A simple and affordable way to nurture your ability to be more mentally present awaits you in mindful coloring pages.
They are either free or low cost, and you can acquire colored pencils or markers for a few dollars.
Pull out a page and start coloring at home whenever you need to calm your mind.
Losing yourself in the lines and colors of a soothing or meaningful image produces an effect similar to meditation.
If you struggle to make time to meditate, try meditative coloring pages instead.
You may have a clean, clutter-free home or office, but have you taken the time to declutter your mind?
If you regularly feel overwhelmed by your thoughts and struggle with stress and anxiety, it’s past time to deal with the internal clutter that’s causing these symptoms.
An inner thought monologue is constantly playing in your head and has become the background noise of your life.
Sometimes these thoughts are positive or neutral, but far too often, they are negative and self-sabotaging.
And trying to stop them seems impossible.
Try it now.
Try to stop the constant flow of thoughts going through your mind.
It’s hard, right?
As soon as you curtail one thought, another one pops up behind it.
It’s so frustrating, isn’t it?
You’re trying to quiet your busy mind, and it just keeps throwing things at you, as if to say, “How dare you shush me!”
And you’re asking, “How is quieting the mind even possible when my brain won’t shut up?”
You’re in good company.
Our minds are constantly encountering and processing new information, along with habitual self-talk.
It gets noisy in there.
So, what can you do about it?
A healthy mentality is something everyone wants, but not everyone possesses.
It is vital for a constructive view of life and a productive way of dealing with circumstances and people.
But developing a healthy mindset is easier said than done.
Past experiences and our biological wiring can influence our perceptions and reactions, quite often negatively.
Here are some healthy mindset tips to help you develop positive habits and create the mindset that will work with you, rather than against you.
When was the last time you took a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to think about your beliefs, happiness, and the bigger picture of your life?
Between work, school, friends, family, and all the stuff life throws at you, it can sometimes feel like you’re lost or stuck.
If you want to strengthen your self-awareness, make better choices, improve relationships with yourself and others, and understand what’s going well and what can use improvement, self-introspection can help.
You’ve suspected, at least for some time, that attachment leads to suffering.
But some forms of attachment are more problematic than others.
In Buddhism, attachment suffering means you are in opposition to the forces of the universe, making you susceptible to negative emotions.
The Buddha warns of the dangers of becoming attached to people, material things, and specific outcomes.
But is attachment always a bad thing?
Isn’t it good to feel attached to the people you love?
We know you’ve got questions — good ones, too.
We’ll do our best to answer them.
You’re ready for bed when you start thinking about something disturbing.
You turn out the lights and get comfy, but your brain won’t shut off.
What’s it working on this time?
From one thought to the next, your brain jumps, and as you change position in your bed and try to tell yourself, “Shut up and go to sleep!” your brain scoffs — actually scoffs — at you and keeps running those in-house movies.
You can’t stop thinking.
You need a good night’s sleep, but your brain has declared mutiny and won’t shut down for the night.
So, what do you do?
You want to learn how to stop thinking about something when you need to get some rest.
But your brain must have its own internal coffee house, because it’s wide-awake, and it’s just going to keep thinking about one thing after another forever.
Fortunately, there is a way to calm your brain down and banish those distracting thoughts so you can finally get some sleep.
How would your life be different if you spent more time living in the present?
If the myriad of scientific research studies is correct, learning how to be present offers a host of benefits, including:
There are plenty of compelling reasons to learn how to be present — not the least of which is a life with more joy and contentment.
But the bigger question is, what are you going to do about it? How can you enjoy these benefits and commit to a practice of staying present?
Have you ever had those days when your brain feels like it wants to explode from overuse?
You can’t focus to save your life as there are so many thoughts, worries, and extraneous bits of information swirling around in your noggin.
These are the times when you need to clear your mind and find a quiet corner of inner peace.
But how can you do that with the demands of modern life?
In addition to work and day-to-day responsibilities, we’re bombarded with distractions from our ever-present digital devices that keep us in a state of constant hypervigilance.
If you take nothing else from this post, trust that it’s 100% okay to meditate while lying down.
And if that’s the only way you feel calm enough to meditate, you’re far better off lying down than giving up on meditation entirely.
True, it has its downsides.
But, for many of us, so does the lotus position (even the half-lotus).
And while sitting up is generally the most popular position for meditation, it’s not the only one with both short-term and long-term benefits.
Read on to see why.