How to quiet your mind?

Each year more than 40 million people in the world suffer from anxiety and stress and 20 million suffer from some type of depressive illness. Fear, anxiety and stress are a normal part of life, even adaptive in many conditions.

So , in the cat and rat race, we have to quiet our minds and keep calm.

There are a few steps for keeping the mind in peace and enjoying life.

1) Breath – we breathe all the time, but during relaxation time, we should pay attention to the rhythm. If we take a short quick breath, try to move toward slower, deeper ones. Lie down relax and breathe slowly and keep the mind free.

2) watch some interesting songs and movies– when people listen to their favourite songs and movies, they feel relaxed, calmer and less stressed. Heart rates and blood pressure dropped too.

3) Exercise – just 5- 15 minutes of exercise, like a brisk walk, yoga could start to calm the mind. It releases endorphin, and oxytocin – chemicals that make us feel good and can help improve our mind, focus and sound sleep.

So, high-intensity interval training can give a big doge of them in a short time.

4) Listen to Bhajans and melodies songs– it calms the activity in the brain. Songs are a good thing to try if you are stressed.

5) Help someone – it lights up part of our brain that makes us feel pleasure and connection. Doing something nice for someone lowers stress and a lesser feeling of loneliness. It may even boost our heart health and immune response.

6) Go outdoors – Being in and around nature often makes people think more clearly and feel more relaxed and refreshed. Spending time outside can also bring down our heart rate, blood pressure, stress hormone and even muscle tension.

7) Progressive muscle relaxation – use the connection of your body to soothe your mind. Pick a body part – foot, leg, mouth, eyes- and tense it for a few seconds. Then release and relax for 10 seconds or so. Again, switch to another part and keep going until you have done your whole body. This can also improve sleep and may even other symptoms such as body ache, headache etc.

8) Hang out with a pet– whether it is in your home or a neighbour’s pet, a friendly pooch can make you feel less anxious, tensed, confused and restless. When you play with them, it seems to lower levels of the stress hormone.

9) Yoga- Yoga can help us get a fit body and mind. A regular practice session lessens anxiety and takes the edge off our natural response plus, it is excessive that builds our strength and flexibility.

10) Get creative – keep busy with some activities like reading a book, painting, and gardening which can offer an escape for a busy mind. It can help us redirect our thoughts and tune out the chatter in our heads. The key is to enjoy the process and not worry so much about the result.

11) Take a break– when you find your mind racing full speed or spiralling down a rabbit hole, change your focus: stretch, daydream, walk around, get a snack or chat with a friend. Take at least a few minutes to recharge and reset.

12) Dig in the dirt- It is not just the great outdoors and the exercise at work here. The soil itself has microorganisms that might help our focus and lift our mood.

Now, this technique teaches us to control our reactions to stress. We could trek our heart rate, body temperature and breathe too. Overall, we will figure out how to calm our body’s response on our own.