Imagine making decisions, reacting to those around you, and moving through the day with a peaceful mind, free of worries, fears, and stress.  Clearing your mind creates space to make conscious decisions and have considerate reactions without the noise of other stresses and situations affecting those thoughts and decisions.  

Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on analyzing and understanding your behaviors, and then learning to shift and change your negative behaviors.  Changing your thoughts and behaviors takes time, practice, and focus.  A peaceful mind will be helpful to making more conscious decisions…resulting in a better version of you!  Below are a few practices to help. 

Self Acceptance- In making an effort to put your mind at peace, you must focus on self-acceptance.  One method to help with self-acceptance is to set those intentions.  Wake up everyday and tell your mind to accept yourself today, and be kind to yourself.  Change the thoughts you have about yourself to be more positive, kind and accepting.  Peace will be much easier to come by with a mind that creates positive thoughts.

Forgiveness- The act of true forgiveness allows for a clearing of the energy you were holding onto that may have erupted into angry, hurtful outbursts in other areas of your life.  A tip for forgiveness:  Don’t analyze over who is right or wrong, but focus on choosing to be kind for yourself by emitting peaceful, kind, loving energy instead of holding on to anger and resentment, allowing you to move on with a clear, positive mind.  Also, remember that forgiving someone does not mean you have to let them into your life again.  YOU set your own boundaries as needed.  (Source:  https://www.drwaynedyer.com/blog/how-to-forgive-someone-in-15-steps/)

Mindfulness- By definition:  a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.  Achieving mindfulness, again takes time, focus, and practice, but achieving mindfulness, one situation at a time, will see immediate results that will help you to maintain a more peaceful state, and improve relationships with those around you, as explained below.  

Responding (not reacting)- In life, we often react before thinking, letting our emotions erupt into reactions, which can often result in hurt, or anger towards the ones around us.  The main difference between reacting and responding is mindfulness.  A great example of the difference between reacting and responding:

React: Your child breaks something. You immediately react by getting angry, perhaps yelling, upsetting the child and yourself, worsening your relationship, not making anything better.

Respond: Your child breaks something. You notice your anger reaction, but pause, take a breath, and consider the situation. First response is to see if your child is OK — is she hurt, scared? Second, realize that the object that is broken, in the larger view, is not that important. Let it go, adjust to a world without it. Third, help her clean up, make a game of it, show her that mistakes happen and that it’s not something to dwell on. Fourth, calmly talk about how to avoid mistakes like that in the future, and give her a hug.

Source:  https://zenhabits.net/respond/

Reading to replace screen time- Screen time often means being sucked into the world of social media where it’s easy to fill your mind with noise, maybe even start comparing your life to others, and get down on yourself.  Social can also be a positive place, if you choose your experience with intention, and shift your perspective.  If you’re going to spend time on social media, go in knowing that:  SM is often a highlight reel of people’s lives.  You choose what content you see.  If you don’t like what you see, or it makes you feel down, unfollow.  Seek out people who inspire you and engage with them.  That being said, turning away from the screen to read a book is a fantastic way to focus your mind and reduce the noise. Try it.

Calming Music, Walking (guided meditation), Yoga- These practices are a great way to incorporate meditation into your daily life, which will help to improve your peace of mind throughout the rest of the day and open your mind to connecting with your higher self.

I’m Scott Swanezy, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 20 years of experience counseling those struggling with addiction and substance abuse. I work with couples and individuals who are struggling with substance abuse and the issues that surround abuse such as anger, stress, anxiety, trauma, and more.  I specialize in using cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, which have been proven to be very successful in helping those struggling with addiction to understand and change their destructive behaviors.  I have a private practice in Westchester County, NY.  If you think, counseling could help you or someone you love, please don’t hesitate to reach out.  Support is here.