For Mental and Emotional Health: Do a Mental Detox, Here’s How

• February 5, 2021

See it. Change it. Live It.

My brain was shackled. I had too many things on my mind. I was having headaches at the end of the day. Racing thoughts and random snippets of situations past.

Why am I all of a sudden hearing a Beyonce song in my head, I don’t even listen to Beyonce, yet “Single Ladies” is on a loop – and I’m not even single!

All these things taking up space in my head while my eyes were glazing over the work in front of me. Mind-wandering, mindlessness.

I had to do something.

Experts say that we have about 48.6 thoughts PER MINUTE. And I can say that most of them were not productive in my case.

So I put my (focused) thinking cap on and asked myself, how do I rid my mind of all the chatter so I can focus on things that matter?

I realized there were all kinds of physical detoxes to rid the body of toxins, what if there were a way to do this with my mind.

So I embarked on a Mental Detox.

The first thing I knew was that I couldn’t change what I wasn’t aware of.

See It.

I began with a “Thought Audit”. Like tracking your expenses in a budget, I tried to mark down every time my mind wandered or I had a rumination about something that had already happened. How many times could I catch myself in mindlessness? The results were embarrassing but illuminating. I was spending about 2 hours a day lollygagging around in my head.

So now, I had to figure out a way to redirect my thoughts in a more focused way.

Change It.

I spent some time researching the best way to do this and found that being in the present moment was the best way to get out of my head. So I practiced checking in with my senses. Like this.

I found myself better able to think about what I was doing and why. And over time, the pitter-patter of unproductive thoughts began to dissipate.

But I was still not out of the woods. I knew I needed to fully integrate a new way of managing my thoughts.

Live It.

One of the most significant changes I saw during my Mental Detox happened when I helped someone out. I had a friend in need and I focused on being of service to them in all my capacity. This was when I truly felt a shift. So being of service was a great way to get out of my head and live the principles I was developing for a Mental Detox.

These are just three of the ways I was able to calm my mind and focus and since then I’ve come up with many more ways to clear my head. I documented my experience by journaling in written and audio form, capturing insights and purging some deep-seated ideas about myself.

This took about 14 days, which if you think about it, is not a lot of time considering how long I spent in chatter mode.

I even put together a program about it.

So if you are struggling with everything that’s going on in your world, or are having trouble staying focused or maybe feeling burdened, try the steps above and detox your mind!

To learn more about Cristina DiGiacomo go here.