Calm Mindset

Do you believe that high levels of stress and continuous anxiety over activities of work and life have become a part of modern way of living?

I also have noticed that some people in our society have not experienced the peaceful and calm mindset throughout their day. Even I would like to confess that I am also in a rush mood to finish the to-do list of my week.

Some people are born with calm and cool nature. These people can train themselves easily to improve this super power. But the ones with aggressive mindset need to self-train or get professional training to change their mindset into calm mindset.

Hence, this month I would like to share tips of mine that I have learnt and practiced in developing a calm mindset. Actually, these are some habits that I have developed over the years.

·???????? When trying to develop calmness, most of us try to change the environment. It is a good start but you are not in a position to control the things that happen to you from the environment. First, keep in mind that the only thing that you can control is your response and how you react to the environment matters a lot in developing calmness. Here, specifically I need to mention that response to negative stress can be controlled by a calm mindset.

·???????? Even though I am a social creature, I prefer a quiet life style with loved ones. Because our lives are drowned with notifications, social media updates, news alerts, virtual clutter etc. After the death of my parents last year, I stopped posting continuously in my social media platforms for six months as I needed some space to heal myself to move forward. So, reducing the unnecessary noise of your life can help you to develop a calm mindset.

·???????? Changing the stress coping habits also helped me a lot to develop calmness. Instead of going into unhealthy responses (like anger, eating junk food, taking alcohol/drugs, time wasting, procrastinating etc.) we can develop healthy ways to cope stress like eating healthy foods, meditation, taking a walk, listen to soft music, exercise, have a chat with a loved one, get a body massage, increase water consumption etc.

·???????? How often do we apply gratitude in our lives even many talk about it. Things are not going according to the plan, boss is angry, co-workers are rude, spouse does not love you as before, kids are misbehaving and the list can continue. No matter what, you need to drop the complaints and find a way to be grateful without developing anger, unhappiness and anxiety. Just smile and relax as these issues are not permanent.

·???????? I hope you can remember what I said about multi-tasking in January issue. Multi tasking and single tasking is a very common topic that I deal with students. People nowadays multitask more than ever. As a result, you are always worried that you should do more things. What if you just do one thing at a time? When you eat, just focus on eating. When you read, just read attentively without switching into another activity. You will learn that there is calmness in just doing one thing with attention and letting go of everything else for a while.

A wealth management professional Prasad Mahes once have said that,

“The mind is like water. When it is turbulent, it is difficult to see. When it is calm, everything becomes clear.”

(This article originally appeared in Probe - February 2024)