1. About thoughts and emotions

• You think you have thoughts, but thoughts have you. But you are not your thoughts, you create thoughts.

• We have about 50,000 thoughts a day. These estimates are controversial, the current consensus is that this is in the tens of thousands per day. Source. By comparison, we speak about 16,000 words. Which, by the way, applies to both men and women. Source

• A busy man was asked how, despite his many occupations, he could have been so absorbed. He replied: 'If I stand, then I stand; if I go, then I go; if I sit, then I sit; if I eat, then I eat; when I speak, then I speak'. 'But we do too, don't we?' said the questioner in astonishment. "What else are you doing?" He answered the same again. And again the questioner said, "But don't we?" The man said, 'No. If you sit, you are already standing; if you stand, you are already walking; if you walk, you are already there; and when you eat, you're done.'

• Thinking is your biggest addiction (not Ben & Jerry). 95% of attention (untrained). Make room for hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting, and seeing = objective. Only when you manage to bring your attention to your senses - so the focus on your body - and then on your thoughts, do you keep them in check

• Underlying 3 mechanisms: interpreting, judging, and thinking through.

• Separate your sensory stimuli from thoughts (you hear a loud noise, your thoughts form an image plane). Especially if they are mixed with negative emotions.

• Step 1: bring the focus to your body. Step 2: adjust from there to your thoughts

• Buddha: eventually, you become your thoughts = thoughts – word-act- habit – character

• Watch your thoughts from a distance (!): which one do you want to invest in? Recognize them as thoughts; they are not facts.

• You want to register your thoughts without judgment. Just as you look at your breath, table, or sound, you can also view your imagination. Be aware that you are thinking without getting lost in it or analysing, understanding, dreaming, pushing, or wanting something with it. Simplify: add THINKING with a thinking sticker ("hey, I'm thinking"). Like looking at a cinema screen.

• Prevent thinking about thinking: awareness about thinking gives you insight.

• Also, notice when no thoughts are present (light awareness breath). Again, requires a lot of training. Training creates distance between your thoughts.

• When your thoughts take over, often linked to strong emotion, for example, your daughter being bullied, ask yourself the questions: 1) Is this what I think is true? 2) Is my thoughts helpful? 3) Is my thoughts kind and/or wise (and consistent with my values)?

• Inhibiting thoughts are the stories you tell yourself over and over and strongly believe in. To help you track them down more easily, below are five common types of limiting thoughts.

  1. The Love Junk: 'Everyone has to like me.'

  2. The disaster thinker: 'It will go wrong; don't let me risk it.'

  3. The perfectionist: 'I can't make mistakes.'

  4. The moralist: 'Everyone must adhere to my standard, you should speak with two words.'

  5. The victim: 'Have I got that traffic jam again; I'm not going to make it anyway.'

  Which of the five hindering thoughts do you recognize in yourself? Or do you have another? What would be a substitute helping thought for you?

• Your feeling is not the truth/reality. Six basic emotions: scared, angry, sadness, happy, disgust, surprise

• Dealing with emotions. IADC(indicate, accept, do not identify, calm down). In the control room, I decide what happens, not the emotions.

  Indicating: interpreting and recognizing emotions. Accept: Inquiry acceptingly. Not: not identifying, not having to act. Soothe: Taking Action to Calm Yourself

• Indicating: The core of the emotion lies in the body itself. Search. Label and focus without resistance. Unlabelled emotion is like a block of ice. Don't think too hard; feel & label. Be curious.

  This labelling can be done in several ways:

  • Focus your attention internally (on your body)

  • Write off you. Do not focus so much on the facts or on what you should do or feel, but try to focus as much as possible on your emotions.

  • To talk. The challenge then is that you do not analyze and look for solutions, but feel concretely and express what your feeling does to you and to what extent you accept it.

    The sign that you label exactly and fit is when you feel movement arise in your feeling. It feels liquid instead of solid, changeable instead of static. Think of the unlabeled emotion as a piece of ice. With precise affect labeling, it melts, the emotion becomes flexible, feels less heavy and can be washed away more easily. You will then have a feeling of 'aha!' or experience relief. Not because you are suddenly no longer jealous/angry/horrified, but because you realize exactly what is going on with you.

    Affect labeling and focus without resistance shortens the refractory period of emotions (less swallowed by emotions). You still feel the emotion, but the intensity decreases. Don't think too hard about the emotion, keep the focus on the body

    What you can feel, you can heal

  • Accept and explore: This does not mean that you should be walked all over you. The point is that you learn to see and accept what your internal experience is, so that you react less from an automatic reaction to the outside world.

    eye opener

    In a study with an ice-cube experiment, two groups were asked to put their hands in a container of ice for as long as possible. The no group had to focus with curiosity on how the physical pain felt; the other group had to distract themselves from the pain by, for example, thinking about their love, favorite food or dream trip. In the first minutes the latter technique appeared to work better, but it soon became apparent that the 'curious' group could last much longer.

• Do not identify: I have feelings, I am not my feelings. 'Letting go' = don't look at the letting go, but ask yourself what you are holding so anxiously

  When hunting small monkeys, no net or bullet is involved, but peanuts. Hunters hang an empty coconut with peanuts on a rope, with holes just big enough for an eager monkey hand. An unsuspecting Hundred Monkey can grab the peanuts, but his fist is too big to pull back from the coconut. Once they have the peanuts in their fists, the monkeys are stuck. Although they can easily be released by dropping the peanuts, they will hold onto them stubbornly. And so they are attached to the rope, making them easy prey for the hunters.

  What are your peanuts? What stories do you tell yourself, what beliefs do you fearfully hold onto? For example: 'I will never get a new job anyway, so I'll keep doing this job (even if it costs me energy).' Or: 'My mother is so critical, she doesn't like anything I do.' Or: 'I am entitled to this heartbreak, even if it takes a year, after all I am abandoned!'

Four virtues of conscience

• Integrity. Integrity means wholeness (completeness). A life in harmony with your conscience, an integrated life. Mahatma Gandhi: “One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole”

• Rich imagination is the universal source of all creation. Dare to dream, and stretch the limits of your imagination. Start living from your imagination and not your memory

• Compassion. Selfless service. All boils eventually down to the quality of your service. How you treat the people around you. It is quite simple: don’t hold a ledger. You either help people, or you don’t.

• Industry. Hard work. The power of hard work. As you sow, so shall you reap. We are happiest when we are growing, and expanding. Happiest with fire in their belly. Focused activity in the right direction. The difference between surviving and thriving is hard work. Refuse to fail. Become the Thomas Edison of this era. Marcus Aurelius: approach each task if it is your last.

2. Strategies to successfully clear your mind

How to overcome anxiety at work

Do you want to be happy? Do you want to feel at peace with yourself and the world? Of course, you do. Finding fulfillment is the ultimate human goal – the thing that all our actions try to move us toward, whether we know it or not.

In today’s busy world, it can seem impossible to get a quiet minute – but you must prioritize it. Learning how to clear your mind decreases stress, improves your concentration and is vital to your mental health.

The mind is a powerful tool. Put it to work for you.

Ready to take control of anxiety and climb to new heights?

1. Unplug

How to clear your mind

Wondering how to clear your mind? The first step is to unplug. You won’t be able to focus if you have text messages or email notifications setting your phone off. And if you’re constantly scrolling through social media, you’re seeing a lot of information that can clutter up your thoughts – and even be bad for you. Taking some time to consider your thoughts can make it easier to let them go. Go for a walk or a hike for an added benefit, as connecting with nature has tons of benefits, including reduced stress. 2. Exercise

Going for a walk is a time-tested technique for a clear mind. But if you want to be consistently relaxed and content, you need to make lasting changes to your brain. Aerobic exercise is the way to do it. Studies suggest that exercise is associated with control over your thoughts – the prefrontal cortex, which controls thinking, is larger in people who exercise. Exercise can also help you sleep, so it’s an essential step if you’re wondering how to clear your mind to help with insomnia.

How to clear your mind 3. Write about it

Sometimes a clear mind is hiding behind an experience or emotion that needs to come out. Writing is a common therapy for easing stress and trauma. It organizes your thoughts and naturally leads to solutions. Coming up with actionable goals is key to progress – and as Tony says, “Progress equals happiness.” Don’t know what’s bothering you? Just put your pen to paper and see what comes out. Expressing yourself on paper can help you break free from worry and anxiety by giving meaning to your experiences. 4. Discover the power of pause

We’ve talked about how to clear your mind with activities. But what about simply practicing mindfulness? Implementing a brief 2–3 minute moment of silence and focused breathing into your day can drastically clear your mind and increase your overall productivity. It’s easy – you can do it anywhere, anytime:

• Place whatever you are doing on pause

• Sit or stand with your back straight up and both feet on the ground, shoulder-width apart

• Relax your shoulders and place your arms at your sides

• Close your eyes

• Focus 5–10 deep breaths throughout your body by slowly breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth

how to clear your mind by breathing

While breathing, make sure you concentrate on your airflow and express gratitude for each breath. Acknowledge and appreciate your body. This is similar to meditation – it clears the mind and gives you a moment to reflect. This moment of pause allows you to work through your thoughts and eases any tension in your body, which relieves stress and contributes to your mental and physical well-being.

We often tell ourselves we don’t have time to pause, but this exercise will make you more productive and more creative in the long run. Just 2–3 minutes a day can improve your effective reasoning, cognitive thinking and ability to form new ideas. So take a minute. Slow down. Be grateful. It can instantly clear your mind. “The mind can be a dangerous place, but it can also be a beautiful place.” – Tony Robbins

1. Practice priming

Tony Robbins’ priming exercise takes the power of pause to the next level. While the first five steps are similar in nature, the next steps in the priming exercise allow you to transfer that clear mind into your everyday life.

• Visualize: Whether in business, health or with family or other relationships, priming pushes you to clear your mind and visualize the life you desire. Be as creative or simple as you like, but don’t limit your mind. Through visualization, nothing is impossible for you to obtain.

• Share: Take your positive energy to your workplace and loved ones. Share with them how you cleared your mind and help others find clarity.

• Focus and celebrate: Your vision is achievable. Focus your energy on what you visualize and celebrate your work as if it’s already done. Start your day victorious and ready to conquer all that you set out to do.

• Conquer the day: The day is yours! It’s your chance to take massive action and move in the direction of your goals and dreams. With priming, you have cultivated a state from which you are ready to conquer your day, regardless of the challenges that may arise.

Priming is an excellent way to start each morning because it sets the tone for the remainder of your day. If done routinely, you will be able to start and end each day with a clear mind. 6. Relax and release

how to clear your mind using meditation

Everyone has days where they allow situations to break their focus and affect their attitude. Michael Singer, renowned spiritual teacher and author of The Untethered Soul, discusses ways to work through emotions as they arise, including the concept of “relax and release” as a key tool for clearing the mind. On a daily basis, we allow even the smallest irritations to bother us so much that we often forget to breathe. In those moments, simply take a second to relax (identify), breathe (analyze) and release (let go of) any tension we feel.

Relax

Take a walk, listen to music (preferably smooth instrumentals) and breathe. Allow yourself to pause and calm your mind and body so you can more objectively analyze your emotions: Where do these feelings come from and what caused you to feel them? Stress is often derived from a combination of pain points collected over time. Take a moment to breathe as you think through your emotions (both past and present).

Release

Let go of thoughts that cause you pain and replace them with positive ones. Through positive thinking, affirmations, and repetition of positive mantras, mental relaxation becomes easier and releasing things outside of your control becomes automatic.

3. About calmness

1. The following experiment shows that even the smallest animals can 'fix' themselves: an ant walks on a white paper, in a circle drawn with a black marker. For hours the animal walks in the circle, without passing the black 'border'. The ant is trapped in a self-created illusion, namely the idea that it cannot walk over the edge. THIS IS NOT THE CASE: be curious and do your own research -→ https://www.nativepestmanagement.com/blog/post/why-won-t-ants-cross-a-chalk-line

2. Rejection breathes obsession

3. If you blame, also take the good things into account. Blame at the level of your soul, not the level of your head.

4. Be strong in ethics, rich with marvelous beauty, and unyielding when it comes to protecting inner peace.

5. The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.

6. Find your path.

7. Prevent vague and imprecise thinking. It is a root cause of misdirection and waste of resources.

8. My surroundings shape my perceptions, inspirations, and implementations.

9. Calm is contagious.

10. Inspiration gets feed by isolation.

11. Stop insisting on clearing your head. Clear your heart instead

12. Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive, and they will come forth later in uglier ways.

13. Calm performers are the brightest achievers

14. Clarity breeds mastery

15. We are not bodies that temporarily have souls. We are souls that temporarily have bodies.

16. To bread clarity, have extreme amounts of solid patience and deep penetration

17. To be comfortable in the cold, keep moving; to be comfortable in the heat, hold still; to be comfortable in the world, stay calm and clear.

18. Anything ‘real’ begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the universe, and a skill you can get better at. It’s the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows.

4. The human consciousness step

Source (recommended read):

https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/10/religion-for-the-nonreligious.html

Key takeaways

1. The battle of the Higher Being against the animals—of trying to see through the fog to clarity—is the core internal human struggle.

   Step 1: Our Lives in the Fog

   1. On Step 1, you’re terribly small-minded because the animals are running the show.

   2. On Step 1, you’re short-sighted, because the fog is six inches in front of your face, preventing you from seeing the big picture.

   3. On Step 1, you’re very, very stupid.

   When I look at the wide range of motivating emotions that humans experience, I don’t see them as a scattered range, but rather falling into two distinct bins: the high-minded, love-based, advanced emotions of the Higher Being, and the small-minded, fear-based, primitive emotions of our brain animals.

   And on Step 1, we’re completely intoxicated by the animal emotions as they roar at us through the dense fog.

2. Step 2: Thinning the Fog to Reveal Context

   1. Learning more about the world through education, travel, and life experience—as your perspective broadens, you can see a clearer and more accurate version of the truth.

   2. Active reflection. This is what a journal can help with, or therapy, which is basically examining your own brain with the help of a fog expert. Sometimes a hypothetical question can be used as “fog goggles,” allowing you to see something clearly through the fog—questions like, “What would I do if money were no object?” or “How would I advise someone else on this?” or “Will I regret not having done this when I’m 80?” These questions are a way to ask your Higher Being’s opinion on something without the animals realizing what’s going on, so they’ll stay calm and the Higher Being can actually talk—like when parents spell out a word in front of their four-year-old when they don’t want him to know what they’re saying.

   3. Meditation, exercise, yoga, etc.—activities that help quiet the brain’s unconscious chatter, i.e. allowing the fog to settle.

   But the easiest and most effective way to thin out the fog is simply to be aware of it

3. Step 3: Shocking Reality

   *I . . . a universe of atoms . . . an atom in the universe. —*Richard Feynman

4. Step 4: The Great Unknown

   Why Wisdom is the Goal

   Nothing clears fog like a deathbed, which is why it’s then that people can always see with more clarity what they should have done differently—I wish I had spent less time working; I wish I had communicated with my wife more; I wish I had traveled more; etc. The goal of personal growth should be to gain that deathbed clarity while your life is still happening so you can actually do something about it.

   The way you do that is by developing as much wisdom as possible, as early as possible. To me, wisdom is the most important thing to work towards as a human. It’s the big objective—the umbrella goal under which all other goals fall into place. I believe I have one and only one chance to live, and I want to do it in the most fulfilled and meaningful way possible—that’s the best outcome for me, and I do a lot more good for the world that way. Wisdom gives people the insight to know what “fulfilled and meaningful” actually means and the courage to make the choices that will get them there.

   And while life experience can contribute to wisdom, I think wisdom is mostly already in all of our heads—it’s everything the Higher Being knows. (addition Kidsune: in all of our hearts as this is leading). When we’re not wise, it’s because we don’t have access to the Higher Being’s wisdom because it’s buried in fog. The fog is anti-wisdom, and when you move up the staircase into a clearer place, wisdom is simply a by-product of that increased consciousness.

TLDR: Over time, you want your [Time on Step 2] / [Time on Step 1] ratio to go up a little bit each year, and you want to get better and better at inducing Step 3 Whoa moments and reminding yourself of the Step 4 purple blob. If you do those things, I think you’re evolving in the best possible way, and it will have profound effects on all aspects of your life.

That’s it. That’s Truthism.

(side note -→ Cheers mate. I like your post, but I do have one point that I would like to share with you. You speak alot about fights, battles and such. We need to fight the fog, expose the animals in us and so on. In this context I would call myself a harmonist: I think, as you point out yourself, that those animals (as metaphors) are part of us for a reason and not just something that evolution forgot in our heads. Without them, the "higher being" as you call it, wouldnt be able to exist, Without Step 1, you couldnt appreciate Steps 2-4. Thus, I would advise to evolve your statements by adding that step 1 is necessary and that the "animals" are a necessary and essential part of who you are and instead of battling with them, learn to accept them and use their input as advice, same as the one from the higher being. I think this is what constitutes to be a wise human being, accepting all of your parts and deciding after that. Hope that was helpful, thank you for a nice post.)

5. Finishing quotes and reminders

1. The noblest pursuit of your conscience: connect with higher-self.

2. Achieve self-mastery and follow your dharma in life’s work (purpose and life path). Listen to your heart, and walk the path you are intended to walk. Base your actions on what your conscience is telling you. Live your life conscience directed!

3. What you do screams louder than what you say.

4. You never do wrong when you follow your conscience.

5. Have the courage of conviction. It gives immense inner strength and fire of courage. You will begin to realize that you are far greater than the sum of your circumstances. Use your conscience as the lighthouse.

6. Acquiring things will rarely bring you deep satisfaction. But acquiring experiences will.

7. The worst evils in history have always been committed by those who truly believed they were combating evil. Beware of combating evil.

8. Children totally accept — and crave — family rules. “In our family, we have a rule for X” is the only excuse a parent needs for setting a family policy. In fact, “I have a rule for X” is the only excuse you need for your own personal policies.

9. Live fully, live is for the living.

6. Exercises

1. Think about the last time you received a compliment. See if you can locate and label the feelings you are experiencing right now in your body. Do the same with a moment when you were harshly criticized or made a blunder, and you felt bad about it. Labeling helps you to be aware of your feelings at that moment.

2. Listen to a sound and record it every time you notice that you are thinking about the sound. Notice how difficult it is to listen without interpretation or judgment.

3. Look at emerging thoughts without trying to change, understand, analyze or be carried away by them. When a wave of thoughts comes, name them with a certain wonder: hey, I have thoughts. It's like putting a THINKING sticker on it. Don't get lost in the content of the thoughts, and don't try to think about thinking. Also notice if no thoughts present themselves. Keep a (light) awareness of your breath throughout the exercise. And remember that the thought 'I don't think now' is also a thought.

4. Plan the visualizations from Mediation source and practice them. Give yourself time, don't be afraid of the outcome because it is your inner self that finally gets air. Your true me is yourself, ego please let go of the reins and come out of this better without integrity gap, total surrender and enjoy (!)

5. Create the blueprint of your life. Use the meditation session 1 of Robin.

6. Connect with your life guide (man in camp fire). Use Robin's meditation session 2 of that.

7. Learn how to achieve mental calmness by shifting your worries away. Use Visualization 3 from struggling stress to extraordinary success (worry list in sand and fountain of youth)

8. Learn how to activate yourself in such a way that you can get high-performance right out of the closet. Use: visualization 4 Treasure box high-performance (schoolhouse with tv)

9. Learn how to get into a happiness mindset. Use: visualization 5 Happiness meditation

10. Learn how to prepare yourself for the ideal day. Use: visualization 6 Create the ideal day

11. Meditating isn't about clearing your mind, it is about training your mind to be aware in the present moment.

12. Plan and integrate exercises: Close your eyes for three minutes, take a deep breath and let go with counting. l put your attention on your breath, super focus (always bring your mind back to your breath). When you bring your attention back to your breath, you learn an important skill—you learn how to observe your thinking. You are not lost in your thoughts, but you are now the process of observing that you are thinking. You begin to recognize that you have control over your thoughts and that you can choose what you think.

13. 5 minute Flower Focus

14. Try ziva meditation, see limitlessbook.com/resources for a video.

15. Listen to this source from Andy: https://www.stoepzen.co.za/talks/2019/Talk-3-April-2019.MP3

16. Try to objectively observe the following: your partner or friend, your work or your behind. How quickly do you get caught up in judgments? Notice how difficult it is to be objective. Even on 'dry' things like a telephone we quickly make judgments (cool, old, slow, handy)

17. Exercise 1: Breather Focused on Thinking

    Exercise time: thirty seconds to two minutes. Stop what you are doing a few times a day, take a conscious breath, and then notice your thoughts. When you perceive a thought, you internally label it as THINKING. Don't go with the flow of thought. You may notice the tendency to analyze, to want to know exactly where a thought comes from. That is not necessary, this exercise is purely about registering. You don't have to fight analysis; just notice: hey, I'm analyzing right now. Are you captive in your mind? Then turn your attention to your breath. When you feel space again, bring your attention again to registering thinking as thinking.

18. Exercise 2: Breather focused on feelings.

    Exercise time: one to three minutes. This exercise follows directly from the previous one. Focus your attention on any feelings and follow the first three steps IADC: interpret ('I feel jealousy/surprise/et cetera'), accepting inquiry (don't push your anger/sadness/disgust away, but allow it and don't judge it) and not identifying with your feelings (I have feelings, I am not my feelings).

    Practicing with emotions can raise many questions. Maybe you're not used to it and you don't seem to feel anything. The feeling may have sunk very far, then it needs time. If you don't seem to feel anything, start by noticing whether you experience something as pleasant or unpleasant. Gradually, with a strong focus on your body, you can learn to feel better and learn to specify.

19. Exercise 3: Autopilot

    Notice your autopilot in difficult circumstances. The more stress you experience, the harder it is to stay present and alert. Record thoughts, feelings and physical stimuli without judgment

20. Cooling down:

    How were these exercises for you? Was it difficult? Realize that your attention has never been trained. Patience is a virtue; You don't pull a newly sprouted plant to make it grow quickly. One thought you should be extra vigilant about is: I can't. This undermines your commitment to keep practicing. I can't get it soon I don't want this or hindering. If you notice this, think with a smile: have, a thought! Don't judge, don't try to analyze or understand. Keep it as simple as possible. Another thing that can come up regularly is resistance. Resistance to feeling. If you experience this, then that is your feeling and you can then investigate that with the four steps of IADC. Allow any stage; real acceptance is respecting to what extent you open and close yourself to your feelings .

21. In fact, “I have a rule for X” is the only excuse you need for your own personal policies. X is extracted from your values. Set up your conscience rules based on your philosophy of life and associated core values.

22. The https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/60281.Sogyal_Rinpoche?page=10

Conclusion

Quiz

How can you apply this in life today

Food for thought

Expand your understanding