It's not easy, but with the right practice and exercises, it can be done.
One exercise that I have been using that has been showing good results is mindful breathing.
Mindful breathing is just that, you are breathing mindfully. While you breathe, just follow the breath in and out, focusing on the sensation of breathing.
You can shift the focus to different areas, such as the air coming in and going out of your nostrils, focusing on the temperature of the air, if it's colder coming in and hotter going out.
You can focus on the smells, on the length of each breath, the noise your breathing makes, and on where the breath goes, how it inflates your chest and abdomen, and how breathing out deflates it.
You don't have to do this all day, but it's just as easy as remembering that you are breathing, and to start focusing on an aspect of that process. Eventually, this will become a sort of second nature, and you will find yourself doing it without telling yourself to, it will just happen.
Apply this same technique to other activities in your daily life, and you will start to notice that you are actually more mindful in your everyday life.
Definitely. Quite a few times, actually.
When I was a kid, my father died, this sent me into a state of constantly thinking "what's the point?".
I don't know if this is common or not, especially for kids, but anytime I wanted to do something, my immediate thought was "What's the point?".
My way of coping with it was to not try and block those thoughts, because when I did that, it got worse, but also not to ignore them because, again, when I did that, it got worse. What helped me push through that phase and eventually get out of it was to basically accept those thoughts. Once those thoughts came up, I didn't pay them any attention, I noticed them and just let them be, and continued with what ever I was doing, or planning on doing.
This phase eventually passed. It was not easy, especially in the beginning, but as time went by, it became easier and easier, until those thoughts just stopped, without me even noticing that they had stopped.
Thinking back on it now, I realize that that is sort of a core principle in meditation, I believe. In meditation, you are instructed to not try and block your thoughts, to not get angry or frustrated with them, and to definitely not fight them, because that will only make things more difficult, it will be more difficult to get those thoughts out of your mind and to stop them from coming. Instead, we are instructed to let the thoughts be. Let them come, notice them, and then just let them go. It's the more we linger on to those thoughts that cause those thoughts to linger on to us. If we just notice them, don't give them our energy, and let them pass, they will do just that, they will pass.
Other than that phase in my life, I have had quite a few different issues. I don't know if they could be considered mental health issues, or just sort of "who I am" issues. They may have just been part of my personality. Either way, they were struggles, and they still are.
I am much more mindful than I was in the past, I am much more aware and accepting of myself, and of others. Still, though, I know I have some unresolved issues that I am working on. And I believe it's just a work in progress that takes time, and acceptance. Like life itself, I believe it's a work in progress and as we go through it, it improves, as long as we allow it to.
Do your best, you may not always succeed, but at least you did the best you could do, and if you do, then you did succeed.
If I cannot trust who ever is in the relationship with me, I will always have a negative feeling that I may one day be badly surprised by something this person has done.
This is true for me for all types of relationships.
If I cannot trust the person in the relationship with me, I will just not be able to feel comfortable with them. I wont be able to comfortably share things with them, talking to them, and being with them.
I just try to do the best I can, and I try and acknowledge when I have made mistakes and when I am wrong.
I am not always able to motivate myself into doing them.
There are times when I do feel motivated, but these of course are usually times when I am not in a situation to do them.
At other times, I just find it difficult to get myself motivated enough to start.
But, when I do manage to be motivated and start the work, I try and usually do get as much done as I possibly can, just to take advantage of the current motivation I feel.
I think I am always asking more questions. In general I am not someone who just accepts whatever he is told. I usually "wonder" about things.
I wonder if things are true, how things work, who did what, why, and all the questions.
I am a curious person, so naturally I don't just settle for the things I know, I almost always will try to find out more about what ever it is.
Depends when, but I will always appreciate other peoples advice on certain subjects, especially when it comes to true life experience.
I don't always have the right answer, even when I think I do, hearing someone else's perspective helps me to sometimes understand that.
I do sometimes, maybe not because I think I am always right or others are wrong, I think its just a quick reaction, an instinct type of thing.
When someone says that I am wrong or disagrees with me, I sometimes have an instinct to push back, but I try to minimize that as much as I can, as I prefer to be corrected rather than speak nonsense.
