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Meditation. If you can make a practice of quieting your mind, that very act of being able to quiet your mind will enable you to control your mind in other ways,

Meditation. If you can make a practice of quieting your mind, that very act of being able to quiet your mind will enable you to control your mind in other ways, for example, putting work aside and enjoying being in the moment doing whatever. -BUT- There is a difference between obsession-based stress, where you just can't stop thinking of the never-ending streams of work and learning and coworker expectations vs. actual survival-oriented stress, like you're not performing up to expectations and need to get busy. Don't ignore that second type.

dondraper36 5y ago
I think it's the former in my case. Do you have any recommendation for learning meditation? There are so many approaches and resources these days, I am afraid to spend a ton of time on finding the "right one" and not even start.
- CodeWriter23 5y ago
  What works well for me is breathing-focused meditation. My practice was taught to me by my former therapist, and focuses on breathing very gently in through the nose / out through the mouth with hands positioned using thumbs and forefingers to make an upside down triangle in contact with the abdomen surrounding the solar plexus. Breath into the solar plexus. The goal is to focus on making the breath so gentle you cannot hear yourself breathe in or out. I also use this CD to help me meditate, "One Hand Clapping" by artists Yogi John Franzoni, Rain Gray and Swami Satyam Vinaya. The harmonic sounds of the Tibetan Signing Bowls are very soothing and create a condition where thought stops. The google can help you locate a copy.
rapjr9 5y ago
Along the same lines you can establish a ritual that takes you from your work mind to your play mind. Something that gets you to think about things unrelated to work, established as a must-do ritual to transition into your weekend. It might be simple like cooking a meal, or turning off certain lights in rooms and turning on others, or it could be more complex like associating spaces in your home with people you love and visiting those spaces while thinking about those people. If you play music it could be getting the equipment set up to play and record. In some ways it is like trying to intentionally establish and transition between multiple personalities, your work personality and your play personality. Most people express themselves and think differently in different situations. They have a work-mind, a play-mind, a with-friends-mind, a with-lover-mind, a driving-the-car-mind. You are already transitioning between these roles, watch how you do it and you can figure out how to use a ritual to control getting into a specific state of mind. In many cases the transition is triggered by environment. A ritual can essentially be your own mobile, portable, self defined, and self triggered change of environment.
- CodeWriter23 5y ago
  Establishing a ritual sounds good to me though I don't have any experience with that. I do strongly believe acts of intention are powerful for those who practice them.

dondraper36 5y ago

I think it's the former in my case. Do you have any recommendation for learning meditation? There are so many approaches and resources these days, I am afraid to spend a ton of time on finding the "right one" and not even start.

CodeWriter23 5y ago
What works well for me is breathing-focused meditation. My practice was taught to me by my former therapist, and focuses on breathing very gently in through the nose / out through the mouth with hands positioned using thumbs and forefingers to make an upside down triangle in contact with the abdomen surrounding the solar plexus. Breath into the solar plexus. The goal is to focus on making the breath so gentle you cannot hear yourself breathe in or out. I also use this CD to help me meditate, "One Hand Clapping" by artists Yogi John Franzoni, Rain Gray and Swami Satyam Vinaya. The harmonic sounds of the Tibetan Signing Bowls are very soothing and create a condition where thought stops. The google can help you locate a copy.

rapjr9 5y ago

Along the same lines you can establish a ritual that takes you from your work mind to your play mind. Something that gets you to think about things unrelated to work, established as a must-do ritual to transition into your weekend. It might be simple like cooking a meal, or turning off certain lights in rooms and turning on others, or it could be more complex like associating spaces in your home with people you love and visiting those spaces while thinking about those people. If you play music it could be getting the equipment set up to play and record. In some ways it is like trying to intentionally establish and transition between multiple personalities, your work personality and your play personality. Most people express themselves and think differently in different situations. They have a work-mind, a play-mind, a with-friends-mind, a with-lover-mind, a driving-the-car-mind. You are already transitioning between these roles, watch how you do it and you can figure out how to use a ritual to control getting into a specific state of mind. In many cases the transition is triggered by environment. A ritual can essentially be your own mobile, portable, self defined, and self triggered change of environment.

CodeWriter23 5y ago
Establishing a ritual sounds good to me though I don't have any experience with that. I do strongly believe acts of intention are powerful for those who practice them.