Marian Buck Murray

EFT and Matrix Reimprinting for Sensitive, Empathic, Creative People. Step out of the shadows and share your gifts and talents.

Exit the Mind Loop

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In our society we’re trained to give the brain most of, if not all, the credit.  Many of us believe that the brain is the only place to go when we want to solve a problem.  We say things like:  I’m wracking my brain.  Let me think about it.  And, I’m trying to wrap my head around it…

When left unchecked, all of this brain activity takes an enormous amount of energy. Especially when we’re worried.  It’s easy to overthink and overanalyze our circumstances. And, sometimes, often without realizing it, we can get trapped in a punishing mind loop. 

The brain, of course, with its myriad functions, is an amazingly intricate and powerful organ. However, when we rely solely on the brain to help us, we miss out on the treasure chest of wisdom residing in the rest of the body.  A mind loop, after all, rarely resolves itself with thinking alone. 

And when it comes to accessing creative or intuitive flow, it’s the thinking brain that presents the biggest hurdles.  Typically, the more we think about being creative or intuitive, the more we doubt and second-guess ourselves.  A self-doubting, second-guessing mind blocks intuition, and cripples creative flow.  The longer we engage with the mind loop, the further we take ourselves from the luscious experience of flow. 

So, while recognizing and respecting the power of the brain, it’s important to consult the body and heart, in order to facilitate flow.   

Here are some ways to help yourself drop out of a busy mind loop:

Breath Deeply – Deep breath will help activate the relaxation response.  In addition, by focusing on your breath, you take your focus off of your busy mind. 

Move your Body Parts– Mindfully move different parts of your body.  Pay attention to your hand, your leg, your foot, etc.  Notice any sensations with that arise with each part of your body.  Notice any information or metaphors your body might be expressing. Observe what happens with your thoughts when you  purposefully steer them to your body.

Get up and Dance!  —  Dancing, especially to music you love, will help you break out of a troubling mind set.  Get silly and exaggerate your moves.  If you’re up for it, shake your body from top to toe.  Shaking will help release anxiety and loosen your body and mind.

Chant —  Chanting a simple mantra, such as Om, for 10 -20 minutes is an effective way to exit a mind loop. By focusing on a simple phrase, chanting will help you transcend the mind.  In addition, chanting helps activate the vagus nerve,  thereby relaxing the nervous system.   If you’re new to chanting, start with a few minutes, and work up to longer periods of time.

Use the Heart Breath —  The heart breath will help you relax a busy brain.  According to experts,  the heart’s electromagnetic energy field  is as much as 5000 times greater than the brain’s.  This means that we can use the heart to entrain the brain into a calmer brain wave state. This will help boost effective brain function.  Click here to access my Heart Breath Meditation on Insight Timer. 

Use EFT tapping –  An anxious mind can trigger a spike in cortisol.   EFT Tapping has been clinically proven to be one of the most effective techniques for reducing cortisol.  By reducing cortisol and calming the nervous system, we help ourselves drop out of the mind loop.  This enables us to think more clearly, in a solution-based way.  Contact me to learn more about EFT Tapping.

Here’s to giving your busy mind a well deserved break!

Peace,
Marian

Contact me to learn how EFT Tapping can help you exit a painful mind loop.

Unloop the Mind Chatter Loop

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A cassette tape has been destroyed and the tape unraveled.

That trusty mind-chatter loop, you can always count on it to remind you about what you haven’t done, what’s wrong with your life, your body, your finances, and anything else that could possibly worry you.

It’s sneaky, convincing, sometimes outright manipulative.  It will do anything, and everything, to win the grand prize of controlling your every thought and action.  It will spin you down dark spirals, it will keep you hiding from opportunities, it will deny you your peace of mind.

Many clients tell me it visits them at night.   That’s its favorite time.  That window of time when we lie captive in the dark, the mind-loop swells ominous.  Mine tends to show up right before it’s time to get up for the day — trying to scare me back to sleep.

What’s important to realize is that the mind loop is truly all in your head.  It’s the ego/brain’s way of keeping us safe, in its own strange way.

The problem is, when you’re stuck in a mind loop, your mind is not free to access helpful information or solutions.  When your mind is wrapped around what’s wrong…. that’s all it sees.  It cannot see anything else.  Un-loop your mind, and you will see the possibilities.  You will see the solutions you never knew were there.

Here are some suggestions to unloop the mind-loop.

Write — Use writing to move looping thoughts out of your head. Write  your to-do list into a notebook which you can refer to on a daily basis.  Keep a journal to do a morning or evening mind-dump.  Write solutions to problems.  Write down your dreams and goals. Refer to them on a regular basis to build and refine.  Once you move anything out of your head it’s easier manage.

Get Physical–  A mind-loop will keep you spinning in your head.  Do something physical, to move back into your body.  Take a walk.  Jump up and down.  Exercise.  The goal is to  focus on the physical activity, and the feelings in your body.

Sit Quietly —  Close your eyes, and  breath slowly and deeply.  Notice how you feel.  Watch your breath as it flows in and out of your body.  Notice any thoughts, without judging or engaging with them.  Sit quietly, breathing deeply, for as long as you like.

Do the Heart Breath — Similar to quiet sitting, with the Heart Breath, you imagine that you’re breathing in and out of your heart.  Breathing this way for a few minutes will help you drop out of your mind, and into your heart. Click here to download my Heart Breath Meditation.

EFT Tapping — EFT Tapping is a powerful way to clear a persistent mind-loop.  Tapping helps to dismantle neural pathways that keep us stuck in habitual negative patterns. If you’re familiar with EFT, use it to tap on your feelings about specific aspects of the mind-loop.  For example, use it to tap on your feelings of anxiety about the project you haven’t started.  Once you begin to clear the anxiety, new solutions will begin to appear.   Click here to learn more about EFT Tapping.

In Courage,

Marian

To apply for a free 30-Minute Unleash Your Courage Call, click here.