This is How Achieving a Calm Mind Gives Us Well-being

When talking about well-being, many people tend to imagine habits such as eating a healthy and balanced diet, the absence of diseases, practicing regular exercise, etc. While it is true that all these experiences are strongly linked to what makes us feel good, focusing only on physical health is having a biased and incomplete vision of what it really means to enjoy a lifestyle that gives us well-being.

And in order to feel good at these levels, it is necessary not to neglect psychological well-being, everything that makes us feel comfortable and excited about our daily lives, in a healthy balance between valuing the good things we have and the motivation to achieve goals that we have. They motivate us and add meaning to our lives. And in this sense, it is key not to allow this tension between our present situation and the future we want to not stress us out so much that it tears us psychologically by keeping us anchored to frustration and hopelessness.

Therefore, in this article we will see how True well-being is based on having a calm mind and everything that this implies emotionally.

What does it mean to have a calm mind?

Part of what it means to have a calm mind is something we have already seen: Maintain a balanced relationship between “I am” and “I should be.” Of course, neither of these two elements will do us any good if it completely occupies our minds to the exclusion of the other.

Being immersed in the “I am” leads to emotional stagnation, a lack of objectives and vital meaning that leads us to an existential crisis and, in many cases, to suffering depressive symptoms, since we feel that it is not worth considering ourselves. no goal and it is not in our “nature” to aspire to anything.

On the other hand, letting the “should be” completely bury us leads us to a state of constant frustration, a psychological wear and tear caused by the stress and anxiety of noticing that no matter how much we worry about something and are desperate to reverse a problem, , we couldn’t move forward.

Curiously, both harmful emotional management dynamics can take turns, causing us to swerve and go from one to the other without reaching a balance between the two. And that is why it is important to learn attentional and emotional modulation strategies and techniques to promote a calm state of mind in us. This state involves recognizing the imperfections that shape our identity, and also the problems that we must face, but without letting pessimistic narratives immobilize us and prevent us from improving.

In fact, this experience leads us to focus on the here and now, without allowing ourselves to become obsessed with intrusive and pessimistic thoughts about our past or our hypothetical future, which normally only serve to confirm the negative and dysfunctional beliefs that we have been nurturing without realizing it.

The difference between full attention and full attention

Mental processes are always complex phenomena with many facets It is difficult to know where one ends and another begins, due in part to the fact that the nature of these psychological elements is precisely their dynamism, the fact that they are constantly changing and transforming. For this reason, and because it is difficult to express in words what happens inside our heads, it is common for misunderstandings to occur about what it means to experience full attention, the psychological state linked to Mindfulness and certain meditation practices with ancient origins.

Having full attention is, literally, feeling overwhelmed by what happens to us, being trapped by a torrent of looping thoughts that puts us at the limit of our ability to reflect and pay attention to our environment. It is a state linked to anxiety and stress, in which our nervous system is in a state of hyper-activation.

Instead, Mindfulness is based on limiting ourselves to observing what comes and goes from our mind, without trying to modify or block it; In other words, it is based on an attitude of acceptance and not judging what crosses our consciousness, so that we do not give it more importance than it really has. And for this reason, it allows us to do a “mental reset” in which we break the vicious circle of obsessive thoughts and we can finally focus on what happens to us in a more balanced and realistic way, without dragging ourselves behind the fears that affect us. they have been dragging. In this way, from a state of having a calm mind, we face our real problems in a constructive way.

How does having a calm mind generate well-being for us?

Now that we have seen what it means to have a calm mind, let’s see how it contributes to our well-being.

1. Limit the power that anxiety has on us

Having a calm mind does not mean completely eliminating anxiety or completely preventing it from affecting us, but prevents the appearance of looping thoughts which leads us to unnecessarily prolong these states.

2. It helps us move from intentions to actions when carrying out healthy routines

Having a calm mind helps us overcome dysfunctional thoughts such as “I will not be able to improve my health” or “I do not deserve to have friends/partners”, given that break with self-sabotage dynamics and constant reinforcement of feelings of guilt.

3. Prevents insomnia problems

Being able to do a “mental reset” helps us fall asleep at key moments, something that in turn produces a very beneficial domino effect on our well-being by allowing our body to regenerate and for us to have a greater ability to face the challenges of everyday life

4. It makes us not feel “weak” when feeling unpleasant emotions

Having a calm mind also means understanding that no one can be constantly happy or well 24/7. Experiences linked to emotional pain are part of life and we should not let the simple fact of experiencing them damage our self-esteem.