How I Clear My Mind With 10 Minutes of Daily Silence
Sit in a room without distractions, and priorities come alive
My body started shutting down six months ago.
I wasn’t sleeping
My breakouts were out of control
My motivation was at an all-time low
I’d taken on too much accountability too fast.
I was a walking stress ball — a true George Costanza. I finally recognized the signs my body was giving me: slow down and let go of stressful thoughts.
So I started sitting in silence. Here are three things I noticed.
Priorities come alive
Growing up, my parents had busy “adult jobs.”
The money was fine, and we lived good lives in a small town, but their energy carried over to me.
“I won’t turn out like that. I’ll get a stressless job.” — Me 10 years ago
We don’t know what the big, bad, corporate-influenced world has in store for us until we get there because early life and college paint a fake picture.
In college, you’re worried about money.
In the real world, you’re stressed for time.
Implementing moments of silence, even just ten minutes, has helped me focus on what matters, to name a few:
Solid relationships
A reasonable ambition
Prioritizing mental resets
You can want to do a good job at work too. That can lead to six-figure salaries, a nice house, and free sushi dinners in Miami. But working your life away isn’t worth the expense of your soul.
Sit in silence. Find balance.
Distractions become nonexistent
Most people finish work and transform into living potatoes.
The couch, TV, and takeout are a Matrix of their own making.
The world is chock-full of distractions. These days I’m less worried about wars over water and more about the fight over our attention spans.
After all, George Orwell wrote the following:
It’s already happening too.
This isn’t new. The most recent example is the US threatening to ban TikTok isn’t about data theft. China stealing our attention is a threat!
Think about that for a second.
The US prioritizes US social media companies because they sell our data. Again, this isn’t news, but it does mean if you can control how and where you allocate your attention, you’re ahead of 99% of people.
If you’re a part of that 99%, and you want to regain control of your attention, try any of the following:
Block out time for deep work
Plan your day the night before
Buy noise-canceling headphones
Pick up a book instead of your phone
Use black-and-white mode on your phone
Keep your phone on silent mode at all times
Live the heaviest weight you can without hurting yourself
The greatest thinkers in the world use their phones the least. But smartphones aren’t the problem, but the habits built around them.
When you prevent distractions from interrupting your flow, you can get more done. And if you need to audit your distractions, meditate.
End the day with silent reflection.
Afterward, all you want is to build a dream life
Solitude frees the mind to make novel discoveries.
Once you earn mastery over your attention, you can focus on breaking out of the stress loop of working for money and living to work.
99% of people fall into the societal trap. It is OK to support a family, but it’s accepting that stress is a reality.
Silence breaks you free of the loop.
Naval calls meditation the art of doing nothing. It’s a skill, but one that frees you, even a little bit, from work stress or distractions.
When you meditate, nothing matters but your thoughts.
With goals aligned and distractions put away, there’s one way for your mind to go once you’ve filtered out the negative thoughts you have to deal with.
The path is toward self-actualization, the realization or fulfillment of your talents and potentialities.
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-actualization is the highest level of the human condition, and it is estimated that only a tiny percentage of people reach this level.
I’m not saying sitting in silence is the magical pill that gets you to self-actualization, but it’s a skill you can use to start your journey.
Make yourself bored sometimes
Ten minutes of daily silence reminds me of my goals and how I’ll get there
It filters out negative thoughts and makes me aware of my body, mind, and where I want to be. In my optimal future, I’m meditating, writing, and journaling — all things that make me stress-free.
Do what future you does, today.
If you don’t do them now, how can you expect yourself to later them in life?
Boredom is a modern superpower.
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