I watched a program on mindfulness recently, and later, it struck me that I’m doing much better with this in practice.

During the years, I’ve read and learned a lot about the mind, but I never actively practiced meditation or mindfulness.

What is mindfulness?

According to the show I watched, “The Mind, Explained,” mindfulness is a kind of meditation, but there are many others. Mindfulness is being aware of your thoughts in the moment. Often, people start to learn mindfulness by focusing on their breathing: in and out. Tune out other thoughts and focus on your breath. In this way, you can learn to calm your thoughts and focus your mind.

The program shared an analogy that explains it. A fox and turtle meet. The fox thinks she will get a tasty treat. The turtle wants to run away, but that’s not possible with the fox. Instead, the turtle retreats into his shell and watches the fox. The fox goes around and around, trying to figure out how to get at the turtle. Eventually, the fox gives up and goes away, leaving the turtle to live.

Our thoughts are like the fox. They come at us and cause anxiety. We may want to flee, but running away isn’t possible. Instead, if we are like the turtle and retreat into our shell, we can watch the fox until it gives up. We can retreat into our minds and watch our thoughts. Rather than letting our thoughts run our minds (and nervous systems), we can watch them, analyze them and remove the anxiety associated with them.

 

Analyzing my thoughts

I have not practiced mindfulness or meditation in a specific or planned way. Instead, I’ve spent a lot of time with my thoughts, analyzing them, thinking about them, trying to figure out why I had certain thoughts or reacted certain ways. I have done a lot of that in the past year and a half. In light of the program, I guess I spent a lot of time like the turtle.

Additionally, I changed a lot in my life in that time frame: My job, my marital status, my stuff, even my location on the planet.

Through all of this, I was able to still my mind, simply by removing so many of the things that stressed me out and made me anxious.

Of course, I’m far from perfect. If I focus on certain things, I will start that downward spiral. So I don’t focus on them. I don’t allow myself to dwell on them. But I know they are there, and, well, sometimes …

 

My mindfulness

So I was a little surprised after I saw this show that I witnessed how far I’ve come, without really being aware of it.

Recently, I awoke early, like 4:30 a.m. I was awake enough that at one time, my mind would have started racing, and I would have been up for the day. As it was, I thought about work: the freelance job I wanted to finish when I got up. That led me to think about how I’d like more freelance hours (and pay). And that led me to think about a freelance job that didn’t turn out so well.

Normally, this line of thinking will end badly. In my former life, I might have ruminated on it all day or even for weeks or months.

On this day, I let myself start to think about it. I mulled it over, the good and the bad, but mostly the bad. I recognized I was getting more upset and anxious about it. The spiral had started.

Suddenly, I felt like I was outside myself, watching myself get upset. In that moment of clarity, I realized I could stop it.

So I did.

It was like I flipped a switch. The negative thoughts immediately stopped. Instead, I had instant calm and realization that I could control my thoughts. Just like that.

Whoa.

You’d think this wouldn’t be such a big thing for me, that I’d have figured this out by now. But no. I’m still learning about myself, in big and small ways.

Removing the stressors from my life was very important. But you can’t get rid of everything. Seeing how to shut down negative thoughts is really the key.

It was a cool experience. And I know it worked, because I fell back to sleep. Once upon a time, in my life before, that never would have happened.

---

How to Be a Better Writer Tip

Write everything well

How do you write when you’re sending an email or text message? Do you take time to capitalize, add punctuation and spell words correctly?

Texting tends to be the downfall for many of us. I still cringe each time I see “RU” instead of “are  you” — and it’s not on a Prince album.

Of course, it’s easier and faster to shorten words and use acronyms. I do that, too, sometimes: LOL. IKR? TBH.

However, I would not use those in an email except to a close friend or relative. And, honestly, if I’m emailing, I’m more likely to be typing on my laptop, so I’ll spell everything out. (I am more likely to type “Ha ha!” in an email, for example.)

I can understand using those short cuts when texting with close friends or family — with someone who knows why you’re using it.

Don’t skimp on good writing skills when texting or emailing for any business or professional purpose. Poor grammar, punctuation and spelling will reflect poorly on you. I could assume you are uneducated or lazy, neither of which may be true.

Instead, it’s better to write everything well. It takes little time to fully express your thoughts via text or email. Take those few extra seconds to spell things out and write as well as you can.