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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
S.J. Scott
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July 15, 2024 - March 21, 2025
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it’s all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” – Marcus Aurelius
Whether they are negative, neutral, or positive, these thoughts clutter our minds, just like your home can get cluttered when you have too many possessions.
In fact, like a never-ending game of Whack-a-Mole, your negative thoughts have a way of popping back up as soon as you slap them down.
Our powerful brains are constantly processing all sorts of experiences and analyzing them in the form of thoughts. Thoughts form what we perceive to be reality.
Your constant inner dialog distracts you from what is happening around you, right here and now. It causes you to miss valuable experiences and sabotages the joy of the present moment.
In fact, nearly every negative thought you have relates to the past or future.
The more fearful, guilt-ridden, regretful thoughts we have, the more stressed, anxious, depressed, and angry we feel. Sometimes our thoughts paralyze us with bad feelings, and it’s those feelings that rob us of inner peace and contentment.
Thinking may seem automatic and uncontrollable, but many of our thought patterns are habitual and, well, thoughtless.
You have far more control of your thoughts than you think. When you learn how to control your mind, you open a door to the vastness of creativity, inspiration, and brilliance that is just behind the clutter of those untamed thoughts.
The goal of this book is simple: We will teach you the habits, actions, and mindsets you can use to clean up the mental clutter that might be holding you back from being more focused and mindful.
“It’s not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.” – Bruce Lee
When life becomes so intense and complicated, our psyches search out escape ramps. Too much input, too much negative exposure, and too many choices can trigger a not-so-healthy coping response.
“paradox of choice,” which sums up his findings that increased choice leads to greater anxiety, indecision, paralysis, and dissatisfaction. More choices might afford objectively better results, but they won’t make you happy.
“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” Obama said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”
We’re filling our homes with things we don’t need and filling our time with a steady stream of tweets, updates, articles, blog posts, and cat videos. Information and stuff is piling up around us, and yet we feel helpless to do anything about it.
All of this extraneous stuff and data not only sucks our time and productivity, but also produces reactive, anxious, and negative thoughts.
Everything seems important and urgent. Every email and text must be answered. Every latest device or contraption must be purchased. This keeps us constantly stirred up, busy with trivialities, and detached from the people around us and the feelings within us.
all this busyness is leading us to mental and emotional exhaustion. As we process everything coming at us, we analyze, ruminate, and worry ourselves to the breaking point.
We have to figure out a way to live in this modern world without losing our sanity.
“To keep our ancestors alive, Mother Nature evolved a brain that routinely tricked them into making three mistakes: overestimating threats, underestimating opportunities, and underestimating resources (for dealing with threats and fulfilling opportunities).”
“The brain is like Velcro for negative experiences but Teflon for positive ones.”
Rick Hanson
“There is an alternative to simply identifying with the next thought that pops into consciousness.” That alternative is mindfulness.
Mindfulness requires retraining your brain to stay out of the mental clutter from the future and focus instead on the present moment. When you are mindful, you no longer attach to your thoughts. You are simply present in whatever you happen to be doing.
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” – Thích Nhat Hanh
by simply becoming more aware of how you breathe, you foster a calmer state of body and mind.
One of the best ways to detach from negative thoughts and gain control over your mind is through slow, deep, rhythmic breathing.
Deep breathing helps you feel connected to your body, shifting your awareness away from worry and quieting the inner dialog in your brain.
“The relaxation response is a physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress…and the opposite of the fight or flight response.”
Dr. Herbert Benson
focused breathing is the foundation for a meditation practice,
If you establish a 5 – to 10-minute breathing habit, you can easily use this habit as a trigger and starting point for your meditation practice.
“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It’s a way of entering into the quiet that’s already there—buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day.” – Deepak Chopra
meditation is simply exercise for your brain.”
meditation as a tool to help you train your mind and control your thoughts,
The key to finding satisfaction with meditation is simply to practice.
uses short meditation breaks during the day to help her relax during particularly stressful times.
“Meditation is a lot like doing reps at a gym. It strengthens your attention muscle.”
David Levy
Don’t judge yourself for having intrusive thoughts. That’s just your “monkey mind” trying to take over. Just lead your mind back to focused attention on breathing.
Your job is always to simply observe and redirect your mind back to the present moment, to your breathing.
Separate your “self” from your thoughts, and just observe what is going on in your mind.
If so, write down the triggers so you’re aware when they happen. This awareness can help prevent you from being ambushed by negative thoughts.
you need to fill the void with constructive thought so you don’t careen back into old patterns.
You can’t worry or guilt yourself into a solution. Instead, you need a clear head and a calm mind.
Set a timer for 10 to 15 minutes and allow yourself to stress over whatever enters your mind.
They knew who they were and what they stood for, and therefore how to focus their time and energy.
By living in alignment with your values, you create the best environment for happiness, inner peace, and clear thinking.
Embracing your core values is like being a tree with deep and stable roots—the storms of life will not dislodge you.
To understand why something feels wrong, you must have a strong grasp of what is right for you.
When we don’t know the bigger “why” of our lives, there are no rules, no boundaries, no priorities to help us.
We recommend you begin with the priority that can make the most positive difference in your life or where you feel the most imbalance.
Although worrying about the future contributes to an unsettled mind, planning for the future is an important and valuable exercise that can set the stage for true fulfillment in the years to come.
