We live in a world of distractions. Things that are constantly pulling us one way and another. We are constantly bombarded with sounds, advertisements, messages, and talk every which way. Even when we go about our day the radio is usually playing in the background, our headphones are in, we hear the hustle and bustle of the world around us. Very rarely do we ever have times of silence anymore. We go to sleep with the TV blaring or radio playing.
We wake up to a screeching alarm clock and if we’re lucky get to hear some birds chirping as we get ready for our day. Combine this with strange and unnatural foods that we consume, the rapid frantic pace as which we live, the worries about money and life that bombard us from every angle, the sickness in the society and world around us, it’s a wonder that anyone is sane anymore.
Sort of like organizing our things or cleaning out our homes periodically, we need to do the same with our minds. Clear them of all or at least a good chunk of the junk that has been accumulating in them. We need to do somethings to refocus our minds and get them to a more natural or primal balance. Which means things functioning the way that they ought to be functioning.
We talked about this a bit last week with the “Dopamine Detox” article. Today I want to go over a less extreme measure for clearing out one’s mind and helping to reset balance.
Take A Walk
I cannot stress enough the importance of getting your life as close to possible as natural as you can. What do I mean by this? What I mean is, us humans were created to live a certain way. A way that we lived for a long time. We were made to have close social bonds, eat fresh foods, drink clean water, get fresh air, we were meant to spend time in the sun, live, laugh, fight, feast, and all of that good stuff. We were not meant to live the ways that we live now. We were not meant to live the life that I described above.
You help fight against this unnatural living by eating good properly raised nutrient dense foods. Things like fresh eggs and meat, eating traditional foods like organ meats and broths. Spending time outside, getting fresh air, spending time without any distracts just walking through nature. Though that mind sound like a lot, there’s one place where I think it’s easy to start. And that’s walking through nature.
One thing the states did real well is they have a national parks system where you can go and explore the beauty of that country for usually a nominal fee. While I’m not saying you have to do that, anyplace where you can get out into the forests, mountains, streams, oceans, lakes, deserts, whatever and away from the cities, suburbs, and the sounds of modern civilization. The better off you’ll be.
Walk through nature. If you have somewhere by your house even better. If you can’t hear the sounds of civilization then I recommend wearing no headphones. Just be immersed in nature and alone with your thoughts. Do this daily or ever other day. Walk barefoot if you can. I don’t want to get into grounding or barefoot stuff right here but they are more examples of natural living. I’m not saying be a hippy either. Hippies are unnatural creatures produced by the modern world.
They’re no more natural than a businessman in a suit.
Meditate
I get we all don’t have parks or nature close to us. And for those of you who live far from anywhere or anything green, then I’d recommend meditating everyday. Do ten minutes a day. You take time to exercise your body, it makes no sense no to take time to exercise your mind as well. Ten minutes a day, or even just five days a week, do that and your life can change. If you struggle with mental health then there are few things I can recommend more than eating nutrient dense foods, exercising, and of course meditating. But even for those completely healthy I still recommend meditating.
Highly successful people from UFC champions to CEOs of billion dollar businesses have used meditation to help them stay calm, stay focused, and make good decisions. Special forces soldiers around the world use it in preparation for battle and to stay calm during the chaos of it. Don’t think of this as some hippy nonsense because it’s anything but. It’s a solid concrete thing that can change your life. So how to do it?
Step 1 – Sit somewhere or lay down
Step 2 – Breath in for 4 seconds.
Step 3 – Hold breath for 7 seconds
Step 5 – Exhale for 8 seconds.
Step 6 – Repeat
During this you should only be focused on your breathing and counting your breaths. You can set a timer or get to a certain amount of ‘reps’, thoughts will naturally crowd in and you’ll drift off in your thinking. When you realize you’ve drifted off just come back to the breathing, don’t beat yourself up, it’s completely natural. Your building focus.
Cut Ties With The Unnatural
I listen to less and less modern music, even when working out. I just find that my mind seems better for it. I still listen to classical music, meditation type music, chants and hymns, and a few songs here and there. Same with eating out, which I almost never do now. I don’t drink or smoke anything. I try to keep normal hours, though work has me up at weird times occasionally. Again, the more you can live with the natural cycle the better off you can be. I try not to eat or drink things from cans or bottles. Try to get sunlight every day, even if a little. And so on and so forth.
You’ll have to look at your own life and see where you could do the best work. Maybe it’s social media browsing, maybe it’s smoking every day, maybe it’s staying up late binging TV, maybe it’s eating poorly, you know yourself, you know where you struggle and what would make the biggest difference for you. Start right away, pick one thing and try to reduce your exposure to it. Whatever works for you. Choose one bad things to do less of and one good thing to do more of.
For example take ten minutes from social media browsing and do meditation instead. Overtime these good habits will become self-reinforcing and the bad habits will start to die away. The good ones you cultivate, the easier it is to get rid of the bad ones. And you get caught in an upward lifting spiral.
Try some of these things out and see how they affect your life, I can almost guarantee you that only good things will come of it.
If anything I said here helped you I’d recommend checking my books out on Amazon.
-Charles Sledge
