O.M.G. – Can I really use that to start this article?

Help…

...my life feels like it’s spiraling out of control.  I can’t see the wood from the trees, the tunnel is closing in around me,  my thoughts won’t settle, my head keeps me up half the night and I’m feeling more and more tired.

It’s such a fright!

This is what it feels like when you can’t think straight.  Whatever’s on your mind is overwhelming your senses and seemingly your system is shutting down. Now, I am no medical expert but I do know how to use my brain, I know what happens when we get overly stressed out, too emotionally involved or overburden with excessive obligations and responsibilities.  It feels like you simply can’t think straight.  Your thoughts flicker randomly from one problem to another dilemma.  It’s impossible to focus and solutions seem so far out of your control.  This can all be very frightening.  That causes you to panic even more.  When you’re petrified you freeze, literally paralyzed out of action as your problems worsen around you.

What’s important to remember is to breath.

The fastest way to eject yourself from such a cycle of despair is to concentrate on bringing your attention back to your breathing by focusing exclusively on the flow of air as it drifts in and out of your lungs.  Take long slow deep breaths and relax your neck and shoulders.  Take longer, slower, deeper breath and feel that tension melt away.  Stay in this state for as long as it takes for your physical body to return to a sense of stable standing and then learn how to take an objective view.

The key to mastering your thoughts – albeit the way to think straight at all times, so to speak, is to learn how to observe the way you think.  By listening to what your head is actually saying you will be better able to shut such thoughts up or listen to them more intently depending of course, on the worth of what they say.

Judging your thoughts then becomes your ultimate ambition.  It’s a skill you can strive to perfect throughout your entire life.  As you begin to assume the position of a third party observer to the endless chatter going on in your head ask yourself if you would talk to your best friend in the same way.  By asking this simple question you can begin to look at what your best friend might say to you and in so doing you are assuming an objective point of view.

The results really are extraordinary.

You will amaze yourself with what your head actually has to say.  If you really are spending a considerable amount of time worrying and anxious about your situation then it might be worth your while setting aside specific time to focus on your thoughts.

Such an activity on a conscious level is often referred to as brainstorming.  If meditation is considered a way of accessing the subconscious brain and our higher powers then brainstorming is a way of bringing a new way of thinking to our conscious attention.  The best way to brainstorm is with a pen and paper to hand.  Writing down your thoughts allows you to stand back and observe them.  Such an exercise can be remarkably revealing as it exposes what is really important and should be prioritized as well as showing you other potential solutions to your problem which you may not have yet perceived.

Simple solutions emerge when you have a complex understanding of your situation. In order to perceive a full and rounded picture it is very important that you see your situation from a number of different points of view.  It is also vital that you understand how much your emotions are influencing your mind and whether or not these are affected by forces outside of your immediate control.  It’s imperative that you gauge your knowledge and understanding against its greater gain and that you develop a system that allows you to map your progress.  Something that makes it easy for you to remember the things that you learn and the experiences you share so that you can use such knowledge and know how to support your greater understanding.

If this is all starting to sound rather complicate then all you need to worry about it listening to what your thoughts are actually saying to you.  Hear them as if they have come from someone else.  Interpret them as if you were listening to your best friend.  Tell him or her to shut up when he or she needs to and listen closely when he or she has something valuable to say.  Only in this way that you can really start to think straight – to use the power of your brain to critically and creatively solve your problems, to live in a world where you feel calm and in control of your situation and to find that sense of purpose and joy in all you do.

This is the power that your mind has over you!