How to clear your mind step by step: 5 tips

Sometimes, ideas and memories run through our heads at a pace that is beyond our control.

On a daily basis, it is easy for things to happen to us that make us feel bad, that make us feel a certain amount of anxiety or that remind us of stressful experiences that come over and over again to our consciousness.

Faced with this type of experiences... how to clear the mind? In this article we will see some tips that will facilitate this transition from an agitated state of mind and marked by anxiety to another in which there is a greater calm and, in general, a better willingness to act constructively without focusing attention on what disturbs us.

Tips on how to clear your mind

It is clear that the human mind is one of the most complex phenomena in nature. We are capable of feeling, thinking and imagining a large repertoire of psychological elements, and this has allowed us to survive for thousands of years, even when civilizations did not exist.and this has enabled us to survive for thousands of years, even when civilizations did not exist.

However, the fact that we are complex living beings with an amazing tendency to be psychologically influenced by our environment is not only advantageous. The price to pay for this facility to "soak in" what is happening around us is that some of these mental imprints escape our voluntary control. Trauma is the classic example of this, but there are many other less serious cases. For example, if we have had a very stressful week or something has happened that has disturbed us, clearing our mind will not be something we can do.For example, if we have had a very stressful week or if something has happened that has upset us, clearing our mind will not be something that will be solved in a matter of a second.

Considering that most mental processes escape immediate voluntary control, calming the mind is not a simple task, nor is it something that can be done immediately, in just a few seconds. However, we can do things so that, indirectly, our nervous system comes out of that state of excessive excitement. To do so, we will have to act both in the way we relate to our environment and in certain physiological processes that can be influenced indirectly. Let's see how to do it.

1. If you can, go to the quietest place available.

This first step is important, as it allows the "noise" already in our head not to be added to the real noise coming from outside. Subjecting yourself to many stimuli at once is not the best idea when it comes to calming the mind, as it it makes voluntary control of the attentional focus more difficult.

So, go to a quiet room or an open natural space where calm reigns, if possible a large meadow so as not to have visual obstacles nearby that can make you feel the existence of possible threats (something unrealistic but that, when we experience anxiety, we can come to think relatively easily).

2. Understand the cause of your discomfort

This is a first step that allows you to organize your thoughts so that your beliefs and opinions about them form a more or less coherent "whole". In the face of uncertainty, we tend to assume that the most terrible and negative situations will occur, but we tend to express them in a more rational and systematized way. expressing in a more rational and systematized way what we believe helps to rule out several of these fears, although usually not all of them.

So, this is a first step to locate those beliefs that may be affecting how we feel at that moment, the root of the fact that we need to calm the mind since there is something that makes us feel bad.

To make this step easier, you can write down on a piece of paper what you think you are feeling. A few lines will suffice, but in some cases you may feel like going longer spontaneously. If so, take as much time as you feel is necessary and keep in mind that nothing you are writing down has to be true to what is really happening: it is simply a description of how you feel in the moment. is simply a description of how you feel at that moment..

Then, assess whether there are aspects of that description that sound distinctly unrealistic. Something that can help you is to imagine that what you are reading has happened to someone else: would everything that is explained make sense to you?

On the other hand, if you believe that the reason why you have entered into this state of anxiety is not based on specific experiences but has to do with something more primary and intuitive (the fact of having seen a video in which there is a lot of violence, the appearance of intrusive thoughts that make you remember an image that you do not like, etc.) skip this section, since in this case the root of the problem is not easy to verbalize nor does it have to be based primarily on beliefs.

3. Use relaxation exercises

In this step, the target is on the physiological processes that contribute to keeping you in a state of alertness even though there is no real immediate danger lurking in front of you. To do this, you can use aids such as Jacobson's Progressive Relaxation or various types of breathing exercises.

Keep in mind that this is one of the ways to clear your mind that requires a minimum of preparation, although having practiced a few times is usually enough to achieve results.

4. Find stimulating tasks to channel your energy into.

Unlike the rest of the tips for clearing your mind, this one is not so much focused on eliminating that surplus of activation but rather on channeling some of that psychological tension.. Doing sports is a good way to achieve this, since in this type of activity it is easy to find a balance between your skill level and the level of difficulty of the challenges you set yourself.

By doing this, it is easier for your attention to be fixed on the coordination of your muscles according to an immediate objective, so that the recurring thoughts and mental images that come to your way lose strength in favor of an activity that claims your five senses in the here and now.

5. Seek help

There are cases in which the discomfort and the feeling of mental agitation are so pronounced that one cannot manage the situation oneself. In this type of situation it is good to seek help from other people, whether friends or family, so that together we can re-signify what is causing discomfort.

If this does not help, the most advisable thing to do is to go to psychological therapy provided by mental health professionals. Although in the latter case it obviously takes more than a few minutes to obtain results, it is very advisable for situations in which the intensity of the experienced phenomenon is high.