Thoughts of the county fair still make me smile—my partner and I went a few weeks ago, and I absolutely adore fairs.

Forget for a moment that seeing a roller coaster now makes me feel dizzy as an adult, and that the smell of carnie food almost makes my thirty-year-old digestive tract burst. It balances out a little when you take into account my growing interest in crafts and farm animals.

That could sound as thrilling as watching paint dry if you are the kind of person who gets things done on the fly and is always looking for new experiences. However, I truly enjoy thinking about things I can produce and caressing furry small critters.

I felt like a child on Christmas morning as I stood in the petting zoo with llamas, sheep, goats, and even a wallaby. I jumped around to give everyone equal time since I did not want the donkey to feel left out. I may have skipped a little, but I played and frolicked.

To be honest, I would have been just as excited to observe farms from a distance. I felt content and at ease just watching the animals scamper and the joy on the faces of the children as they fed them. The goat nibbled my pant leg, but I did not mind at all. I would have still thought it endearing even if he had eaten a hole in my favorite pair of Seven pants.

I enjoyed everything about that time, including the sunny tiny giggles, the scent of the rustic barn, and the sense of detachment from the hectic city life. I was enjoying myself.

I wondered when I would felt so content and liberated as my lover pulled me from the petting zoo to attend an Eddie Money show—his kind of fun. In the weeks before, I engaged in a lot of enjoyable activities. However, none of it was identical. There was a gap. Perhaps it would be better to say that something was there most of the time.

The voice in my head was that creature. It had a slightly similar sound to this:

“You resigned from your position. Are you growing too old to take such chances? Is going without insurance truly a good idea? What happens if you are in an accident and your insurance is still void? Have you renewed your auto insurance? Do you want to sell the vehicle? In any case, you do not truly drive it.

The list goes on and on. That small voice had been growing stronger because I had so much on my plate these days and my life had changed so much, and it felt good to give in to it most of the time. It wasn’t. That kind of constant thinking detracts much more than it contributes.

When a portion of you is trapped in a mental maze, it is difficult to enjoy yourself and be totally present.

It is like looking at the world through a plastic bubble when you are doing something you enjoy while mentally assessing, analyzing, worrying, fearing, or regretting. Everything is audible and seen, yet it is all muffled.

I do not think the incessant inner voice that interprets and judges everything can be totally silenced. Throughout our lives, that small mental hamster wheel will occasionally turn.

However, I do believe that it can be slowed down or even stopped for extended periods of time. To make presence, calm, and fun the norm rather than the exception, it is conceivable to bottle that farm experience—or whatever it is for you.

It is really quite easy. Three things are necessary to quiet the inner voice and feel happier:

• Quiet your mind.
  
• Include enjoyable activities in your day and cultivate mental calm while engaging in them.
  
• While experiencing the things you do not like, try to find delight in them and maintain mental calm.
  
• Let us dissect it:

1. Practice mental quiet.

Similar to a muscle is the mind. You must train it beforehand if you want it to operate a certain way for you.

To create a clearer mind, proponents of meditation advise 30 minutes of meditation in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. To tell the truth, I have never done that and I doubt I ever will. I do like yoga, though.

At least an hour of moving meditation is included in the typical sixty to ninety minute program. There are even quiet yoga classes available, depending on your style.

You could try one of the following suggestions if you do not like either of those:

• Find a peaceful spot once a day to do something minimally thought-intensive, like knitting, crocheting, or building model ships. Just concentrate on the task at hand and the feelings that come with it. Your brain will eventually slow down if you make a commitment to breathing deeply and keeping quiet during the entire session.
  
• Sit in nature once a day and just watch. If your thoughts stray, take note of their direction and return to your main point. You might first be tempted to get up or at the very least, to use your mind. It will disappear with regular practice.
  Just make sure to eliminate all distractions, particularly technological ones.

2. Incorporate things you enjoy in your day and practice mental quiet while you experience them.

This might sound fairly self-evident, but if my experience is any guide, it is worth mentioning. Yes, I do the things I love, but I also enjoy many things that I do not do very often, such as being around animals.

As a lamb nuzzled against my shin, I pondered it. Why did not I have a pastime that would have let me interact with animals? What about the other things I enjoy so much that I can enter into the zone with ease? Why do I give up my yoga when I am busy?

We may become so preoccupied with the things we believe we must or ought to do that we neglect to prioritize happiness. When we do manage to carve out time for the activities we enjoy, we are frequently distracted by other thoughts and activities.

Making a list of the things you love so much that they could melt everything else away is the greatest approach to challenge this. Make a commitment to completing a small portion of these each day. After that, pay attention to your ideas as you perform them.

Recognize when you begin to judge, dread, stress, or analyze, and then bring yourself back to the present. I tell myself a little bit along these lines when my thoughts start to stray:

Stop. Set those ideas away. If you would like, you can think about them later. Allowing oneself to appreciate the moment is now the most beneficial thing you can do. This instant—this happiness—

3. Find things to enjoy in the things you don’t and practice mental quiet while you experience them.

You will have to do many things in life that will not seem enjoyable at all. At one point, my doctor was consistently thirty minutes late. I thought he was wasting my time, therefore I detested waiting in his room. For years, I would show up and sit there fuming, thinking all sorts of nasty things, as though my unsaid animosity were spitting out of my mouth.

I did not realize that unstructured downtime could be a gift until much later. I could utilize the time to refuel before the rest of the day, and I could bring magazines, music, or anything else. I could also utilize it to learn mindfulness and acceptance because I was on someone else’s pace.

The time seemed more fun and more helpful when I viewed it that way. I would want to claim that I led countless formerly irate patients in rounds of Kumbaya, making me a constant beacon of hope in that waiting area. However, that is untrue. I occasionally reverted to annoyance, which swiftly grew into other annoyances.

The second element of the equation is to cultivate mental stillness because it is all too simple for a small gripe to escalate into a long list of criticisms and issues.

Regaining your peace of mind after being in a scenario that is not entirely enjoyable may need effort. The work will be worthwhile. Although it may appear that we have an infinite number of moments in life,

If we make it matter, everyone matters. Why not make it matter?

Fun was the top focus when we were children. For the simple reason that we enjoyed doing it, we always did what we loved. At the park, we did not worry about homework because playtime was only for having fun. It was where we played doctor (the G-rated sort), not a dull waiting room.

There are many ways of thinking that can interfere with present and mindfulness. This quite lengthy post’s straightforward message is that we have the option to silence unpleasant thoughts and can improve our ability to do so with practice.