Appetite for Mind

Last week I met my friend Rose during a social event. As we were meeting after a long time, we decided to spend the evening together at a coffee shop discussing how life has progressed for each of us.

Rose highlighted that her mind was overburdened with lots of thoughts since past few weeks and that she continuously suffers from overthinking on irrelevant matters. As we continued our discussion, she shared all the activities she did since the past few weeks and the people she met during these weeks. It was then that we realized that this condition of her mind was due to strong influence of the people she has been meeting during past few weeks. Also, the excessive time she spent on social media just browsing through the posts of others may be one of the reasons why she is overthinking and constantly overflowing with thoughts.

We know that sugar and sugar products like sweets are good for tastebuds but not good for health and so we try and reduce its intake as much as possible. Similarly, we try to reduce the intake of oily foods in our diet to prevent cholesterol. But how many of us monitor the appetite for our mind? We all know the famous quote 'Prevention is better than cure'. But we often choose improper appetite for our mind as a result of which we suffer from overthinking, constant thinking and so on thereby affecting our mind vigorously. One can find different techniques like yoga, meditation, exercise, etc from different sources online and offline to help you deal with the issues related to overthinking or constant thinking. However, it is very crucial and necessary to monitor one's appetite for mind rather than finding medicine after suffering from the problem.

Sthitapragya Diaries encourages all its readers to include the below practices in their daily routine which will help to monitor one's mind and to include an appetite which is healthy and peaceful for one's mind:

1. Spend more time listening and reading about people and things that inspire you more rather than just browsing social media without the intention to learn something or which will not help you in any way.

2. List down things/ activities that you always wished to do if you get time. Keep this list handy and start practicing atleast few activities every week even though for few minutes. This will satisfy and please your mind to a larger extent.

3. Identify your mind calmers and mind harmers and ensure that you spend zero or very minimum time with mind harmers. Mind calmers and mind harmers can be people, things or activities. Spending time in nature is considered as a mind calming activity.