stop the thoughts. You just notice them and consciously return your attention back to your breath. Don’t react to your thoughts, don’t argue or fight them. Cut off their energy source by repeatedly and gently refocusing on your breath.

Use a timer or an app like Headspace or Calm. I use an EGG device called “Muse,” which measures my brain’s electrical activity and gives me real-time neurofeedback on how I’m doing. But at the start, it is just as efficient to set a timer for fifteen minutes and tell yourself, “For the next fifteen minutes, I don’t need to figure out. I can just focus on my breath.” You’ll instantly notice a huge difference in hearing and regulating your mental noise. Your breath and your thoughts are the two constant companions that will be there until your last moment. Learning to manipulate them in a positive way can only be beneficial, and it only takes fifteen minutes. Start today!