4 Ways to Quiet and Focus Your Mind

Before the ocean and the earth appeared — before the skies had overspread them all — the face of Nature in a vast expanse was naught but Chaos uniformly waste. It was a rude and undeveloped mass, that nothing made except a ponderous weight; and all discordant elements confused, were there congested in a shapeless heap. […] But God, or kindly Nature, ended strife—he cut the land from skies, the sea from land, the heavens ethereal from material air; and when were all evolved from that dark mass he bound the fractious parts in tranquil peace. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1st Century BC

There is nothing more ancient than man’s conception of the Universe as a titanic struggle between the forces of Chaos and Order — no matter the tradition. At base it has been long understood that there seems to be pure entropy — the congestion of discordant elements, the seething, formless depths of nothingness — until something, someone acts upon it all to bring ocean, earth, light.

Order.

What is true on a cosmic scale is true within the frame of your life as well. If you stop acting to make your life orderly, chaos will begin to permeate it, slowly at first and then all in a rush. Money will be lost to inflation and maintenance. Time lost to frivolities. The tidyness of your home subsumed by books and toys and games.

So how do we best situate ourselves in order to resist the chaos that threatens us?

By taking time to quiet and focus your mind.

I realize this is nothing novel. We’ve all been told over time of the benefits of things like diet and exercise and meditative practices. But I’d like to submit here for your consideration four particular strategies I’ve found useful in my life for stilling my mind when things begin to get chaotic:

The world is full of outrageous things. Focus on one.

Now more than ever, it’s being made painfully clear there are a million maladies to be found on this planet: War waged upon the innocent. Hunger among the poor. Abuse of children. Willful ignorance of facts. The corrupting influences of wealth and power. If we’re not careful we can be overwhelmed with a feeling of helplessness at so many plights among so many people which we’re so ill-equipped to address.

The enormity of the world’s problems can cripple you with despair if you don’t focus your mind and find constructive means of helping.
(Image courtesy Levi Meir Clancy)

Anger at all of it will only result in anxiety and angst, hallmarks of a need to focus your mind. So choose one thing to be outraged about. Whatever it is that sets your soul to aching and yearning in the most powerful ways, find a way to make something in that realm perceptibly, objectively better.

That doesn’t mean just righteously retweeting.

That doesn’t mean commenting with a Snopes link on your uncle’s Facebook post.

It means figuring out your niche of concern, finding people creating order in the midst of its chaos, and joining them in their efforts. Or, if nobody in your vicinity is doing so, starting yourself. Think outside the box:

• Are you good with coding, graphic or web design? Most non-profits have an online presence that requires maintenance.
• Are you a writer? Offer your services to write web copy, blog posts, or speeches.
• Do you have an expansive social network? Pitch a unique fundraiser to a non-profit for their benefit.

And there are a thousand other options depending on your time, temperament, skills, and resources at hand. Don’t let your inability to do everything cripple your ability to do anything. Looking at the whole array of problems in the world will only bring despair. Focus your mind. Be well informed, but when it comes down to it, pick a pet peeve and do something specific about it.

Understand where your resources are flowing.

Every day, every week, every month, time and money flow into all of our accounts. If they flow in and out unchecked and at the will of whim and happenstance, we’ll find ourselves anxious about it. I’ve heard too many people say something along the lines of, “I just can’t bring myself to look at my statements — it’s too depressing.”

I won’t disagree that it might be a confronting act. But this act of willful ignorance papers over a very real situation, and trades the momentary conviction of being confronted with your habits for a low grade worry that nibbles annoyingly at the back of your mind like minnows at your legs in a lake.

No way around it – you can’t focus your mind if it’s fogged by uncertainty.
(Image courtesy Karolina Grabowska)

It’s only when you have a firm grasp of where your resources are flowing, when you see them like you might streams from a mountaintop, that you can channel them toward the most productive means and stop worrying about the gullies and deltas they might be lost to out of your sight.

Budget your time and money with intention. Take protected time every month — whether you need an hour or an evening — to sit down, eliminate distraction, focus your mind, and ensure you have a firm grasp on where these resources are flowing. Once that’s done, you can all but forget about it until the next time you check in — it’ll be one less pie slice from your already divided mind.

Realize being liked is not of paramount importance.

Don’t hear what I’m not saying here. I’m not giving you permission to be a jackass. Nor am I encouraging you to live as you please and write off legitimate critique as merely coming from ‘haters.’

What I am encouraging you to do is to marginalize the importance of pleasing everyone around you when you’re making decisions in your life. Figure out what and who are important to you, and make decisions based on supporting those assertions — not on the projected commentary from others.

Everybody’s got an opinion. They’re not all equally valid. Focus your mind on the things that you have decided matter most in life, and ignore the rest.

When chaos threatens, center yourself in your core values.

Despite your best efforts, sometimes things will happen in your life that set you back on your heels and threaten to throw you into a tailspin. What then? What happens when your best laid plans are laid to waste and a dozen torments seem to be conspiring to threaten you all at once?

Focus your mind. You’re in charge of your own life, so act like it. And like a king might when under attack, retreat to your stronghold. When everything seems in disarray, and that ancient enemy Chaos looms large, pull back to the simplest of reassurances.

Are you safe from immediate harm?

Are your partner and/or children safe?

Do you have a place to safely be?

If not, you’re wasting time reading this — go make things safe for yourself and your family. But if so — if all those things are true — start there. Tell yourself that, no matter what else, you have those things. And then, with that assurance at your back, begin to plan your counterattack.

Seize your mantle as a creator.

We all create something in our lives. Sometimes those things are humble. Sometimes they’re mighty. But any act of creation is a blow to the forces of Chaos, an ordering of elements, a light upon the deep.

May your resolve be unshaken as you shine your light upon it.

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This post was previously published on THEUNBOTHEREDFATHER.COM.

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The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer

What We Talk About When We Talk About Men

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