Quiet the Mind to Find Inner Peace and Happiness
A Path to Cultivating Personal Development and Self Improvement
Dec 18, 2008
Learning how to quiet an overactive mind takes time and effort, but a quieter mind can lead to greater personal development and self improvement. A quiet mind can also serve as a natural cure for insomnia. Here learn more about why to seek a quieter mind, three ways to work toward creating a quieter mind, and the benefits of a quiet mind.
The Barrage of Chatter
Struggling with an overactive mind can keep a person from experiencing the joy that comes with the fullness of being in the moment, of living life in the present. Constantly fretting about what the future will bring, or alternately raking through one’s past to go over what one should have said or done, deprives a person of vitality for being present in the here and now.
Creating a sense of inner harmony enables a person to approach life with more balance and focus. Remaining fully engaged in the present moment’s activities, without constant interruptions from frets, doubts, and worries, or even just from banal internal chatter, is a liberating experience. Best of all, a quieter mind can allow a person more room to expand and explore their various potentials, enhancing personal development.
Daily Meditation and Mantras
Daily meditation can help one achieve a greater sense of calm, relaxation, and focus throughout one’s day. Morning meditation is particularly recommended for setting forth on one’s journey through the day with a clear and focused mind. Learning how to meditate is something that anyone can do. All it takes is the desire to learn and the willingness to commit the time to do so.
Often used during meditation, inspirational mantras are a wonderful tool for quieting the mind. A mantra, loosely defined, is simply an inspirational passage, phrase, or sound that one repeats to oneself. Mantras can be employed throughout daily living to quiet the mind, as explained by Eknath Easwaran in Passage Meditation: Bringing the Deep Wisdom of the Heart into Daily Life (Nilgiri Press, 2008).
Daily Reading from Inspirational Books
Whether it’s the Bible, a Buddhist text, a book on improving personal relationships, or simply an inspirational novel or nonfiction story, the key here is to saturate one’s mind with messages of clarity and wisdom every day. Take some time to figure out which types of books provide personal inspiration.
Make a habit of sitting down to read a certain number of pages per day — even as few as five — to receive that healthy dose of clarity and inspiration. Try to focus only on the words and what the book has to teach, letting go of all other thoughts and concerns.
Daily Journal Writing
Keeping a personal journal is an essential tool for quieting the mind. Instead of allowing disturbing thoughts or worries to whirl in circles in one’s head, take the time to write them down. Daily journal writing helps a person recognize recurring thoughts that are taking up too much energy and time, as well as to sort through and clarify one’s thoughts. Aim for half a page of writing every day, for starters.
The Benefits of a Quiet Mind
Daily meditation, mantras, inspirational reading, and journal writing can help quiet the mind. A quieter mind can also lead to sounder sleep, actually becoming a natural cure for insomnia. With little or no energy expended on fretting about the past or worrying about the future, a person can focus all of their energy on the tasks at hand. Being fully present can often result in remarkable personal development and self improvement, bringing greater inner peace and happiness.
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