We experience our lives through our bodies - our five senses. This experience is perceived and categorized into one of two categories: Fear or Goals/Fulfillment. By nature, our fear lens is more easily triggered. The fear lens is where we find anxiety, stress, and depression among other undesirable life experiences (yet, the function of this lens is to keep us out of trouble). The goal/fulfillment lens is where we find abundance, love, peace, purpose, and meaning.

Often, we find ways to put a band aid over the fear lens to ease the suffering we may experience here. We may do this with with alcohol, pornography, drugs, sex, and many other things. While these habits and behaviors may provide short-term relief, they often exacerbate the experience down the road. It is often much later in life we address issues of addiction, trauma, and poor life habits.  This is after the damage has been done.

There are a variety of ways to access your nervous system shifting from the fear lens to the goal or fulfillment lens. The following are some key ways to do this.

Mindfulness

Meditation is one such way we might access our goal/fulfillment lens. Mindfulness meditation is the practice of purposeful direction of your thoughts. Notice that you don't have much control over the thoughts that will arise. They spontaneously show up. Meditation helps you intrinsically realize this. The more practice here, the more you are aware of the distance between these thoughts and you.

In less magical terms, meditation can help you when the chest tightness and heat associated with anger rise up. You might automatically decided you're angry. After mindfulness practice, you will become more aware of the choice you have in the matter and choose differently.

Embodiment

Another way is embodiment to access the goal/fulfillment lens. This simply means being meaningfully connected to your body in movement. This is one of the reasons why exercise is good for mental health. Humans are designed to move. Getting in touch with your body can do wonders to calm down the fear lens.

Breath-work is another example of this. Recently, it has been discovered that inhaling deeply to about 90% of lung capacity, then quickly inhaling 5% more, and then slowly exhaling releases nitric oxide in the body flushing our system of stress hormones.

Diet & Cadence

Another major influence on our experience of life is what and when we eat. Recently, there has been a huge connection discovered between overall health and mental health by the quality of our diets. Processed foods are not good to eat for many reasons. Lots of carbohydrates and sugar are also bad. Red meat in most cases does more harm than good. Dairy is terrible for you. These food cause a tremendous amount of inflammation in the body.

It is best to eat whole foods, plant based, and not as often (although this varies from individual to individual). It takes a tremendous caloric investment to digest food. If we are always digesting food, this can zap our energy level. Start slow, but shoot for an 8-hour eating window. Eat only during this time. It will do wonders for your energy level.

Flow

The flow state is defined as a state that is a state where we perform our best and feel our best. More flow experiences equal more meaning in life. One of the easiest ways to access flow is through walking. This is why it can feel invigorating to take a walk.

More flow experience provides more engaged life experiences and a more purposeful life.

Access flow often.

Simplicity

We feel most comfortable in a state of simplicity. But our predilection is for complexity. Simplify your schedule, your living situation, your activities, your finances, your goals, and you relationships and you'll find far contentment in life. You'll access the goal/fulfillment lens more readily. 

Clutter, rushing, disorganization, and complications are all a product of the fear lens. If these items show up in your life, simplify!

If you were to track all 168 hours in a week, many of us would find a lot of time that could be better utilized.

My Practices

Being victim to overwhelm, lack of purpose, depression and more I have created habits and behaviors in each of these five areas.

• Mindfulness - I meditate for 20 minutes daily. Each day I wake up frantic. I'm like an exploded feather pillow. Meditation allows for all of the feathers to gently fall to the ground and the air to clear before I start the day.
• Embodiment - I am a runner and a yogi. I am somewhat obsessed with the relationship between the body and mind. In marathons, I have decided at mile 16 that I have nothing left beginning to give up. But then, it goes away. By mile 24 I am running my fastest pace. It is a mental game. There is so much potential that so many of us NEVER access.
• Diet & Cadence - I am a vegetarian. Not quite vegan, I eat eggs and some cheeses. Leafy greens every day. Fresh fruit, every day. Olive Oil, every day. Walnuts, often. I also only eat between 12-8 PM. I have tons of energy all the time and am ultra productive. It was difficult at first, but now it is easy. It is worth it for the clear head and focus it provides.
• Flow -I am able to access flow in a variety of activities, reading, writing, speaking, and doing manual labor. This provides a deeper meaning to all of the things I do as I attempt to focus deeply on the task at hand.
• Simplicity - I have not done as well with this as of late. But I went as far as eating only one of two meals each night of the week. I had only five t-shirts and two pairs of pants, two plates and two glasses, a coffee cup and a cup for tea. Sounds extreme but everything has a purpose and there isn't clutter and a lot of storing of 'stuff'. I do the same with my schedule. When I feel over worked, I try to simplify my schedule and realized that even when I work 50-60 hours per week, if you add in 8 hours of sleep per night as well. I've still got more than 40 hours of free time left over.