I have a lot of thoughts. But I tend to avoid them a lot too. I pride myself in being a workaholic and love to keep myself busy. Because the minute I stop being busy, my thoughts crawl in and force me to collapse into a hole. So I avoid and keep myself busy.

However these days, given we are spending our time at home 24/7, there is bound to be one moment in the day or weekend, where the thoughts crawl in. Mine usually crawl in during the weekends and take the whopping energy out of me. It started to become a vicious cycle and exhausted me when the whole point of the weekend is to recoup and relax from the work week. That’s the thing though, when you neglect your mind so much, it will do its best to push through and force you to address it. Which leads to overwhelmed feelings and panic attacks and falling into a black hole of thoughts.

Eventually I exploded and decided to figure out how to break out of the cycle. Yes, I am the kind of person that waits till I’ve had enough then only I will do something about it. One thing at a time! Alright! I will unlearn this slowly over time. Anyways, as many of you know, I tend to manage my thoughts by writing a lot but I have trouble keeping it consistent and part of my routine. Instead I would rather keep it in my mind and do the dance with my thoughts, which is far more consuming and unhealthy. Even though I know that writing helps me, I have never quite followed that coping mechanism diligently in my life, which I know is sad and I should do better. Hence, I decided to figure out how I can make this coping mechanism which is essentially a thought management tool part of my everyday life without it consuming my life.

Now this applies to anything, literally anything. You have to transition slowly and be consistent about it otherwise it won’t stick. Like you can’t just ambush in and start working out for five days straight and then sit out for 2 months, and hope that it magically turns into a way of living and some top model. It’s not sustainable! You are literally setting yourself up for failure, believe me, I have done it with many aspects of my life. Shame on me, I know but I am finally deciding to do something about my realizations that I have neglected for 1.5 decades.

So what do I do now? What do I do that has allowed me to consistently manage my thoughts without having my entire day taken away from me, because believe me I have that many thoughts.

Well, I spend 20 minutes everyday doing 3 activities before I go to bed. That’s it.

P.S Keep in mind, that I do have my weekend mornings where I spend an hour to journal but overtime, I will say that my weekend journal entries are turning shorter and manageable because I have addressed some percentage of my thoughts during the week instead of waiting for the weekend to tackle them like some unqualified thoughts dragon slayer.

Now what are those 3 wonderful activities? Aw, I am so glad you asked!

1. Gratitude
2. 5 minute journaling
3. 10 minute meditation on Headspace app (there are many free ones on Youtube too, I just use Headspace cause it keeps me accountable cause I need to suck my money’s worth.)

Disclaimer, I used to only believe that activity two is effective. I thought meditation and gratitude is a whole load of bogus. But again I had to transition into and be consistent about it to feel its effects. Tip for you: For meditation and gratitude, give yourself 30 days to actually start feeling the effects otherwise it won’t work.

You want to try? Do it for 30 days straight. Be sure to do it at a time where you are able to be alone, not disturbed and in a mindset that is calm. The reason why I say calm is because these activities are not meant to be done when you are in a middle of a panic attack or you’re feeling overwhelmed, that requires a different set of coping mechanisms.

For Gratitude Activity, do the following: One liners only!!

• 2 Daily Affirmations.
  • Totally okay if you need to look them up, I do it all the time. It’s hard to jot down affirmations because no one has the experience doing them their whole lives, cause we were never taught to do it.
• 3 What are you Grateful for.
  • Again, totally fine if you are brain farting and seem like some ungrateful piece of shit. I had and still do have so much trouble that I think to myself wow girl aren’t you ungrateful. Look up examples or keep it simple. You could literally say things like my parents, my pet, my friends, my house, my workout, etc.
• 2 Amazing events in your Day.
  • I love this one and its a thinker. You really have to think about this one and when you realize how you’re not really taking advantage of your day, you proactively do the next day. It’s that powerful.

For the 5 Minute Journaling Activity, answer the following questions:

• How am I feeling? Emotionally, Physically, and Mentally.
• Do I need to address anything with myself and my mind?
• 3 step plan on how to help my mind to overcome my challenges.
• 3 sentences of immediate reflections around your day, work, or/and anything random.

Now I know after reading these questions, you’d be thinking like um…this will not take me 5 minutes, it’ll take longer but I want you to force yourself to do in 5 minutes. If need be, I usually have longer journaling sessions on weekends because it’s easier to dedicate more time then, so do that. The 5 minutes are crucial because if you don’t give yourself that time limit then you will not do it everyday and you will resort back to your old ways of just overthinking. It’s very easy to fall back into the bad habits and what you’re used to, I know.

Putting it on paper, trust me, is so powerful. It literally feels like you are grabbing all those thoughts and pulling them out of your mind and tossing them on the paper. This creates space for your mind to focus on more meaningful thoughts and helps you be more present in life.

Indian Chameleon’s Obiter Dictum for the Day

Manage your thoughts so that when the thought dragon appears in your head, it’s not as daunting making it easy to slay!