The mind has and always willfascinate me and that’s why I am currently doing a course in Neuroscience with the Neuroscience Academy. I have been told that we can have anywhere between 60-80,000 thoughts per day. Harvard researchers also say that the untrained mind wanders off about 47 percent of the time. The sad thing is that 30% of those 60-80,000 thoughts are usually negative. It’s amazing isn’t it how we often get really fed up with negative people, but we somehow tolerate our own internal negative thoughts? We are often not aware of the impact that our own negative thoughts can have on us as individuals and the people around us.
If we practise Mindfulness and learn to observe our thoughts, approach them in a non-judgementalway, we slowly learn to see them as “just thoughts”. If we are clever; we can replace them with positive feelings and empowering thoughts. This can help us feel better and we are generally much nicer people to be around.
If we constantly get caught up in a negative stream of thought, it can really have a huge impact on your mood and our general outlook on life. Ihave been guilty of this myself. For that reason, I now commit to my daily mindfulness practise of at least 20 minutes every morning and ten minutes at night. The 20 mins in the morning sets up my day nicely and the 10 mins at night clears my head and prepares me for good quality sleep. I generally do a gratitude practice at night as well. In addition to this practise, during my daily life I have also committed to becoming more aware and focussing on my own thoughts andfeelings. I try to notice when I am being judgemental. I am trying to be an“observer” of my thoughts, emotions and judgements rather than being caught in the drama of them and inevitably getting carried away into an emotional state.
I am finding that over time I have become more aware of my thoughts and this also helps me to manage my mood. Being mindful is key, in other words, being present without being swept up by judgement.