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Comment by messutied | Hacker News Reader

So simple yet so hard to get there, I've been trying to be mindful for more than a year now, but my mind is always full of worries and trying to find solutions, even though my life is no particularly complicated :/ anybody that achieved this has advice?

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Maybe your worries are about important matters, and focusing in finding solutions to them has been useful for you. If doing that was useful then it's difficult to let go of that because nobody likes to cease doing what's useful.

If you want to worry less I think about two things that may help:

A - Set a time of the day for worries, and procrastinate worrying until that time. For example, set the worrying time from 18:45 to 19hs. This may sound strange, but it's recommended by some CBT therapists. http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/docs/Info-Postpone%20your%20... http://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/worryzones.htm

B - Train! Not following worry thoughts is a skill that requires practice, like building muscle. If you train you become better at it. You may train your attention by noticing your breath and when your attention gets caught by worry thougts, you notice that and go back to your breath. When it happens again, you notice it and go back to your breath. With practice, letting go of worry becomes much easier. You may practice that 15 minutes a day.

Sure I've meditated for over 4 years now, and find the easiest time to do is when you lie down to sleep. If you think of your mind like a flipbook, and every thought is a page on the book, when you begin it can feel like you are flipping through the book very fast. Try to concentrate and observe something in your body (many people focus on breathe, or the forehead, I find the heartbeat to be easier). The flipbook thoughts will keep drawing your attention so you must keep trying to bring your focus back to your body when you realise you were distracted. Eventually the flipping slows down more and more, until you begin to occupy the gap between your thoughts. This is a place you are not even aware of until you come out of it. If you can imagine a place with no thought, it can be quite peaceful!

I suggest doing a search for 'The Mind Illuminated' and see if the book's description resonates with you. It contains meditation practices that aim to strengthen mindfulness. Unless you're amazingly unique you'll still have lapses in mindfulness but they can become shorter and less frequent over time depending on how diligently you practice during formal meditation and also in day-to-day life.

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