Another day ends, and your warm and comfortable bed calls to you. After the kind of day you’ve had, you are sure that sleep will come easily. You settle into bed, and after ten minutes of tossing and turning, you realize sleep has abandoned you. You are hit with an onslaught of thoughts, worries, and memories that make you cringe. Before you know it, it’s 3 am and you are wondering how to control your mind enough to get a good night’s sleep before the alarm rings.
Sounds familiar? Well, the good news is you are not alone. The words “I think, therefore I am”, uttered by Descartes, point to the fact that thinking is a human act. From a toddler mulling over the thought of sticking his finger into the electric socket to a grown adult pondering the futility of existence, thoughts are common to everyone, and they happen rather frequently.
According to a study conducted at Queen’s University in Canada, an average person experiences 6.5 thoughts every minute. That’s over 300 thoughts every waking hour. No wonder we often feel overwhelmed by our minds and end up looking for mind-controlling techniques to get out of that frenzy. But is it possible to control our thoughts? Let’s find out.
The Power Of Mind Control
From the hair on the body which keeps us warm, to the inner ear vestibule system that helps with hearing as well as balance, every part of our body has its purpose. However, the mind is a different tool altogether. It is capable of feats that are difficult to fathom. Mothers lifting cars off their babies, sugared pills curing a disease that no medicine could (placebo effect), etc are all evidence of what the mind is capable of.
Now imagine being able to control and harness all that potential. If you have ever wondered how to control your mind from unwanted thoughts, then rest assured, you are not the only one. For centuries, scientists and wise men have also wondered the same. Fortunately for us, their efforts have not been in vain. Today, we have multiple ways with which we can control our minds, techniques that not only help us to get rid of negative thoughts but also help us rewire our brains, so that the tasks and situations that we once ran away from feel like child’s play to us.
The thought of mind control may seem sinister. You might even get the image of villains trying to rule the world through mind control, but that is fiction. In reality, learning how to control your mind not only helps you during adverse situations, but it also helps you with your everyday struggles. Here are some ways mind-controlling techniques can help you:
- Self-growth and awareness
- Emotional regulation
- Dealing with manipulative people or propaganda
- Helps you gain focus and achieve goals
10 Effective Techniques To Control Your Mind
If you are an introvert or have an introverted friend, then you will be familiar with the concept of overthinking. While overthinking helps us to analyze situations and come up with better resolutions to a problem, it also has a downside. The downside can come in the form of obsessing over the smallest details, getting stuck in a loop of negative thoughts, reading between the lines even though there is no hidden agenda, etc.
And if you have ever fallen victim to these dense clouds of dark thoughts, then you will have also tried to come out of it desperately and sometimes failed. Similarly, all of us have vices that, as hard as we may try, we never seem to get rid of. This is where learning to control mind techniques can help us. So, without further ado, let’s get to the part where we learn how to do it.
1. Develop a growth mindset
The first step you need to take when learning how to control your thoughts is believing you can change. Quite like the proverbial horse that is taken to the water but still refuses to drink it, you, too ought to come to terms with the fact that there has to be a change in order to be the change.
You must understand and believe that your traits are not set in stone and can evolve with time. As long as you believe that a person can not change and that you are who you are, any efforts you make to learn how to control your mind from unwanted thoughts or rectify problematic behavior will have short-term results.
2. Journal to create self-awareness
Anyone who hates writing will find this particular technique quite exhausting. Writing pages and pages of how you feel and thoughts that come to you can demotivate even the most determined people, but there are multiple benefits to journaling
Not only does it provide you an outlet to vent which does calm the mind, but it also allows you to see patterns and understand what things trigger you and in what ways. More often than not you will find yourself having little epiphanies like, “Oh! I do this every time I feel disrespected.” or “ Woah, I feel drained every time I meet this person.”
With time, journaling will also help you to rewire your brain. You will be able to determine and control how you react to specific triggers. For example, if your love interest keeps benching you, then you will:
- Be able to recognize the pattern
- Be able to resist their charms and stand your ground every time they call you.
3. The power of meditation as a mind-controlling technique
We all know of monks who brave the cold and harsh winters of the Himalayas with merely a robe on, saints who go on for days without nourishment, and holy men who sit on a bed of nails. All of them are capable of feats that we believe are humanly impossible. If you ask them the secret behind their powers, they will not gatekeep the secret. They will tell you outright it’s meditation. I understand that not all of us dream of giving up on worldly pleasures. Fortunately, you don’t need to give up on anything to meditate.
In meditation, you can pick a thought and focus on it for a period of time. In the beginning, this can seem difficult as our minds tend to jump from one thought to another rapidly. When you become conscious of this, you stop, go back to the thought, and start focusing on it again. Over time, you will notice that you are able to focus on the thought for a longer duration of time, and you realize you have learned how to control your thoughts.
Meditation acts like a dojo for your brain. With practice, you learn how to control unwanted thoughts and your ability to focus on tasks gets better. This form of control mind technique is especially helpful for people who feel anxious or tend to get distracted easily, making it difficult for them to complete tasks.
4. Positive thinking is key
We’ve all had someone tell us to think positively at some point or other in our lives. And more often than not it has upset us even more. How does a person not get negative thoughts? To be honest, it is impossible. Even the most positive person on the planet will have some negative thoughts at one time. So what is the point of trying?
To think positively doesn’t mean “good vibes only”. It means when you do get a negative thought, you try to turn it into something positive. If you are traveling and you lose your way for the fourth time in an hour, then a voice in your head might say “I am a blundering idiot.” Flip that thought to “This is a new place and I am trying to figure out the directions. I will check my GPS and get on the right road” And just like that you feel a little better about your situation.
5. Visualize your goals
A vital step in learning how to control your thoughts is visualization. The brain is an interesting organ. However, it can’t tell the difference between imagination and reality. When you start to visualize your goals, your mind begins to believe what you are visualizing to be the truth.
For example, if you have stage fright and you start practicing visualization and see yourself being an eloquent and influential speaker, then your mind will get tricked into believing that you are a good orator. When the day comes that you speak on stage, you will notice that not only do you not have stage fright anymore, but are also eloquent in the delivery of your speech.
6. Priming the subtle art of mind-controlling technique
If you are a person who often wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, or a person who finds themselves stuck in the loop of destructive behavior, or someone whose mood tends to dictate their actions, then it is priming that will teach you how to control your mind.
Priming is creating a mindset beforehand with the help of your brain’s ability to associate thoughts, actions, moods, etc with each other. For example, if you are listening to upbeat music while cooking, then you start chopping your vegetables faster. Or when you see the color red somewhere and you subconsciously associate it with the words danger or urgent.
The moment you learn to prime your brain, you will be able to bring action to intent. You can prime your brain by reading an inspiring quote, watching a motivational video at the start of the day, saying positive affirmations, gratitude journaling, etc.
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7. Recognize your limiting beliefs
Have you ever tried to draw something and heard a small voice in your head say, “You are not a good artist”? This is the kind of problem everyone has faced at least once in their lives. Also known as limiting beliefs, these are thoughts that pop up in your head that you believe are true about you. With their roots buried in trauma or an unpleasant childhood memory, these thoughts don’t motivate you, instead, they hold you back.
One of the most crucial steps in learning how to control your mind from getting unwanted thoughts is to recognize your limiting beliefs and ask yourself “ Is it true or did someone tell me that it is the truth?” The moment you ask yourself this question your perception will change.
You see, people’s beliefs are just that. Beliefs. They aren’t facts, just opinions. The moment you come to this realization, your mind will experience a shift in reality. And you will find endless artistic opportunities open up in front of you.
8. Exercise
If you are a gym rat, then this mind-controlling technique will be fun for you. However, if you are a person whose idea of working out is fishing, then this technique will be a little bothersome for you. Well, bothersome or not, exercising plays a major role in keeping unwanted thoughts at bay.
Our thoughts depend on our moods, and our moods are dependent on the hormones in our bloodstream. Ask any woman out there, and the five days before her menstrual cycle(aka PMS) are the worst. The surge of hormones during this period often brings with it some really dark thoughts. Hell hath no fury like a woman in her luteal phase. This is where working out comes into the picture.
Exercising to a point where you break into a sweat releases endorphins into the bloodstream. Also known as the happy hormone, endorphins help balance cortisol levels which clears up the dark fog of negative thoughts in our heads.
9. Distraction with a purpose
Negative thoughts are a part of life. There is no way we can be completely rid of it. However one of the most obvious control mind techniques that we often subconsciously practice is distraction.
While distraction is a good way to prevent unwanted thoughts, any random distraction will not work. When you are being hounded by dark thoughts, a good way to distract yourself is an activity that needs focus to be performed. Some of these activities are
- Writing
- Painting
- Focusing on micro tasks like cleaning the dressing table or making the bed
- A short fast walk to get those feelings out of your system
- Listening to immersive music
- Solving puzzles or playing fast-paced games
10. Talk to someone
Human beings are social animals. Isolating a person for prolonged periods or depriving them of human interaction can have adverse effects on their mental health. As the saying goes, an empty mind is the devil’s workshop. A mind devoid of external stimuli becomes a playground for overthinking, anxiety, and depression. The best way to tackle this is through human interaction.
When your mind resembles a night, then the best thing to do is talk to someone. It can be a friend, preferably someone you can trust, or a confidante, or even a therapist but talking to someone is vital. It not only helps you clear the mental haze but it also gives you a fresh perspective. And at the very least, help you with positive reaffirmation.
Conclusion
Mind-controlling technique doesn’t involve suppressing thoughts. It helps you to channel the negative thoughts into something positive. After all according to Lao-Tze, “ Thoughts become words, words become action, actions become a habit, habits become character and character becomes destiny.” Tweak your thoughts and a whole new future awaits you.
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