To achieve focus and calm, close your eyes and imagine descending stairs, counting backward. At the bottom, enter a ‘good place’ to feel positive, then enter another door to your ‘inner self’ to give yourself positive suggestions, which helps settle and calm the mind.
When experiencing an emotional hijack, use words to label what you’re feeling. Research shows that this practice can dial back the intensity of the emotional reaction by engaging the prefrontal cortex.
To disengage an amygdala hijack (threat response), practice conscious relaxation by deep belly breathing and relaxing your muscles. This counters the natural tension and shallow breathing associated with fight or flight.
To stay connected to your purpose throughout the day, especially when tired or frustrated, identify a ’touchstone’ (e.g., a picture, a phrase, a memory). Consciously use this touchstone to remind yourself of your overarching mission and guide your actions.
Incorporate short bursts of exercise, such as 20 minutes of dancing or 10 minutes of walking, into your day. This can make you smarter for hours afterward, improving memory, insights, decisions, and idea generation, especially before important tasks.
To prevent mental overwhelm and overuse of your prefrontal cortex, offload information from your brain using to-do lists, checklists for repeated tasks, and creating habit structures (like a consistent wardrobe) to reduce decision-making and cognitive load.
Develop a ‘joy kit’ – a physical or digital collection of items (e.g., notes, photos, sounds) that evoke positive emotions. Keep these items put away and pull them out when you need to shift your attitude back to the positive, as familiar items on display can lose their emotional impact.
Maintain consistent hydration and stable blood sugar levels throughout the day by drinking water and eating regularly, especially when under pressure. Your brain can dehydrate before you feel thirsty, and an even metabolism supports better performance and resilience.
Start your day by setting a clear intention or purpose for what you want to achieve. At the end of the day, revisit this intention to check if your actions aligned with it, helping to guide your overall life thrust.
It’s acceptable to approach meditation with goals like seeking calmness, improved focus, or greater mindfulness. However, during the meditation itself, avoid ‘over-efforting’ or ‘striving’ and instead focus on not fighting with what’s happening in the moment.
To combat distraction from your phone, co-opt its power by using meditation apps. This turns the source of distraction into a tool for mindfulness, helping you engage with meditation rather than being pulled away by other digital activities.
When faced with setbacks or frustrating situations (e.g., travel delays), consciously strip out the drama and focus on ‘doing the next thing.’ This approach helps maintain peace and prevents wasted emotional energy by moving directly to problem-solving.
Recognize that there are thousands of types of meditation, and avoid being dogmatic about one ‘best’ method. Experiment with different practices, such as mindfulness or loving-kindness meditation, to find what works best for training your mind.
Engage in mantra-based meditation by silently repeating a word or phrase in your head. This repetition can help blot out discursive thinking and induce a relaxed, positive state.
When practicing loving kindness meditation, the key is the intention to send goodwill towards others, rather than needing to feel a specific way. This clarifies the ‘right effort’ for cultivating compassion.
Understand that ‘messing up’ or getting distracted is a natural and even essential part of meditation. Don’t be hard on yourself; recognizing and moving through these moments is how the practice works.
To cut through an emotional hijack, utilize certain smells and sounds. These sensory inputs can help reset your emotional state, though specific examples are not provided.