Managing Anxiety: Techniques for a Silent Mind

Children are full of energy except when they are sleeping. However, the mind does not sleep. It is constantly on when we are awake; it sometimes stops us from falling asleep and even when we are asleep, it is wandering in different directions that are beyond our control. It’s the subtle organ that never Tests, chattering away like a child. If we want to get an honest opinion on how we look, ask a child. They have no filter Between their thoughts and their words. Similarly, the mind never stops. It keeps us on our toes and is chattering away, Sometimes in our favor and sometimes against us.

One method in parenting is to use neglect or ignore the child. Attention for a child can be for positive or negative behaviours. We may praise young children for the good actions they do, giving them positive reinforcement: Your action is good; therefore, I will give you my attention.

The process of ignoring a child sounds reckless and irresponsible, but it is an active process that requires the determination of the parent who may need to not look at or talk to the child when they are performing behaviors that are harmful for their development. This does not mean we neglect destructive behaviours that can put them in harm’s way. These deserve our attention and need to be stopped immediately don’t ever let our child play with matches! The types of behavior we can ignore are whining, crying and throwing tantrums when there is nothing obviously wrong.

Just as we can turn our phone from loud to silent, there are ways to put our mind from loud to silent.

• The key to negotiating with the mind is remembering the end goal that we want to achieve. There has to be some sort of compromise.

• There should be a time in the day when we are aloof even from our thoughts. This could be our space of nothingness, just observing our mind. No analysis, no judgements, no reactions.

It is normal to feel anxious at different points in our life. This can be a perfectly natural emotion to life events such as sitting for an exam, getting married or going for a job interview. However, many people find it hard to control their anxiety. For them, these feelings of worry are more constant, making everyday activities difficult as they are marred by the underlying anxiety they feel all the time.

Many behavioural patterns are simply symptoms of an underlying emotional turmoil that needs to be addressed. Symptoms like gloom, a clouded mind, heaviness, fatigue, irritability, mood swings, lack of interest, withdrawal from our work or people, the feeling of meaninglessness, among many others, could be underlying signs of anxiety and depression.

It is believed that the reason depression and sadness are closely linked is that depression is sadness where the cause has been unconsciously forgotten to protect us from overwhelming feelings of loss and pain. Talk therapy can help with depression, low self-esteem, bereavement, addiction and other severe mental health conditions.

People who suffer from depression can have lowered self-esteem, feel shame and guilt and, at times, have suicidal thoughts. People who are sad are generally upset about something that has happened to them and can specifically point it out. They do not feel a lack of self-worth.

When the magnitude of our problem is less than our ability to deal with it ourselves, self-help works. When the magnitude of our problem is overwhelmingly greater than our ability to deal with it ourselves, we need to seek help either through medication, therapy or both together.

It’s become fashionable to work until the point of exhaustion and scroll until the point of sleep. Getting enough sleep not only helps avoid physical illness, but also helps us with our mental well-being. On average, doctors recommend that we get between seven and nine hours of sleep a day. If we are getting quality sleep, we can avoid many of the symptoms of depression.

Guilt can be constructive and destructive. It is constructive when it helps us correct a situation, improve ourselves and when it displays that we have values, standards and sensitivities to others. The lack of guilt suggests a lack of conscience that crumbles into shamelessness in our actions and the deviation of our moral compass.

If we are constantly in the wrong, making the same mistake over and over again, we should introspect and examine our behavior patterns to check if we are insensitive to others, which in turn causes damage to ourselves.

Source : Energize Your Mind by Gaur Gopal Das

Goodreads : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60758158-energize-your-mind

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