All of us wish to be in a state of zen. We desire to be cheerful and have a positive frame of mind. We aspire to be clean of bad habits. We want to calm our monkey mind and experience a higher conscious.
Let alone achieving these, we find it tough to start.
Below are mind tricks which help.
Timeout
Whenever you have an urge to do something you have resolved not to, do not give in instantly. Have a timeout after which you decide.
You have decided to go on a diet. An enticing scoop of ice cream is in front of you. Instead of immediately succumbing to your impulse, count till sixty. After that, decide whether you still want to gulp that scoop. In most cases, the urge would have died by then.
Reframe
Reframe unpleasant events in an empathetic manner; this nudges us from a feeling of angst to compassion.
We all go through bad experiences in life. Someone cuts us in traffic; a sales representative is rude to us. Whenever you have frustration creeping in due to things outside your control, reframe the situation.
The person who cut us in traffic is in a personal emergency and is trying to get somewhere. The salesperson, who was rude to us, is going through a terrible phase in her life.
Reframing a situation put us in a humane mode which drives away antagonistic thoughts.
Detach
Detach yourself from a frame of mind you do not wish to be in and observe your thoughts as a third party.
You want to meditate. You are not able to calm your monkey brain. Do not self-berate. Observe your fleeting thoughts as a third person. Do not curse your inability to control your mind. Watch the rise and ebb of ideas — the simple act of detaching and observing helps to calm the mind.
None of these tricks are my creation; I have summarized them in my own words. I have seen these repeated in various forms by experts in the field of psychology, wellness, and spiritualism.
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