Breaking the addiction with the mind

What is addiction with the mind. Whenever a thought comes in the mind, we run away with the thought. we are addicted to each thought that the mind brings forth. Without knowing we are flying like a kite in the wind or a flotsam on the sea. This is addiction with the mind.

What if you're doing something important and you have to focus? Is there a way to break this addiction to the mind? There is a way to focus here. You can always build a refuge for focus in your breath.

Whenever you want to focus, start by sitting comfortably and breathing in and out and counting 1. Do this till 8 and then back to 1. In between if you notice that the mind has wandered bring the attention back to breathing and start from 1. By the time you're done you will have gathered your attention and then you can start focusing.

In between thoughts come, you can always tell your mind, not now and keep focusing on the breath. You will see that cravings will rise and fall, thoughts will come and go, but just keep focusing on the breath. This way you can always come back to your breath for focus whenever you feel distracted.

One thing to remember here is that you cannot always ignore the thoughts, but you can temporarily say, not now and continue with what you're doing. Later when you're free and have some spare time, you can ride the urgent thought waves you have been putting away for later and be mindful of what they're trying to tell. That way during the times of focus, they will not make their presence felt urgently.

This might seem like something difficult or unrealistic but it is very true. To create a habit with these, you can always use the habit formation rules of make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy and make it rewarding. Also remember any habit change is a change of identity. So give enough votes to this new identity of meditator, so that the identity is solidified.

Mindfulness

Many times I decide I will not do something for e.g. say browsing HN when I'm working on something. I will even do it with great success that day. Then the next day, I accidentally open the website. I just innocently click an link and start reading. That follows another and by the time I know it, I would have wasted a lot of time clicking and reading whatever I find interesting. And when look back how it happened, it always comes back to the point that I was doing it without thinking mindlessly.

Sometimes I catch myself about to do this, and I can stop myself thinking about why I didn't want to do it in the first place. And this gives me glimmer of hope that if I'm more mindful of what I'm doing, I will be able to really able to pull it off. 

What is mindfulness?  It is being fully aware of the present moment and knowing why and what you're doing. It is being fully present in what you're doing at that moment. If you are fully present, you are aware of your thoughts and it is easy to just acknowledge the distracting thought and leave it instead of reacting to that thought. Actually all life  is only in the now, but we forget it most of the time.  

How can you be mindful? You can do few simple things to live mindfully. Put all your senses in what your'e doing. It is not as easy and that because our minds are simply distracted. So how do you overcome those distractions and live in the present moment ? As everything else, it has to be practiced and developed. Sages and teachers have faced this problem eons ago and were able to design and perfect a method to practice mindfulness. That method is meditation. There are many different ways of meditation practice. One simple way is to put your attention on your breath. Any time your attention wanders off your breath, simply realize it and bring your attention back to the breath without judging. But how do you know if you have totally wandered off and don't even know that ? You can try counting your breaths and that will give you another anchor to return back your attention to your breath each time you count. The more you practice this, the better your power to stay focused will increase and you can start becoming more mindful. 

If you are new to meditation, you can download the headspace app. It will guide you through the meditation process. 

Being mindful not only increases your focus. It will help you overcome something you do mindlessly, whether it is getting angry quickly or being negative on yourself. If you give your mind some space to relax and be present lot of stuff that take your attention mindlessly can be freed to be put to use on stuff you want to put your attention on.

Any one person's reality is ultimately wherever they choose to focus their attention and time on. I stole this line from Ben Thomson. So if you can deliberately choose what you focus on, you can make that thing a reality.