Racing thoughts or too many thoughts prevent you from being grounded. You cannot focus with uncontrolled thought which makes progress down the path more difficult and less fun than it needs to be.
You should be of no mind at all times. Voluntary thought for problem-solving, positive self-talk or introspection are exceptions.
Being grounded can be defined.
Being grounded is a position of zero thought and total mind control. Your mind is clear, your breathing is controlled and switched to manual.
One Andreia Philosophy tenet is when you are not grounded, you ground immediately. This begins each morning. Before you leave your bed you can do Wim Hoff breathing. A simple morning routine.
Below are four ways to quiet the thoughts in your mind.
Physical suffering
Physical release will clear your mind. You need true physical training. self-induced suffering. You need to push towards the edge of your physical universe. Lines will be different for all individuals. This is conditioning.
You will find your line and use it to ground yourself and it will grow farther away and you will continue to chase it.
A walk can be refreshing but thought purging usually requires training that takes you away from stasis and towards sore muscles or an elevated heart rate. You need to be a little uncomfortable to get out of your mind. Pushing past what is physically comfortable reduces stress of the mental and spiritual domains. Self-induced physical suffering warms the spirit and entertains the mind so that it may be quiet.
Fatigue is a confession that clears your conscience. Fatigue only makes us cowards in the event; never in the practice. Fatigue must be prepared for.
A home gym can be inexpensive. Keep going to the gym and consider having exercise equipment in your home so that self-induced suffering is always nearby. If you don’t have access to a gym you can use creativity to make one.
Adopt Bowflex adjustable dumbbells for your home. Execute a few sets if intrusive thoughts crack through your mind.
Kettlebells are small and can be placed anywhere. High-quality ones can look aesthetic. TRX bands can hang on any door. A heavy bag can be hung in the garage.
Physical training is for gaining mastery over your mind. Aesthetics are an acceptable and welcomed side effect.
Your body is the container for your mind. Your mind is a prodigy that can do anything in the universe but is emotional and needs to be lead.
Physical training kills mental tantrums and unwanted negativity.
Meditation
Meditation can occur all the time. Mindfulness is the preferred default for the mind. This state of pure mind usually requires direct meditation to hold consistently. Find a meditation practice that works for you and do not let it go.
Consider meditating when you are laying in bed until you fall asleep. Since you are going to be laying in bed anyway, this is found time to enhance your practice & control.
There are many types of meditation and the best one is the one that works for you. Try everything. Stick with what feels natural and provides a path for progression. Challenging, but not impossible, is interesting.
Take an active approach to researching different methods of meditation to find solutions that work for you. Mindfulness is a good start.
Director David Lynch follows transcendental meditation.
Buddhist scholar Tara Brach follows Buddhist meditation.
Be aware of fraudsters and meditation-adjacent businesses that have costs but offer no value or fake value. When meditation entered the cultural mainstream people began making products. Some are good. Remember that meditation at its core is being with a silent mind.
Breathing exercises
Breathing exercises replace intrusive thoughts by filling your brain with crucial oxygen. Breathing calms your Vagus nerve.
Deep and slow breathing stimulates your Vagus nerve to reduce anxiety and increase parasympathetic system activation. [1]
Mixed martial artists have used breathing techniques for decades. Rickson Gracie, one of the founding men of BJJ, uses breathing exercises to calm his mind. He has been doing breathing exercises since the 90’s. He talks about his breathing in his autographical book, Breathe: A Life in Flow.
Rickson Gracie has a documentary about his life called Choke – A Rickson Gracie documentary. We embedded it below. Filmed in 1995, this biopic shows an interesting and educational view of his life.
Find a breathing expert and model your breathwork after theirs.
A simple program is to do breathwork when you wake up, before you meditate, and as needed to stabilize your mind.
Breathe for your morning routine. Having a breathing routine matters more than what breathing routine is best. Eventually all programs will become tailored to the individual as the individual begins to tailor their breathing towards greater results using feel.
Path Focus
Deep flow focus on your path. Without a path, or a purpose, one will eventually be brought to you, and you may not like it. Sometimes that empty hole is filled with tv, adult-content, or starting a family with the wrong person as a way to try to create meaning where none exists.
When you find something that matters to you, the more you do it the more you are rewarded. It could be a business, a book, it could literally be anything. But you need to have a reason for your labors. Laboring gives you purpose as long as the labor matters. You need to find what you want to master.
Your path can change often, too. You’ll follow different trails along your different stages in life. Having a clean mind will help you understand which way to go so you make fewer mistakes and waste less time.
The feeling of being in flow comes from the purity of focus on something that matters. If you want to flow, if you want to experience nirvana, you must find your paths and commit yourself to them. Understand that the first-step is not scary when you realize walking at all is better than standing still, and walking forward will always take you somewhere, and you may have say in where that goes.