Mastering Your Mind - “You must flow like water my friend”

Let’s face it, we all live in a world thats very chaotic, constant pressure from work life, relationships and the list goes on. But how often do you take the time out to find the inner peace you been quietly yearning for! People are always banging on about training the physical, we must go to gym lift weights and you’ll be ‘better’ mantra… But nobody likes to talk about the mind… Perhaps your most powerful weapon my friend. 🗡️

“You must flow like water my friend” 

is a famous quote from non other than the famous Bruce Lee. The essence behind the quote is fairly straight forward, you must empty your mind in order to be free from outside influences. Calm the waters, find stillness, so you can better navigate this crazy and chaotic world… Everything in life is Yin & Yang, when you have craziness, you need an element of stillness, that way maximum harmony can be reached.

Calming The Water 

So what exactly do i mean by “Mastering your Mind”. You must find inner peace in order to find the outer peace. Letting yourself “wind down” so to speak after a busy/ hectic day. How can you expect to process and reflect on the events of the day when all your doing is posting on twitter or watching Netflix or engaging in meaningless conversation with people. “Donald Trump did this today”. I think you will find a lifetime focusing on the external will create conflict within the internal.

Training & The Mind

Taking up a hobby can be a great way to empty your mind. You ever get in a flow state playing golf or training Ju Jitsu? Some people live for these moments and moments like these can be a great way to ‘unplug’ from the external world. The world that is constantly trying to pull you back in. Training consistently and the mind can go hand in hand. 🤝

Be That Guy Or Girl

You ever meet someone who just seemed to have it all together? They never seem nervous or flustered or concerned about the goings on in the world? Chances are they have a good body mind relationship. They find time to be with themselves and reflect on the events of their day. Not just constantly engaging in mindless nonsense, like “look at this photo Bradley and his girlfriend posted on social media”. “Omg”. 

Surefire Ways To ‘Calm’ The Ocean

1. Observing Those Thoughts 

Most people react instantly to every thought that enters their mind. But thoughts are not commands, they are simply mental ‘events’. 

When you learn to step back and observe your thoughts instead of reacting to them constantly, you regain control from them. The moment you can watch a thought instead of obeying it, you begin to retake control of your mind. Finding the stillness. 🙏🏼

2. Control Your Breathing 

Your breath is one of the fastest ways to calm the inner sanctums. When people become stressed, angry, or anxious, their breathing becomes shallow and very rapid. Slow and deep breathing will signal the body that it’s safe and time to relax. A few minutes of controlled breathing can bring the mind back to balance again. 

3. Staying In The Present Moment

A wandering mind can create unnecessary stresses. Many people live either in the past or in the future, replaying mistakes or worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet. Mastering your mind means learning to stay fully present. Focus on the task in front of you, whether it’s training, working, or simply taking a walk. The present moment is where the highest form of clarity exists.

4. A Trained Body Is A Trained ‘Mind’

Physical training strengthens more than just the body. Combat sports, strength training, running, and endurance training all help build mental resilience & toughness. When you push through discomfort and difficulty, you are training the mind to remain calm under pressure. A disciplined body leads to a very disciplined mind…

5. Reduce Mental Noise

Modern life is always constantly trying to pull your attention in a hundred different directions.

Social media, news, notifications and endless information will help to overload the brain. Taking time away from these distractions allows your mind time to reset and refocus. Those who remain silent and still will remain most powerful in any given situation. 

The Key Objective 

The object is to find clarity & calm in your life, not to become so still that you get nothing done. As stated before Yin & Yang is the key to a happy life, finding the internal balance brings about more confidence and much more control. You cant argue that the calm one is the one who will succeed over the chaotic one. So set aside some time to wind down and focus on the calm waters ahead and you my friend will become much stronger than the average human. 

Wax On Wax Off

We live in a world thats full of distractions, everywhere you go people, places and things are always trying to suck you back in. Hell you cant even get a coffee without running into a ‘distraction’. To remain strong in a world full of distractions really is the key to great success. “Empty your mind, be shapeless, like water” – Bruce Lee

Final Thoughts

Adapting like the Camel does in the desert, it has huge gulps of water at the oasis before the long trek ahead. You to my friend need to seek out those ‘Calm Waters’. Seeing a change at work or even at home can bring about cloudy thoughts and possibly dark days, but eventually the rain will subside and the calm one will remain strong no matter the weather… ⛈️☂️