I don’t usually give tips, but this blog might come close.

This week I have seen a breakthrough in something that I already knew for a while.

It’s one of those things where you first kinda get it, but later on, really GET it.

It’s a simple, powerful intervention that is changing my life more than ever, especially since I am becoming better and better at it.

So hear me out.

What I’ve noticed recently is that my mind not only creates completely random problems constantly; there’s also a powerful, spontaneous inclination to do something about it.

Like a deep scratching habit.

I feel a little tense: I grab my phone.

I feel a little lost: I pick up a book to find a solution.

I sense a bit of confusion or a sliver of hopelessness: I get on YouTube and try to watch myself out of the discomfort.

Whatever happens that makes me uncomfortable, I try to wrestle it to the ground.

Now, this creation of doubts and predictions and judgments and fears is not something that happens every now and then.

It’s like a whole industry that is kept alive and healthy by the thinking mind.

And it sucks.

And it’s a total waste of time.

And if you don’t learn to deal with it, you are in deep shit, most of your life.

The thing is: all these small suggestions of misery, fear, insecurity, shame or darkness, can quickly turn into full-size mind storms.

If one of these initially weak sensations gets a bit of momentum (which happens simply because of your attention or resistance), it builds up very fast, growing exponentially.

And before you know it, it totally consumes you.

One measly grain of feeling, a tiny emotional sliver, can easily attract a whole army of aligning negative thoughts, sucking you into a cloud of shit.

But…

Here’s where awareness can save the day.

It’s when you start to become aware of these shifts, these subtle first suggestions, that you can make the decision to drop them.

Straight away.

So no engagement, no analyzing, no following up, no inspections, and no attempts to expose them and try to figure out what they mean.

You simply drop it.

You back off.

And you do it AS SOON AS you feel a shift.

It can change your life.

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think it’s necessary nor helpful to follow every little bit of feeling or emotional spark into oblivion, trying to find its deepest meaning, or needing to feel everything that is happening within you.

Useless.

Too much honor.

The mind is constantly guessing and pretending to know what will happen, and it mostly fails at doing so, which means that many of the things that captivate our minds will never occur.

Most emotions have absolutely no reason to be there in the first place, because they are just a reflection of the personal mind.

Part of a narrative that is notoriously subjective and biased.

Learning to drop all that useless stuff as soon as it arises,  immediately, is one of the most helpful and loving things you can do for yourself.

This is not denial.

It’s liberation.

It’s freeing up your mind again and again and again, allowing many opportunities to come up with better answers and original solutions.

It’s like reconnecting to your intuition, getting rid of useless crap in the process, opening up a whole new world of possibilities.

SO MUCH of our time is filled with worrying, and worrying simply has no inherent creative quality, so it’s not even useful.

We spend endless hours trying to crush ‘what ifs’ and lose large chunks of precious life contemplating stuff that never happens.

And we are way, way more efficient if we’re not caught up in rumination.

That’s why it’s so incredibly powerful to keep the mind fresh.

If we can learn to gracefully and swiftly ditch the crap that gets pumped into our thinking all the time, we become more productive, more positive, more resilient, and way more creative.

Learning to drop the useless suggestions as soon as they appear, can make the difference between a life lived in agony and worry, and a life full of power, hope, and confidence.

It’s about dropping feelings and emotions you don’t care for.

 

Try it, play with it, and freedom starts today.

 

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(Photo by @markusspiske, for Unsplash)