5 Tips to Calm Your Mind and See Things in a Positive Light

At times we can become overwhelmed, stressed, or depressed due to many different things. In this article, learn some simple ways to help you calm your mind!

Sometimes you might find yourself facing so many difficulties that you have a hard time avoiding negative thoughts that drag you down. Work-related stress, home crises, and financial losses are some of the factors that can affect you psychologically, to the point that you eventually become depressed.

The most harmful part of all this isn’t having negative thoughts, but it’s the little attention we pay to our mental health because we have other things to deal with, such as day-to-day tasks. However, we’re not machines and we’re not made of stone, and there comes a time when everything comes to the surface. We become overwhelmed.

Therefore, it’s important that you start looking for ways to calm your mind and let out the feelings that are building up inside. While at first, it might not be easy, try to improve your attitude and do everything in your power to avoid letting your emotions turn into more serious problems. Below, we’ll share a series of tips that can be put into practice when you’re experiencing difficult times.

1. Try to empty and calm your mind for a moment

When you’re thinking about too many things at once, you overwhelm your mind with the countless problems you need to solve. Thus, it’s hard to avoid a negative outlook. Although these situations can sometimes be inevitable, try to dedicate one minute of your time to reflect and meditate. 

Meditating is an optimal way to learn to deal with problems with more serenity and calmness. In fact, many people who perform this practice say they feel a great deal of inner peace even in stormy moments.

Research conducted in 2008 defined meditation as an uncritical state of self-observation. When people meditate, they observe thoughts, but without thinking.

Also, you examine feelings without getting involved in them and contemplate any cognitive, sensory, emotional, physiological, or behavioral content, but in a passive way.

In this way, with this therapy, you’re able to think more clearly. You can meditate daily if you want. In fact, meditation can be carried out in 10, 15, 20, or 30-minute sessions. Everything will depend on the time that you want to dedicate to it.

2. Stop complaining in order to calm your mind

Complaining is necessary, but doing it all the time and not looking for solutions is harmful and, ultimately, doesn’t help to calm your mind. Likewise, complaining and seeing reality as a kind of gloomy landscape, with nothing positive, is harmful, to say the least.

Sometimes this lack of optimism is the result of the way we see reality. Thinking about how you perceive everything around you (without adding any condiments) can help you find the source of your discomfort, stress, or depression to some extent.

Instead of seeking refuge in complaints and staying in that false comfort zone, it may help to take difficulties as a challenge and look for the means to give them a good outcome and solution. When going through bitter and difficult times, adopting the best attitude can be the biggest step to change.

3. Express yourself creatively

If you can explore the emotions you experience in a creative way, you’ll find that it’s one of the best therapies to calm your mind and restore your balance. Creativity is always there to provide well-being. It helps to process emotions, break routines, and understand the situations you’re going through.

Some ways to express yourself through creativity and quiet your mind can be the following:

• Coloring mandalas
• Listening to a guided meditation
• Stretching for the whole body for at least 15-20 minutes
• Doing dance therapy or some other fun physical activity
• Take a walk in a different place and take pictures of the scenery
• Write down on a piece of paper everything you feel, what you think, in as much detail as possible
• Read a new book that catches your attention and helps to refresh and distract your mind
• Take a warm shower and sing a song that you like very much
• Doing an activity that you have always wanted to do, for example, doing yoga outdoors

4. Make a list of things you care about

Routines and stress can cause us to put aside the pleasant things in life. Therefore, you need to learn to stop for a moment and make a list (physical or mental, as you prefer) of everything that’s worthwhile. This list can be made up of anything that you consider worthwhile: The aroma of freshly brewed coffee, the warmth of a hot drink on a cold day, the blue sky, the birds singing in the morning, the embrace of a loved one, the feel of shower water falling on your body, etc.

Making such lists – both in times of stress and in times of peace – is positive because it helps you to be more grateful in life and to find something positive in every circumstance.

5. Talk a walk outside

Our environment has a significant influence on our thoughts. For this reason, you need to move away from toxic people and environments. To do this quickly and calmly, you can g0 for a walk in the fresh air, either in a park or in the countryside.

This way, when these negative influences are removed, you’ll have the opportunity to calm your mind and achieve serenity.

People who walk approximately 10,000 steps a day have better overall health and quality of life than those who are sedentary, according to a study conducted at the University of Costa Rica.

To conclude, we suggest following these simple recommendations and not letting negative things take control of your life. Doing breathing exercises, looking for relaxation techniques (according to your preferences), and dedicating time to yourself is always necessary, not only when you’re feeling overwhelmed. It’s also good to consider consulting a psychologist in case you need help to manage negative thoughts and emotions.