Working With a Racing Mind

Also: time travel and flux capacitors

A racing mind isn’t always a panicky, anxiety driven experience. Our minds can race when we’re excited too. 

In either case, however, it can be difficult to differentiate between the signal and the noise. That is, what’s important, and what isn’t? What trains of thought should I pay attention to, and what can I leave behind? 

Here are three steps to working with a racing mind: 

1. Pause and reset. Our minds are excellent time travelers. Turn those flux capacitors off and give yourself an opportunity to jump out of that mental time travel and come back to the present moment. Diaphragmatic breaths, or grounding yourself with some tactile experience can help. 

2. Orient: What’s the task you’ve set out to accomplish? What’s the goal?

3. Ask: Is this thought pattern/self talk helping me get closer to my goal, or moving me further away? 

Putting pen to paper can be a helpful way to identify the signal, helping you identify a clear, noise free path forward.

This is a metaphor for your mind. Source: The Conversation.