Good article on slowing down to gain perspective.

76-year-old phenom Larry the Legend, and 19-year-old phenom Lauren Fisher.

Be Conscious of Your Consciousness
Written by Shane Farmer

What’s really important to you? I’ve found that I all too easily get wrapped up in the day to day “actions,” that I have to perform. My workouts, going to the dry cleaners, meetings etc. What I know in my soul though is that although these things consume my time during the days, they don’t define who I am and my day to day brain often forgets that. I’d ask you to take a similar look at how you define your days and life. Do you get so wrapped up in what someone says to you at the coffee shop that you let it consume the rest of your day? Are you so mad/hurt/surprised that you hold onto that comment and it brings you down until you wake up the next day? I’m guilty of this, I have to make it an active practice to release those feelings and understand that I can’t affect what others do or say.

This is often incredibly hard. What I’ve found is that by hitting a 5 minute pause button on your day, you can reset and let these things go. In writing it sounds easy, in practice it takes some effort. You need to remove yourself from the situation in one way or another, whether physically or mentally. Then you need to cleanse your mental pallet, you can do this by closing your eyes and imagine all the thoughts in your head being put into a balloon, blowing it up, then letting it go into the sky, or imagine writing all the rambling thoughts in your head being written down on a chalkboard then erasing it to get a clean slate.

Once you’ve cleansed that pallet of yours, you can get to the process of setting your new path for the day. Focus in on what makes you happy, what great thing do you have coming in the next couple days? Is there any art you particularly love? Go look at it, even online if you can’t make it in person. Listen to a song. Any of these things can work, but what you’re doing is shifting your mind to a new set of tracks instead of letting it run uncontrollably on its own.

Be conscious of what your mind is saying, self talk has a big impact on your life and often we’re not aware of what it’s saying. So take control and be conscious to your own life, your body will thank you.