young men through a yoga and meditation session. The purpose is to strengthen their capacity to stay composed under the fire of competition — to be mentally stronger when physically challenged. I train them to be mentally steady and emotionally stable. Thankfully, they listen to me. The Villanova Wildcats know what a team that’s strong, stable, and clear can achieve — out of the past twelve seasons the Wildcats have been in the playoffs ten times, and in 2009 they won the FCS National Championship.
Mental strength is your capacity to show up in this moment and pay attention to what’s happening. It’s your ability to live on the verge.
Mental strength is your capacity to show up in this moment and pay attention to what’s happening. It’s your ability to live on the verge. Are you actively engaged in reading these words or passively paying attention? Can you bring your attention back to this word? This is showing up, and when you do so, you’re operating at full strength. You’re clearer, wiser, more aware, and more compassionate. Everything you do you do better when you show up in this moment. You have more energy. You have more confidence. You are on the verge.
If you’re passive or distracted, you’re in a weakened mental state. It’s that simple. If you’re foggy or dulled, sort of right here and out there at the same time, you’re less sharp and not at full strength or full capacity. You cannot be both on the verge and distracted in the same moment. You cannot be in your busy mind and show up and shine.
Welcome to Your Busy Mind
When you’re distracted, your mind is busy hanging out in the past, in the future, in your stories. It’s somewhere else — and in a weakened state. When you’re distracted, your mind and body aren’t working together. They’re not communicating. They’re not synchronized. You’re not even experiencing what’s happening in your body — you are somewhere else. You feel disconnected, off balance, or out of sorts. When you are distracted, mistakes happen.
Shift beyond your busy mind, however, and you arrive in this moment fully. When you show up in the now, your senses light up and your instincts are razor sharp. You experience the world in high definition. You feel crystal clear and fiercely focused. Your mind and body connect. They work together. They synchronize. You connect to your senses and glimpse your natural state. Step beyond your busy mind, and you’re clear and confident — you are on the verge.
When you show up in the now, your senses light up and your instincts are razor sharp.
A few years ago, I was watching an NFL playoff game that came down to a field goal with less than a minute to play. As I observed the kicker walk onto the field toward the football, I commented to my family, “He’s not going to make the field goal. Look at his eyes. See them shifting? You can feel his doubt.” His body language transmitted his nervous tension; he was distracted, not tuned in to the moment, and definitely not on the verge. Yes, he missed the goal, and his team lost the game.
Traits of Your Busy Mind
Have you ever tried to stop your mind from thinking? It’s not so easy, huh? The truth is that thinking is what your mind is meant to do! Your mind produces thoughts, just as your ears hear sounds and your eyes see your surroundings. Also, thinking isn’t a bad thing; it’s just that we’re preoccupied and often obsessed with it. Our thoughts rule our lives. We believe that what we think is actually the way things are, that our thoughts perfectly reflect our reality. As a result, we become attached to our stories and end up engrossed in and even imprisoned by what we’re thinking.
Your busy mind is made up of a mix of thoughts, emotions, doubts, and fears (along with various other thought patterns). By the way, it is the same for everyone. In our society of more and better, our minds operate with constant mental noise: planning, judging, analyzing, commenting, remembering, forecasting, and so on. You don’t realize how much your busyness controls your day until you collapse on your bed at night.
Shifting beyond your busy mind doesn’t mean you stop thinking, but it does change your relationship to thinking.
Shifting beyond your busy mind doesn’t mean you stop thinking, but it does change your relationship to thinking. Your thoughts and emotions stop ruling your world, and you learn to trust your direct experiences.
Let me say that again in a slightly different way. You move from being led around town by your busy mind to trusting your direct experience, your firsthand knowledge, of the moment to inform you of what is real and true. That is not to say that you’re going to disregard your thoughts and emotions; you’re simply changing your relationship to thoughts and emotions by recognizing that they don’t always clearly reflect reality.
In order to understand how your thoughts and emotions may be ruling your world, it is essential to get to know your busy mind. Some common traits of the busy mind are sloppy brain, being crazy busy, being on autopilot, information overload, and overthinking. Let’s look at them more closely.
Sloppy Brain
I call my busy mind my “sloppy brain” when I’m distracted and feel clumsy and out of sorts. Let’s face it, sloppy brain happens to all of us. Recently I went to work with my slippers on. No joke! Luckily, as a yoga teacher, I spend most of my workday barefoot, but that still didn’t protect me from the loving abuse I took from colleagues and students. I see examples of sloppy brain on the highway, in the grocery store — everywhere. Too many of us are sloppy in how we show up in our day-to-day lives. This isn’t a judgment, just a fact.
The distracted, sloppy busy mind is in a weakened state. It speeds through life and doesn’t slow down to take even a few seconds to tell you to, say, mindfully place your phone and keys in the same place, set your teacup away from your laptop, or notice the stop sign in front of you.
Crazy Busy
“Crazy busy” has become a common phrase and an accepted way to live. We’re so addicted to getting things done that we’re oblivious to what’s really happening around us. Just look around any public area, and you’ll see most people looking at their phones while waiting in line, walking, or even talking with others.
When you’re in “crazy busy” mode, you’re not really focused on what you’re doing or whom you’re with. Your mind is too busy processing stuff to do, daily activities, and places to be. Being “crazy busy” can make you feel as though your world is spinning out of control and there’s no end in sight. It’s not just you. It’s most of us. How often have you greeted friends and boasted about being “crazy busy”? The bottom line is that you cannot feel awake and fully alive when your mind is “crazy busy.”
Autopilot
Many of your daily activities are repetitive, like brushing your teeth, checking emails, taking a shower. The thoughts streaming through your mind tend to be repetitive as well. Many of today’s thoughts were yesterday’s thoughts — they keep replaying in your head. For example, you might think, “I have to go to the post office,” over and over for two days straight until you actually go to the post office. The script for autopilot is often a thought loop that keeps running in your head: “I need to lose weight,” “I need to make more money,” “I should clean my closet,” and so on. When you’re on autopilot, you think the same thoughts over and over without being aware of it. Living on autopilot is exhausting and will leave you feeling drained at the end of the day.
I observe autopilot in action all the time. Students rush through the doors, throw down their yoga mats, and lie down for a moment before class to “quiet their minds.” I’ll see them glance around for their cell phones (which are not allowed in the yoga room) or look for someone to talk to (no talking before class either), unaware of these mental habits and tendencies, especially the need to be constantly entertained.
Information Overload
Everywhere we look, we are surrounded by information to process and choices to make. Experts tell us to do this, buy that, and eat this. Bombarded by advertisements, news, emails, and senseless posts on social media, our mental hard drives become overloaded, inefficient, and sluggish. Every day, your busy