I Wish I Could Make My Mind Work For Me.

[godless]

Do money-spiders deliberately bungee jump you so they don't have to bungee all the way to the floor???

Just a thought.

[TylerDurden]

A few things that I have been told can help are, Light excersize - only very light, a short walk to start with.

And bizzarly, Getting a dog - apparently can have amazing effects on people with the depression, but i suspect its the excersize from walking them?

One thing that i have found to work incredibly well for taking your mind of things. - Learn the guitar. - Its incredibly hard at first, it takes every bit of brain energy to master those hard chord shapes and form the shape recognition. As that gets easyer, the pleasure of playing takes its place. Untill one day your sat in the garden with your eyes shut playing beautifull music. it sounds cheesy, but for me the rewards are epic. and your never good enough not to delve back in to the learning curve, different styles, guitars, tunings, its endless. and you can grab a good second hand guitar for 30 quid on ebay. just dont buy one of these brand new £60 guitars. a nice instrument will help your progression.

[The Masked Tulip]

I wish I could stop the constant stream of negative internal drivel I get from my mind.

Ah, this is very common - becomes more common as people approach the mid-life crisis or older years.

You need to ground yourself.

How you do this is up to you - counselling, reading loads of spiritual and lifestyle books, following a spiritual path and seeking the meaning to the great questions, studying yoga, tai chi, etc, learning about, understanding and moving away from Ego, from career, from materialism.

However, do not shut up that inner voice completely. Learning when to listen to it might actually help you make better decisions in life, might even save your life one day.

There is a company called Uncommon Knowledge who sell downloadable meditation MP3s for about 3 quid each - perhaps try those to start with?

They operate under these urls.

http://www.hypnosisdownloads.com/

http://www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk/

[weebag]

Theres a few things that do it for me:

Dog walking - we have two of them, and its great to be out in the country with them - totally relaxing.

Motorcycle riding - there is no chance to think about anything else but the next corner. No radio, no passenger. Total bliss.

And finally: Not reading Injins posts!

[Guest DisposableHeroes]

Hope you get something from the book.

Who am I to talk. Cracked a front teeth off Last night on a duck bone then I was in a hotel and didn't sleep a wink, racing mind, had a pretty big presentation today. Drove to the location this am it was still dark (winter here) in a hire car and didn't realsie my lights werent on as I am used to auto lights.

Got through the day with many coffees and a few headache tablets, spaced out flight home with a bit of wine, but at the end of the day it went well. So no matter how shit it is you still do it.

Ouch. Sounds like a full day.

Yeah, when sh1t start to fly, trying to magically turn the mind off, is a fallacy. I would be impressed if anybody could do it. Fine if you sat cross legged in a mountain retreat.

It's good your presentation went well and now you can enjoy the contrast.

Watching Roddick play Federer was drama personified. You could see the desire to win the title etched on to their faces. When Roddick lost, being so close, you could see his vacancy while his mind thrashed over the critical points which could have made the difference. In contrast Federer's mind was probably blank with bliss (all be it for a couple of seconds).

[snowflake]

Hope you don't mind me posting as a noob - but one with a personal and professional interest in this area (I'm a therapist).

I agree very much with the posters who have recommended exercise, and also with any approach that emphasises being in the present rather than ruminating on the past or dreading the future. So meditation, Gestalt therapy, Zen approaches and if you like that sort of thing, cognitive-behavioural self-help books would all fit the bill. (Personally I find CBT rather simplistic but many people like it, especially those who have a very problem-solving approach).

So now to what you may find more controversial - I am a firm believer now that diet plays a huge part in our psychological functioning. Refined carbs, especially sugar, wreak havoc with the adrenal system. Alcohol is a well-known depressant. And in particular, the high levels of Omega 6 fats in our usual western diets are increasingly implicated in all kinds of physical ills.

So even though what you are experiencing is certainly not an illness, my suggestion would be to try changing your diet and see if you feel calmer, more positive and less troubled by the thought processes that are annoying you. You could cut out refined carbs (eat whole grains), sugar (try manuka honey), and upping your Omega 3s, either with a supplement or through eating oily fish - tinned will do - mackerel, sardines, tuna etc. You'll have to cut right back on the booze too - I found that the hard part! Oh and caffeine is unhelpful too, so you may need to switch to decaffeinated drinks.

In my experience it takes some time to have an effect and my dietary changes are still a work in progress, but it really does help, and it's harmles and cheap.

[Guest DisposableHeroes]

Hope you don't mind me posting as a noob - but one with a personal and professional interest in this area (I'm a therapist).

I agree very much with the posters who have recommended exercise, and also with any approach that emphasises being in the present rather than ruminating on the past or dreading the future. So meditation, Gestalt therapy, Zen approaches and if you like that sort of thing, cognitive-behavioural self-help books would all fit the bill. (Personally I find CBT rather simplistic but many people like it, especially those who have a very problem-solving approach).

So now to what you may find more controversial - I am a firm believer now that diet plays a huge part in our psychological functioning. Refined carbs, especially sugar, wreak havoc with the adrenal system. Alcohol is a well-known depressant. And in particular, the high levels of Omega 6 fats in our usual western diets are increasingly implicated in all kinds of physical ills.

So even though what you are experiencing is certainly not an illness, my suggestion would be to try changing your diet and see if you feel calmer, more positive and less troubled by the thought processes that are annoying you. You could cut out refined carbs (eat whole grains), sugar (try manuka honey), and upping your Omega 3s, either with a supplement or through eating oily fish - tinned will do - mackerel, sardines, tuna etc. You'll have to cut right back on the booze too - I found that the hard part! Oh and caffeine is unhelpful too, so you may need to switch to decaffeinated drinks.

In my experience it takes some time to have an effect and my dietary changes are still a work in progress, but it really does help, and it's harmles and cheap.

You might be noob on here, but I'm a noob of the mind. It's a good point about looking to the future rather than dwelling on the passed, something I need to improve on.

Cheers for the information. Interestingly I eat many of the foods you suggest and rarely drink. The things I enjoy in life are mainly physical (walking, cycling..) so I like to keep mentally balanced (no drug induced spikes of emotion to overcome in the morning) and reasonable physical shape.

I kind of wanted to post about it, to let other people talk about it too. I'm sure it holds a lot of people back from their full potential.

[Si1]

So now to what you may find more controversial - I am a firm believer now that diet plays a huge part in our psychological functioning. Refined carbs, especially sugar, wreak havoc with the adrenal system. Alcohol is a well-known depressant. And in particular, the high levels of Omega 6 fats in our usual western diets are increasingly implicated in all kinds of physical ills.

So even though what you are experiencing is certainly not an illness, my suggestion would be to try changing your diet and see if you feel calmer, more positive and less troubled by the thought processes that are annoying you. You could cut out refined carbs (eat whole grains), sugar (try manuka honey), and upping your Omega 3s, either with a supplement or through eating oily fish - tinned will do - mackerel, sardines, tuna etc. You'll have to cut right back on the booze too - I found that the hard part! Oh and caffeine is unhelpful too, so you may need to switch to decaffeinated drinks.

+1

also I've found avoiding artificial sweetners - I think aspartame - helps, this made an incredible difference to me; and olives have all sorts of healthy oils in them, and, allegedly, 'micro-nutrients', as do home grown non-forced vegetables that ripened on the plant.

[The Masked Tulip]

I personally found 'The Power Of Now' to be akin to walking through treacle - people seem to either love it or loathe it.

I found 'Life Lessons - What our mortality can teach us about Living' by Elisabeth Kubler Ross to be excellent but if you have a mind that cannot rest then you need something that will help you to control that.

Many jobs today, especially computer related jobs, are very difficult for people to switch off from. Your body is exhausted but your mind is racing.