Absent-Minded and Busy Brain

Do you or do you know someone who experiences any of these regularly?

Your keys always seem to have walked off and you can’t find them.
You’re late for almost everything.
Can’t seem to get a good solid night sleep on most nights.
When spoken to, words just seem to go in one ear and out the other.
The mind can’t stop thinking.

These are just some examples of being absent-minded or having a busy brain. Just like the depiction of the above picture, most of us live in the world like the human and very few have our minds like the little girl. I used to live like the person on the left. My mind was full of planning, worries and thinking. Sometimes, I live in my mind for hours. There is a time and place to do that but to put the brain in overdrive like that causes “burn out”. There's a Toaist saying: "If you want to go nuts, live in your head." Oh wait, maybe I made that one up!

After discovering mindfulness, yoga and Qi Gong, I cultivated a superpower called "awareness" to re-evaluate my life and take charge of how I think and live. It had to be slow but the baby steps helped me tremendously. This is what I did.

1) Start the Day Right

My Qi Gong teacher once told me how I start my practice is how my practice is going to be. I decided to apply that concept to the start of each day. Every morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is “smile” to remind myself that I have another brand new day ahead. I then take deep mindful breaths. The conscious breathing has given my mind a rest from over thinking and worrying.

Next, I slowly get out of bed and do everything slowly with full awareness. This slow and meditative type of moving about, like brushing my teeth, showering, making coffee, without distractions like TV, radio, social media, helps me strengthen my focus and concentration; concentration helps me remember where I left my keys. (-: I now have a specific spot for my keys. No more losing my keys.

2) Practice Yoga or Qi Gong

Mindful movement practices like yoga and Qi Gong have been around for thousands of years and practiced by many great Zen teachers. The slow movement allows my mind to stay focused and not wander off to many thoughts.

3) One Thing At a Time

Science is telling us that multi-taking is not possible. We think that our mind is focusing on many things at one time when in fact our mind is actually jumping from one activity to the next and taking away our ability to focus and worse, makes us forget about the other activity. Have you tried heating up oil in a pan while cutting up vegetables with the TV on in the background? The focus isn't there and we're not able to see what's going on with the TV, the pan overheats and worse yet, we may accidentally cut ourselves at the cutting board.

4) Walk Everywhere Slower

When I have extra time, I make the effort of walking slowly while smiling at the placement of my feet. Of course, I don't always have extra time to walk slowly, especially with a one-year old to care for, in which case I know that I'm in a hurry and I still try my best to walk quickly with awareness.

I'm sure the list above is not exhaustive but wanted to share the four common things I do everyday to help me stay focused or concentrated to help keep my mind calm and I know what I'm doing with awareness, instead of mindlessly and quickly do things and forget what I've done, like not remembering where I place my car keys.

Do you have an activity that you do that helps keep your mind calm?

Good luck and may you not lose your marbles. (-:

With joy and ease,
Hang