Short - Clearing the Mind

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Anyone else out there having a hard
time clearing their minds these days. Mostly

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you know by now, hopefully some
of you know that I've recently changed jobs.

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Well it's not actually technically a change, it's different responsibilities. Where I

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was overseeing just one territory at work
for a long time, now I'm overseeing

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the entire East Coast. So that
comes with three additional markets I now represent.

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It's a tremendous amount of work that's
been laid on my plate, and

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because of it, I'm having a
hard time sleeping. I mean understandably.

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So in my previous life I used
to be a perfectionist and there's still a

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little bit of that inside meets The
fact is I'm somewhat competitive now. I

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do like to be successful, and
I know all this is ego driven,

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I understand that, but intrinsically it's
who I am, right, It's in

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my fiber because that's how I've been
programmed to be. So the fact that

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I've got four markets now that I've
got to develop, well that should give

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me pause. But I'm driven to
be six tessful. So when I don't

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have enough time in a day to
work out all the problems, and figure

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all the answers out and service all
the clients that need to be serviced in

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that day. When can my mind
process all that stuff? Of course,

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when I'm sleeping. This means that
I'm not sleeping very well these days,

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as you can probably imagine, I'd
say probably the past few weeks, because

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my mind is constantly active. Well, that's also been affecting my meditation practice.

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It's very hard for me these days
to clear my mind enough to just

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be. And the times when it
happens, it's glorious, but they're snippets.

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They stick around for like ten,
fifteen, maybe thirty seconds, and

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then I'm right back to thinking thinking
thinking. I do what every mindfulness meditation

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teacher tells you to do, which
is just acknowledge that you're thinking, release

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it, and go back to not
thinking. And I do that, and

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I'm successful to a certain extent,
but not as much as I was before

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this whole change of work thing.
What I'm finding is the the more I

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focus on the fact that I'm thinking, recognizing that I'm thinking, acknowledging it,

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and then moving it aside and going
back to not thinking, well,

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the more it seems to stick.
So the reason why I'm telling you all

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this is because I know sometimes it's
difficult to meditate or focus on whatever it

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is you need to focus on because
we're all super scattered these days. There's

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a lot going on in the world, a lot going on in our lives,

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so it's understandable. But hey,
stick with it now. I can

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tell you I'm not there yet.
I'm still having a hard time clearing my

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mind. But I have noticed that
the more I stick with it, the

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more I acknowledge the thinking and release
it and just go back to trying to

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just be. The more it sticks, the more it opens up, and

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hopefully sometime in the very near future, I'll finally be able to get back

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to that all encompassing peace that I
had every time I meditated before all these

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changes. I have faith that that's
what's going to happen, because every time

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I do it, it sticks around
just that little longer, maybe a microsecond

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longer, but I feel it.
I can feel it. It's getting longer

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and longer the peace that I'm feeling. So if you're experiencing something similar,

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my advice to you is stick with
it. Just do your ten minutes or

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fifteen minutes or twenty minutes or thirty
minutes, whatever it is that you do

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in the morning, in the middle
of the day, at night, whenever

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you do it. And if you
don't meditate, I urge you to do

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that obviously, to try it,
pick up a practice, because I found

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that meditation changed my life. I
know a lot of people say it's difficult,

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it's boring, it's blah blah blah. But if you need help,

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there's help out there. There really
is. And if you stick with meditation

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with a practice over time, you're
going to find that suddenly you're much happier

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with it. But anyway, if
you're already meditating and you're having a hard

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time clear in your mind, just
be patient with yourself. In fact,

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have no expectations of what your meditation
practice should be. Allow it to be

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whatever it is. If your mind
is racing, racing the entire time,

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hey let it race, because at
least you're taking time to do nothing but

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think and let your mind race.
And little by little, if you recognize

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or realize that you're thinking, go
ahead and just acknowledge that you're thinking,

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release the thoughts, and then go
back to not thinking. And the more

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you do that time and time and
time again. The more you'll find that

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it's easier and easier and easier to
clear your mind. Over time, you'll

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find the peace that we've all been
striving for. I have faith that that's

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what's going to happen, and I
wish you the absolute peace that we all

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want to find.