Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Thinking

by S.J. Scott

Thinking is necessary for solving problems, analyzing, making decisions, and planning, but in between the times of proactive mental endeavors, the mind roams like a wild monkey, dragging you through the brambles of rumination and negativity.

It causes you to miss valuable experiences and sabotages the joy of the present moment.

It’s common to find yourself trapped in a looping cycle of regretful thinking or worry

thoughts, even while feeling desperate to escape the never-ending tape playing in your mind.

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

Declutter Your Mind is broken down into four information-packed sections that you can use to change a specific aspect of your life that might be causing you to feel stressed or overwhelmed. Specifically, we cover these topics:

Often find yourself trapped in anxious, negative, and unproductive thinking Lose valuable time, focus, and energy because of overthinking and worry Feel frustrated and confused about how to stop negative and compulsive thinking Have experienced times of high stress, agitation, anxiety, and even depression as a result of mental

overwhelm Find yourself looking to money, possessions, work, success, or prestige to fill a void of emptiness or sadness you feel Feel so busy, overwhelmed, and stressed that you’ve lost touch with who you really are Find yourself turning to distractions, alcohol, drugs, and other compulsions to numb yourself to painful thoughts and feelings Would like to change your priorities and learn to manage and understand your thoughts so they don’t rule your life Get complaints from your boss, spouse, or family members about your distraction, disengagement, agitation, or constant stress

Too much input, too much negative exposure, and too many choices can trigger a not-so-healthy coping response.

Cause #3: Too Much “Stuff”

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.

We worry about our health, our jobs, our kids, the economy, our relationships, how we look, what other people think of us, terrorism, politics, pain from the past, and our unpredictable futures. Our thoughts about these things make us suffer and undermine the happiness we could experience right now if we didn’t have that constant voice in our heads stirring things up.

Thus evolved the “negativity bias,” our tendency to react to negative stimuli more intensely than positive.

So what does the negativity bias have to do with your thoughts? It means that you are hardwired to overthink, worry, and view situations more negatively than they are in reality.

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.

You’ll find that, as you master your thinking, you’ll not only be more focused and productive, but also feel more at peace with all the crazy demands

Mental Declutter Habit #1: Focused Deep Breathing

Start by breathing to the count of four, pausing for the count of two, and exhaling to the count of four.

Mental Declutter Habit #2: Meditation

There are dozens of styles of meditative practices, but most practices begin with the same steps—sitting quietly, focusing attention on your breath, and dismissing any distractions that come your way.

A study from the University of Washington showed that meditation increases productivity and promotes focus. Another study published in Brain Research Bulletin supports the claims that meditation can decrease stress. A University of Massachusetts Medical School study has shown meditation can boost your overall brainpower in a number of ways.

Other studies have shown how meditation can help preserve the aging brain, improve the symptoms of depression and anxiety, thicken the learning and memory areas of the brain, and help with addiction.

Research has found that meditation also promotes divergent thinking, a type of thinking that fosters creativity by allowing many new ideas to be generated.

Here is a simple 11-step process you can use to build the meditation habit:

Mental Declutter Habit #3: Reframe ALL Negative Thoughts

“Thus, evolution has shaped our brains so that we are hardwired to suffer psychologically: to compare, evaluate, and criticize ourselves, to focus on what we’re lacking, to rapidly become dissatisfied with what we have, and to imagine all sorts of frightening scenarios, most of which will never happen. No wonder humans find it hard to be happy!”

Observing your thoughts rather than attaching to them disempowers the thoughts and the emotions they foster.

For example, if you think, “I’ll never get all of this done,” change the mental dialog to “I’m having the thought that I’ll never get all of this done.” This reinforces the fact that you are not your thoughts.

When you catch yourself in mental looping or worry, simply say, “STOP!” out loud (vocalizing reinforces the interruption), and then visualize a heavy metal wall slamming down in front of your runaway thoughts.

Break the cycle using distraction. Do something that will occupy your mind so there’s no room for the negative thoughts. Immerse yourself in a project that involves focus and brainpower.

If you’re stuck in the car or waiting in line, go through the multiplication tables in your head or try to memorize a poem.

Your mind abhors a vacuum, so you need to fill the void with constructive thought so you don’t careen back into old patterns.

This simply means coming up with a concrete example that contradicts the thought by reminding yourself of a positive

event or previous “win.”

This habit helps you take control of your reality and puts a roadblock in front of the never-ending highway of self-sabotaging beliefs.

However, it’s also true that the thoughts and feelings about these challenging situations are often far worse than the situation itself.

When you struggle against the reality of a bad situation, you’re adding another layer of suffering to your psyche. You can’t worry or guilt yourself into a solution. Instead, you need a clear head and a calm mind.

Writing in longhand

helps you process your thoughts and can often lead to a creative solution to your problem.

Because your core values can serve as a measuring stick for all of your choices and decisions in life, keeping you focused on the person you want to be and the life you wish to lead.

Core values form a foundation for your life that endures through time, life difficulties, and major changes. Embracing your core values is like being a tree with deep and stable roots—the storms of life will not dislodge you. When you’re clear on your values, you reduce confusion, overthinking, worry, and anxiety.

Living out of alignment with your values or outgrowing your existing values can throw you off course and contribute to feelings of anxiety and depression. If you haven’t defined your values, your life can feel unbalanced or directionless, and you may not know why.

No matter what you pick, be sure to start with the area of your life where you feel the biggest disconnect. This is where you likely feel the most internal pain and mental agitation. Chip away at your action list daily so you can create changes and boundaries that prevent you from mindlessly wandering away from your values again.

“the ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.”

He suggests you don’t need to wait for

change, for something better, for the future, before you are content. You can be content right now if you choose to see all of the good and beauty around you in the present moment.

Longing and struggling against “what is” causes suffering. Wishing for more, for something different, for something better at the expense of contentment in the moment robs us of life.

It’s also been Steve’s experience that lengthy goals (i.e., anything over six months) are often demotivating. When you know an outcome is months away, it’s easy to procrastinate on taking consistent action. You keep putting off your goals, promising you’ll work on them next week. Next thing you know, it’s a year later and nothing has been accomplished.