In my previous article, I discussed the first mind-killer—oblivion. We tend to identify with thoughts and assign the highest value of importance and consequence to every single one. Understanding and witnessing this propensity in our lives is our highest priority from a mind fitness perspective.
Once we do this, the goal becomes learning how to oppose oblivion. So today, I’m going to discuss our first countermeasure—awareness. Countermeasures can be thought of as overarching strategic goals. They are general categories or even flavors under which I will detail specific, actionable tactics you can use to cultivate them in your everyday life.
Awareness is the ability to notice and observe our thoughts as an objective third party might. It’s shifting our belief from “I am my thoughts” to “It’s just information” and treating our mental chatter like any other data stream. Doing this allows us to utilize the valuable stuff and dismiss everything else without owning it.
Of course, that’s easier said than done. But in terms of exercises to help you develop this capacity, I like to think of a shop window sign that reads, “We’re hiring. Inquire within.” Simple and to the point, it provides two pieces of valuable information. One, there’s an opportunity on the other side. Two, you must go inside to figure out how to claim it. Awareness is all about doing the same thing with ourselves. To achieve success, we must venture internally.
Here are six of the best ways I’ve found to inquire within our minds.
Tactic 1 - Meditation
The most fundamental anti-oblivion practice is meditation. I realize that for some, this can be a hard sell. For the longest time, that was the case for me. I believed meditation was something hippies do while sitting in a lotus position and burning incense. People who meditate led solitary existences and spent years in caves committed to an asceticism far beyond anything of interest to me. Growing up, I had zero exposure to it, and it seemed daunting and inconsistent with my personality. I also thought the point was to calm one's mind.
Of course, meditation has become more mainstream these days, and I have realized that the practice need not involve any of the aforementioned conditions. Nor must it be complex or intimidating. It’s been easy to incorporate into my daily life and exceptionally effective at improving my mental health. I’ve also learned that the intent isn’t to soothe your mind, although that can be a nice side effect.
There are different ways to practice meditation, but for our purposes here, we want to boil it down to two simple components—focusing and noticing. All we are attempting to do is concentrate on something and then realize when our thoughts distract us from it. That attention can be directed at anything sensory—our breath, the darkness behind our eyes (assuming they are closed), or what we hear.
The first step is to learn a little about focus and tune into what it feels like. In my estimation, this substantially flattens the meditation learning curve. However, most people skip over this part. I’ve created an audio track here to help you do this.
Next, it can help to use guided meditation, at least to start. There are numerous apps and videos on YouTube from which to choose. I’ve even recorded some of my own:
My favorite app is Waking Up by Sam Harris. It’s subscription-based, with an intro course and daily recordings of ten or twenty minutes that walk you through how to do things step-by-step. I like it because it’s exceedingly pragmatic and absent the fluff that sometimes accompanies similar practices. You can also try using a background music track from the multitudes found on YouTube. I find they help me center myself more easily.
Ten minutes daily is enough to get going with a consistent meditation routine. And I highly recommend doing it first thing in the morning. I’ve seen enormous benefits from resisting the temptation to grab my phone as soon as I wake up and instead going internal for ten to thirty minutes. But experiment and figure out what works best for you. You can even try a few sessions scattered throughout the day.
Tactic 2 - Mind Priming
Mind Priming is a practice I invented that’s essentially a mini-meditation done anywhere in a few minutes. I call it “priming” because it’s like applying the initial coat of paint before the final color. This layer makes the rest of the work easier and the outcome better. Here, we are doing something similar with our minds.
The idea is to check in with yourself and figure out where you are mentally right now. Close your eyes and tune in to whatever you are innately thinking about—no need to focus on your somatic experience. Go straight to your thoughts and what they are doing. I find this most effective when I wake up or before I sleep. Get a sense of the color of your mind at the beginning and end of each day (or any other time it’s warranted) and if it’s serving you well.
Tactic 3 - Mind Assessment
If you want to go one step further, spend a few minutes after either practice above writing down what you found. It doesn’t need to be pretty or even proper grammar. Just scribble out what you discovered. This can be highly effective for a few reasons.
First, it gets thoughts out of your head and onto paper. There is a legitimate physical removal from your body that takes place. This can allow you to view them objectively as another information stream. It feels less like something coming from you and more like something coming at you.
Second, it also allows you to categorize your thoughts. After you’ve written whatever raw information you observed, create a list, and instead of calling it “My Thoughts” or “Things I’m Thinking,” title it “Thoughts I’m Noticing.” Give yourself as much separation from them as possible. Make two columns labeled “Useful” and “Useless” and put each into one of those buckets. Most people like to label thoughts as “positive” or “negative,” and I don’t think that’s an appropriate way to organize them. Seemingly negative notions like “I’m out of shape” can lead to positive behaviors, such as taking up a workout regimen. Conversely, a positive belief like “I’m always right” can lead to negative behaviors, such as ignoring sage warnings from those more experienced than you. It doesn’t matter if a thought is “good” or “bad,” only if it benefits you.
For more on this particular practice, see this training post.
Tactic 4 - Mental Mantra
If you do the above exercise, you may find that there are specific phrases or types of statements you think repeatedly. For example, I tend to catastrophize the outcome of almost any scenario. If you have thought patterns like this that are stuck in a destructive feedback loop, try crafting an opposing mental mantra. I currently use “everything is OK,” and I now say it to myself (either out loud or in my head) hundreds of times daily with the goal of making this my new instinctual response. Give it a try.
Tactic 5 - Thought Voicing
You can even read aloud your useless thoughts using a silly voice. How seriously could you take an opinion such as “Nobody likes me” if Donald Duck said it? Hopefully, that makes you laugh. And it should because it’s just some words. Using a strange voice helps highlight that fact. This and other techniques can be found in The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris.
Tactic 6 - Stop Multitasking
I also highly recommend eliminating the attempt to multitask to the greatest extent possible. Reduce the tabs and apps you have open simultaneously on your computer. Don’t mess around on your phone while attempting to watch TV. You aren’t doing two things at once. You are quickly shifting back and forth between them and further degrading your ability to focus.
Wrapping Up
Doing all of the above consistently can create an awareness about your thoughts unlike anything you’ve experienced. You’ll start to notice the things you think about repeatedly, examine them for their utility, and disassociate from them much more quickly. The idea of “I am my thoughts” will become ludicrous.
Lastly, remember that consciousness only exists at this moment. As a matter of direct experience, there is no past or future you. There is only right now you. And yet, so many of our thoughts rip us from that state. They are the ultimate time travelers, usually to our detriment. But if we can adequately cultivate awareness through training, we can break away from that tendency and become more present.
To me, that’s the goal. I don’t meditate to be a world-class meditator. I don’t write down my thoughts to win a Pulitzer Prize. I do these things so my mind isn’t distracting me from my life. I want everything else I do when I’m not engaged in these practices to be more fulfilling. I’m trying to always be in the moment instead of stewing on the past or foreshadowing some potential future.
You are not your thoughts. And as we’ve seen, you aren’t in control of your thoughts either. But they don’t need to control you. All it takes is a commitment to some basic practices to battle oblivion and become more aware.
DISCLAIMER: RARE SENSE® content is not medical advice. Nor does it represent the official position or opinions of any other organization or person. If you require diagnosis or treatment for a mental or physical issue or illness, please seek it from a licensed professional.