Meditation
How/why i started.
When my family got 2 puppies, I was up at 3 or 4am with them every day. After they were pooped out, I had about 2 hours to sit and do nothing. I binged a couple seasons of bullshit on Netflix, but then I decided to use the time to read or learn something new.
I discovered Headspace's Guide to Meditation. This is an 8 episode series that approaches the discipline simply. Previously, I thought that in order to meditate, I had to clear my mind and have no thoughts. To me, that was impossible so I never even tried. Instead, they said to picture your thoughts like cars on a freeway. And picture yourself as a bystander on the side of the road. You watch your thoughts go by. You don't need to chase them, stop them or try to get in them.
This clicked with me so hard, that I started laugh-crying. For the first time, I understood that I am not my thoughts. They exist seperate from my mind. I don't have to interact with them at all if I don't want. They don't run the show. My mind does.
I train my mind with meditation.
I used to drink to silence the terrible critic in my head. Once I learned how to meditate for real, I quit drinking. I knew that I could only be so happy or so peaceful with alcohol in my system. Medtiation brought me places in my mind and showed me what peace really looked like. I could actually see it play out without any liquor. I got to know myself again. I began to love myself... my real self. Alcohol no longer served me. Good bye
Now I work daily to train my thoughts. I notice space in between them. In that space, I can rest and make decisions based on logic and my immediate goals. This is vastly different than decisions based on reacting. Reacting to a bad thought, or a negative statement or phyiscal discomfort.
Metaphor.
I make music. When I used to go to the big studio in the 90's, we used 2" analog tape. Sounds get recorded to the tape, and the playhead plays it back. The sounds and info of my life are recording to my tape, creating thought loops. My mind is the playhead that plays it all back. Here's the best part, I decide, just like a trained studio engineer, which of those get deleted, muted or turned up. It takes training. Start training today.