Clear Your Mind
A good friend is at one of those important junctions in life where he has to make a choice: accept the opportunity to move into a senior management role, or see through a hands-on engaging corporate initiative that is his passion and is changing the organization in powerful ways. Which way to go? There is no right or wrong decision here. Either choices has its share of pros and cons and in many ways this is a good problem to have - choosing between two good paths!
While there are many ways we can come at the decision making process, I'm going to make an argument on behalf of clarity.
When Would You Want Less Clarity?
It is hard to argue against having clarity. We live in what often feels like a noisy, complex and uncertain time. There is a cacophony of alarming and alluring distractions. Uncertainty has almost become 'normal'. As retired General George Casey, Jr. put it “Clarity and simplicity are the antidotes to complexity and uncertainty.”
The challenge is finding clarity. Or more accurately, creating clarity.
Three Tips to Clear Your Mind
1. Meditation: Meditation is like letting a glass of cloudy, silty water sit overnight. In the morning there is clear water. As we sit in stillness and focus our attention on the breath, our mind eventually settles down. As we breathe more smoothly and rhythmically, we help that settling by calming our nervous system. Thoughts still come and go, but they are fewer and further between. There is a sense of more spaciousness in our thinking. All of which fosters greater awareness and clarity.
It's not a panacea and it takes some effort. Mostly in the beginning, since it can quickly become a welcome place of refuge for the busy mind; a quiet harbour from the wind and waves of the world.
If I had one recommendation for you it would be to establish a daily meditation practice. Think of it as giving yourself the gift of clarity, awareness and calm.
And if you already have a practice, my recommendation would be to see what happens when you lengthen it! Recently, I shifted from a perfunctory 10-minute daily practice I had regressed to over the past 6 months, back to a more focused and intentional 30-minute daily practice. Wow, what a difference! I wake before my alarm clock again and my sleep seems deeper. I have noticeably more calm and clarity in my day. There is space for more insights and ahha moments to occur through the day. And there are more moments of flow in my day. I'm hooked to longer meditations again!
2. Limit Your Inputs: Think of your mind not unlike your stomach. We don't eat all day long - we eat when we are hungry and then we digest what we ate. Our minds are similar. Think of the many inputs (email, texts, meetings, news, social media, conversations and people's opinions) that your mind takes in throughout the day. It isn't unlike food that your mind now has to digest and make sense of. If we eat too much we feel bloated, lethargic and unwell. If our minds "consume" too much, we feel overwhelmed, tired and unmotivated.
Here's the paradox: once our mind feels overwhelmed, tired and unmotivated what does it do? It typically reaches for another "hit" from the smorgasbord of inputs (usually digital), thinking this will help it somehow feel better, when what our mind really needs is a break from the inputs and time to digest.
Instead, go for a walk without your earbuds in. Drive your car without the radio on. Immerse yourself in a hobby or activity like playing an instrument or doing something creative. Do something that doesn't involve further inputs so you can digest what's already on your mind.
Clarity can only come when our mind has had time to process our day and space to think afresh for ourselves. Limit your inputs and let your mind come back to greater clarity.
3. Sleep. At the risk of repeating myself from previous posts, sleep is foundational. We all know the foggy feeling we experience after a poor night of sleep. What many of us miss (myself included) is that we often get by with a decent sleep and we accept operating sub-optimally. It's not the exhaustion and brain fog of a terrible night. But it isn't the well-rested brain and body we need for genuine clarity and high performance.
To Learn More
These tips are taken from the webinars "Meditation 101" and "Maintaining Focus in the Age of Distraction". To learn more click HERE. Or reach out to me directly at scott@mindfulwisdom.ca to learn how you could bring more clarity and focus to your team.