I lost something the other day (not my mind … I am coming to that).

It was a device.

A device that kept me connected to the outside world.  A device that helped me to accomplish my mission to end violence to women.

It was my iPad.

First, I reached out to a friend to go to my house to see if I left it there. Nope, not at home. Then I thought that I must have left it on the plane. My heart sank.

So I was about to give up, but then remembered I had used it to Skype earlier in the day. My heart felt happy. So it had to be somewhere in the hotel room.

Unless I took it to a restaurant and left it there.  My heart sank again

I decided to call my “MacGyver.”  Her real name is Amy Jaffe and she keeps me sane, along with my other ILF Team members, Stacie and Jeremie.

Amy says she could launch my iCloud account to help me locate it.  After a few minutes she said, “It’s in the building, where you are now?”

I began to furiously search again.
I even looked in the mini bar!
I could not find it ANYWHERE, and my room is small!

I was desperate.
I was also going nuts!

It was time to give up, so I tried to take a nap.
Then …. BOOM! I reached out and inserted my hand between the mattress and headboard, and THERE it was. My heart felt happy.

Okay, so now, how do I relate this to when I feel out of control and losing my sane mind? The mind that keeps me connected to my inner wonderful world?

What do I DO when the crazy mind wants to hijack me?

First, I can call a friend. I can allow my friend to offer ideas of where my mind could be. My friend could ask funny questions like, “Where did you see your mind last?” “What were you doing when you realized that you had lost your mind?” “Does your mind usually wander off without your knowledge?”

Okay, so the last two questions are not funny. They can actually help.

My responses can be something like, “Well the last time I had my mind was before the conversation with Mother, Father, child, boss, customer service person, husband, ex-husband, etc.”

Get it?

You get to THINK out loud about when last you were in control of your own mind.
When you have sorta-kinda identified when you lost it, you can rest quietly knowing it is close at hand!

It’s somewhere in your space.

It may be hiding in a closet, afraid of the crazy mind that took over, but it is not gone forever.

You must practice extreme self-care at this point to locate it and coax it back to you.
I decided to take a nap, remember?

** You can download our self-care module here and find an easy self-care tool and begin to practice it.

I use the tool of gratitude every night before I go to bed.  Some nights I am so wound up that my crazy mind tells the better part of me to, “Just forget about all that stupid gratitude.  What is it getting you any way?”  Then my sane mind has to say, “I will even be grateful that I can ignore that unhelpful message,” and then begin to write down my gratitude list for that day.

In the meantime, here is a short 12-minute meditation to help you to settle into some peace and tranquility.

Love and light,
Indrani