Try these 4 exercises to help you strengthen your psychological resistance and live in harmony with yourself and with others.
Watch the time go by!
Boredom is like a clock with the seconds hand having fun slowing down or even stopping. So we kill time, in order to escape the anguish; you fill your life with projects and activities to pass the time, this downtime synonymous with boredom. And we wake up one evening, in the twilight of our life, amazed to find, with nostalgia and regret, that we haven’t seen the time go by.
If you don’t want to feel life slipping through your fingers, if you want to appreciate the present and not fear the future, then you will have to tame time, the time that passes, look it in the face and take the time to watch it go by. With interest. This is the goal of this exercise.
Sit comfortably in front of a watch with a second hand; the alarm clock on the nightstand, for example, or the clock in the kitchen, on the computer, on the cell phone. Wait until the seconds hand is up, and watch it circle the dial, second by second.
Avoid, of course, other external stimuli; no music, no radio, no television, no reading material, no ironing, no one on the phone. And without leaving in your thoughts, either, which will remain the most difficult; because this behavior characterizes the preferred strategy in order to escape a disturbing reality.
How long will you last, just watching the seconds go by? One minute, five, ten, more? Try to beat your record regularly. When you have mastered this first part of the exercise, replace the mechanical beat of the second hand with the living pulsation of the respiratory movement.
Sit in silence and solitude, facing a wall in your home; preferably a bare wall, solid color, so as not to focus on the tapestry, knickknacks, photos or posters displayed. Then just sit there and breathe; nothing else. If necessary, focus on the one element that stands out from the surrounding void: the sound and movement of your breath.
Your whole life boils down to this ceaseless beat of in and out; take the positive, eliminate the negative. Without going that far, performing this exercise regularly in the evening before bed, like brushing your teeth, will help relieve tension built up during the day and prepare you for a good night’s rest. And, with practice, you may be able to calm your mind.
Cut the thread!
We were all born attached by the umbilical cord that connected us to our mother. This bond of flesh was cut at birth, but we quickly replaced it with emotional ties, invisible threads that fulfill the same function: to connect us to other beings who bring us love, security and comfort; First it was our parents, then our brothers and sisters, finally friends, loves, children.
The bonds of attachment are woven from two threads: security and dependence. We care about the people who love us and whom we love. But these bonds bind us and make us dependent, because, deprived of these loved ones, we feel alone, empty, fragile and worthless.
This invisible thread is now represented by the telephone, this magical object that allows us to stay in almost permanent contact. The possibility, with cellphones, of being reached everywhere and at any time, accentuates this attachment even more, as shown by these people who regularly consult with anxiety their favorite object; nothing worse than a silent cell phone.
Here, for this purpose, an exercise simple to state, but more difficult to put into practice. Start with text messages or regular mail. When you receive your next message, allow a few minutes to elapse before reading it.
With a little practice you should be able to last at least an hour if not longer. Then get in the habit of turning off the phone regularly for a night out, then savor your freedom for an afternoon or a whole day. When you were born, the cord was cut to give you biological autonomy. Now you will have to cut it a second time if you want to give birth on your own and gain psychological independence.
Dive into the void!
It is customary to say that Nature hates emptiness, but she copes with it very well, so well that she is full of them. The entire universe is said to be 99.99% empty. If you could remove the void from everything that our planet includes (earth, water, air, mountains, plants, animals, humans, objects, buildings, cars …), what would remain, once the void is removed, would fit in the hollow from your hand!
In addition to characterizing the essence of what constitutes us, the vacuum also has its uses. Take these lines, which you are reading; If the background of the page was not white, that is, empty of ink, you would have more difficulty reading. The same goes for the silence between musical notes.
Finally, meditate on the cavities necessary for the proper functioning of our biological body. Since emptiness is useful and is everywhere, even if we ignore it or don’t want to see it, the best thing is to tame it, with the exercise that follows.
Start with the walls in your home. Pick up the various objects and live for two weeks in this uncluttered setting. Ditto with decorative knickknacks. Then put everything back in place, as before. Go through your closets, your walls, and ask yourself what you could take away without worrying too much.
Do the same kind of exercise with the sound space. What is the usual background noise (television, radio, music) that you put on to fill the silence? For a week, turn off the sound, except when you have decided to concentrate on listening to a program or a melody. Then combine the two: for a while, empty part of your visual and sound space. To see. And hear the sound of emptiness.
Of course, it is not only the objects that serve to fill the void, there are also the people, the activities, the projects, the food, the alcohol, the money, the readings, the beliefs, the knowledge, problems, etc. After this warm-up, you may feel the urge to empty your life a little, to suffocate less, to free up some space, to breathe better.
Reference: https://www.verywellmind.com/brain-exercises-to-strengthen-your-mind-2795039
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