The typical human mind is like a supercomputer possessed by the soul of a demented squirrel. It’s constantly calculating, anticipating, remembering, fantasizing, worrying, hoarding, bouncing frenetically from thought to thought to thought.
—Martha Beck, The Joy Diet
Does that describe your mind? It doesn’t mine. My brain likes to solve problems, it’s my favorite toy.
And it’s patient, knowing that good ideas/solutions don’t usually come right away. So when I get scared/upset/face a technical problem I don’t want to deal with/etc. it focuses on calming my body and gathering information if that’s appropriate, then it either takes any appropriate action or else does something else if I have to wait.
As I understand it, the first daily habit in Beck’s Joy Diet is to start learning how to calm the body and mind. I had been taking that for granted and hadn’t appreciated what a gift it is.
How do you calm your body and mind, get centered, when challenges come up?
November 17, 2022
I don’t think this applies to my mind during the day. Especially if I’m working on something. I can be very focused on what I’m doing. Now if I’m trying to sleep then yes, this does apply. My mind is jumping from one useless subject to another instead of shutting down.
A lot of people have that problem. I listen to audible books, they’re my sleeping pill.
I am the same as ann, but do have periods of time that it works like this during the day. I shut my brain down by reading and traveling off into a story. this describes my mind when anything out of the ordinary happens. I would like you to download your mind in my brain
It’s important to have something interesting to turn our minds to.
At times my brain is all over the place but I’m also good at problem solving. Shutting it down it the hardest thing for me, though.
Playing with puzzles works for me during the day.
Up until 2018, this was totally me. In time of great stress, I’m still prone to that way of thinking but now I’m able to recognize it. I pray and/or distract with mind games (eg, Wordle, Quordle).
I had not heard of Quordle. I played part of the practice game. I completed one word if four tries then decided I was done. 🙂
Puzzles work for me too!
I read to calm my mind. Which doesn’t work once I am in bed. Then it’s squirrel brain time.
I listen to audible books, they’re my sleeping pill.
Beck’s quote sounds like the mind of someone having a manic episode! But I do get the point. I calm myself by eating, which is not good. You sound so calm and in control, good for you!
I’ve spent a time developing that skill! I agree that Beck seems to be an extreme case.
At first I thought it does describe my mind, but then I thought, I don’t have that much energy! Though if I do find a problem, I must work on it right away to solve it. I need to figure a plan. I recently used Paypal to pay for something…the item has not come. I have emailed the company and still no word from them. They did say it might take 2-3 days to hear from them. If I don’t hear something, I will use Paypal to try to get my money back.
Yes, I too love to come up with plans/strategies when things go wrong. If the first one doesn’t work I try something else. Paypal is a good way to go because they seem to stand by purchases made through them. Once I do what I can it’s off my list of things to think about, except to mark the calendar if it’s something I have to check on later. Andy and i love our wall calendar and post-it notes.
it depends
sometimes I’m completely in control – next minute/issue – not, mind all over the place!
Yeah, that happens.