A clearer state of mind makes for less of an imposter

What thinking are you seeing the world through this week

A sense of what a clear mind is for me means no noise and chatter from incessant overthinking. It’s being in flow, creative and peaceful. When my state of mind gets unclear, my thinking tries to attach meaning to a why. It generally uses outside things as a justification of this why; that person made me stressed, that meeting has driven me mad, the world makes me angry…

Are you aware of how clear your mind is or isn’t?

Your emotional state can tell you how clear your mind is. This level of clarity also determines how much you feel you can trust yourself. I see this with myself in relation to imposter syndrome. When I’m stressed I feel like an imposter, when my mind is clear that thought holds no power.

I’m seeing the world through my thinking and not in its real form.

It’s possible to be in a clear state of mind at any time, but it requires unlearning habitual and emotional impulsive thinking.

When my wife got diagnosed with cancer, my mind went wild with anxiety, fear, stress; it was chaos. But with practice, I was able to learn how to not get lost in my imagination of possible futures and scenarios.

It really is true that if you come back to the present, the real now moments, you can experience happiness even on the hardest of days.

Turning down the noise from the inside.

If I feel stressed, then my mind is not clear. Stress has discomfort in it. I feel it in my body, my shoulders tighten, my jaw clenches. That’s when I know I can’t trust my thinking and I’m likely to believe anything I think.

I don’t fight thinking with more thinking any longer. When my mind is foggy I ask “do I trust my thoughts right now?” and give them space to clear.

This post is part of a series of atomic essays on Twitter for #Ship30for30