Resting the mind is like soaking a new cloth in cold water to remove the primer from the new. Here is an image to illustrate this moment of salvation for your mental health.
When your brain is bubbling with ideas, when you are suffering from processing all this information at once. That you would like to pause your thoughts.
I have a little trick for you that I found through experimentation, looking for a way to find rest.
Meditation? with incense, candles, soft music... already which incense the one from nature and discovery or the one brought back from this exotic trip? Oh no, not that one... too many memories... the merchant's shop... the silk paper... the packaging with its strange writings and patterns. The one from nature and discovery then...ah zut there is more..and yes you had kept the box to remember the reference. Except that they changed the packaging since then and it's a shame, because you can't find this perfume anymore. But you never know. We'll keep the box, because maybe they'll make a special edition souvenir for people like you?
Which candle? The scented one that was given to you for Christmas and that you haven't dared to light yet because ... it's pretty with its little wick still virgin. And then from time to time, you smell it when you close your eyes...oh that perfume you like so much. No, we won't touch that one. No way. Especially for a first meditation. You don't even know if it will work... Flat heaters? Mmmh not ceremonial enough. Too cheap. You could spend hours looking at the metal support, wondering how they manage to make a perfect round, stamp it, cut it, in such a thin material, without making ugly dents. By the way how....
The music? So already, the endless melody on the synth, never in your life! You might as well hang yourself with braided toilet paper. The time it takes to make a strong enough rope and it cuts off all spontaneity of movement. You want real trans-shamanic music. The kind from the depths of the Amazon. Recorded in improbable conditions. By an improbable adventurer. With improbable instruments... Well then, hop on the internet: ...trans.... music not that one...not that one either .....Pff... there really are people who make music with their....
That's why meditation... For you, it's like those must-see saga references that EVERYONE has seen and loved, especially that awesome part where Master Yo... Except that this saga, the more you're told about it, the more it repels you. That if at the beginning, you felt a little concon to not have lived this impregnation, these emotions of a whole community of fan... today you feel almost a little of disdainful pride not to be in it. Preserved from the cultural highways with a pee break between each season, great chapter...
So forget meditation, I reassure you right away. Don't be ashamed of not being able to do it. Despite all the willpower and self-denial you are capable of, you will find it boring.
In fact, you must take the problem in reverse. When there is so much information in your brain, so many thought processes lead to new resonances, then reflections and so on. You might as well not try to force them. You might as well channel them by putting a little man at each junction who would say "stop, be careful, not that way, there are still four junctions, with two new paradigms to jump over, three fields of reflection in progress".
No, you know it well, you don't like to be restricted, it would be wasting what nature has given you, and even if you suffer from it, admit your pride in having received it.
What really works is to first let everything come to you, but absolutely everything that comes to you. Open the floodgates, go ahead, open the door to ideas, trauma reflections, let it all out. Yes, even that old folder on driftwood lamps. You too, the concept of an eco-responsible, self-sufficient farm village. You can come. Don't be afraid. There's plenty of room.
Today it's the big market, come all to the garage sale, set up your camping tables, there's a buffet, drinks, take your ease.
Become that friendly person in your prefrontal cortex. You'll see people come and go. Your unfinished projects, your philosophical reflections, your anger at injustice, your impossible loves... Go on, go on, go on, get in. No one will stay outside.
And then this crowd that passes in front of you are the ants that get agitated when you disturb them in their nest. Their erratic movements blur our view.
Let them run around, wanting your brain time. Let them shout "give me three neurons... come on three neurons steup... with that I'll build you a windmill out of papier-mâché and umbrella whale!!!" Look at these files, these ideas, these reflections, like each of your children whom you love dearly. And that you would let this time, all by themselves in the big bath of your reality.
That's the trick. Step back. Personify a little. Let a lot of it go to waste.
Because what pushes us to overthink is the attachment we have to this reflection. If we agree to love each of our thoughts equally. There is no more sorting to do, no more locker to put away, no more floor to prioritise. All this little world in your head lives its life in a happy mess and it's all the better. You become their mother or father. You love them without preference with that slightly smug, amused, proud look in your eyes.
They are no longer the boisterous children in your lap, to whom you pay special attention because you have to think of their place. Let them turbulate together in the field of wild grass. Come and sit on this wooden bench. Contemplate the vast realm of your brain with satisfaction.
In this way you give yourself the rest of the creator and cut the cord that binds you to your works.
