It is quite common for the human mind to keep wandering from one subject to the other. It swiftly keeps moving from one thought to the other in search of specific answers. It naturally gets worried, tensed, frustrated, wants to get several answers, wants to answer back, wants to share amazing or sympathizing stories with the world, provide excuses, create issues or even solve them. Whatever it keeps doing, it just cannot stay still and relax.
But, what can be done in the case where the situation becomes somewhat complicated? How to stop your mind from wandering under such circumstances? How being comfortable with who you are can be a great choice? The basic recipe on how to keep your mind from wandering involves more practice, patience along with perseverance. But, what are the other things that can help in the long term?
The restless mind needs to be guarded, to save ourselves from any potential dangers. But, in one way or the other, we tend to zone out, and that is a completely normal feeling. According to some scientists, a wandering mind displays evolutionary benefits. However, some people also consider this practice harmful. These are the ones who spend a considerable part of their day in daydreaming and mind wandering activities. A lot of it is intrusive as well as negative and even becomes difficult to tame. Such thoughts make us feel miserable. But why do we let our mind wander?
There are basically three major reasons for the same. It successfully helps us project our future long-term plans. Mind wandering also proves to be a source of creative inspiration. It lets us analyze our past as well as our future selves. But it also happens due to boredom, lack of attention, to help the brain process when functioning complexly and to incorporate relaxation. Although mind wandering is a mechanism necessary for our survival, it can be bombarded with baseless information to escape the current scenario at the end eventually.It does so to find peace, joy, comfort, security and a state when it can stop wandering. All it is trying to do is search for happiness in the present moment. But, when it is unable to do so, wandering helps overcome the phenomenon. However, if the circumstances become intense, it is important for us to stop the mind from wandering and let it get back to its original self.
In today's world, it just takes an opening door or a smartphone chirp to derail us from the important task that we have been focusing on. And it is in no time that even the mind starts wandering endlessly. Fortunately, there are several ways to keep your mind from wandering and let it be comfortable with who you are. There is no magical formula but just a few suggestions through which you can efficiently focus on your priorities.
#1. Open Your Mind To Newer Possibilities
Just the way your physical self-needs stamina, strength, and flexibility to function in a better way every day, your mind too needs some exercising to face greater challenges. Opening your mind is important so it can absorb the vital things and experience a change on the everyday journey. For this, you will have to open all your senses and let in the things that you see around yourself. You cannot afford to shut your eyes and ears towards the happenings. Purchase a new book or magazine and read the things you would normally not. Let your brain widen itself towards the possibilities that are yet to be explored.
#2. Meditation Is The Key
This is one of the best tried and tested techniques for you to keep your mind from wandering. A daily 5-minutes meditation session will be enough to get your mind on the right track. It not only calms the rumbling thoughts but also helps you find answers to the undiscovered questions. You will not immediately but eventually notice the difference. Meditation helps you in practicing mindfulness. It increases your concentration power. Daydream is not a failure or any critical mistake. But when you start doing it excessively, the mind loses its track. It helps you explore even those areas of the mind that are kept untouched. Make sure to be gentle with your wandering mind. You will notice that this is one effective way to stop your mind from wandering aimlessly.
#3. Give Your Brain To Do More
Yes, this has also been proved in many research that when you give your mind some deliberate distractions, there is no space left for it to wander aimlessly. When you have nothing to get distracted with, your mind will not wander towards the directions you don't want it to. Purposeful distractions will ultimately reduce the distractibility of your mind. Understand the concept in this way- the human attention is an exclusive resource. But when you are willing to fill in all the attention slots of your brain, there remains no room for distractions to arise.
#4. Doodle
Doodling effectively reduces your stress along with boredom that essentially makes your mind wander endlessly. Doodling not only gives your wandering mind a direction but also allows you to resist both external as well as internal distractions. However, in case your doodling becomes too intensive and enlarged, you might have to stop it right away. You do not really have to get carried away with this practice. It is just one way in which you can stop your mind from wandering. Do not let doodling become intentional. Let it only remain like a technique in which the same does not backfire but helps you make effective use of your time and efforts.
#5. Have You Tried Stillness?
One reason for the fragmented attention is the fragmented movement of your body. For instance, at the movie hall, it is very easy to tell if the people around you are attentive to the scene or not. How? You can tell it from the activities they keep on doing from time to time or from the stillness and patience they have until the end of the film. People who tend to keep moving, keep checking their smartphones, move their heads here and there or keep wiggling in their seats often have difficulty in retaining their concentration levels. However, the people who are there sitting quietly and fidget less, usually have a stillness in their posture and they even feel less physical and mental discomforts.
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