The Habit You Might Not Know You Have
Is your mind the boss of you?
We tend to think of "habits" as things like what we eat, how we move, and when we go to bed.
But one of the deepest, most insidious habits most of us carry is this:
Letting the mind run the show.
Letting the constant stream of thought drive the choices we make, the stories we believe, the way we treat our bodies, and the way we relate to life itself.
The mind loves to be in charge.
It loves to spin, narrate, analyze, and catastrophize.
And if we’re not careful, we begin to mistake its constant chatter for truth — or worse, for wisdom.
This is a habit.
It’s one of the most deeply conditioned ones there is.
And it’s one of the most exhausting.
When I talk about linchpin habits — the simple shifts that change everything — this is one of the most profound places I work with clients:
breaking the habit of letting the mind be the boss.
Because here’s the truth:
Your body has wisdom.
Your breath has wisdom.
Your deeper knowing — the part of you that moves beneath thought — has wisdom.
And your mind?
It too has a role — but not the one we’ve been conditioned to give it.
The mind was designed to gather information.
To observe, to discern, to help us navigate the world.
Its job is to inform — not to command.
When the mind steps out of its proper place and tries to run the whole show, the system gets tense, brittle, reactive.
But when you shift this linchpin habit — when you stop defaulting to the mind as the master — whole new layers of vitality, ease, and clarity open up.
You reclaim the body’s knowing.
You reclaim breath as an anchor.
You reclaim the spacious wisdom that moves beneath and beyond thought.
Why does the mind try to run the show?
From an Ayurvedic perspective, the mind is naturally influenced by qualities that shift in response to life’s rhythms, our daily choices, and the seasons.
When the mind becomes overly active and stimulated, it tends to speed up, chasing thought after thought.
When it accumulates too much heat or intensity, it wants to control everything.
And when it takes on too much heaviness or stagnation, it can become foggy and stuck in old patterns.
The bossy mind isn’t a flaw — it’s simply what happens when these qualities get out of balance.
The good news?
You don’t have to wrestle the mind into submission.
You can begin to shift these qualities through awareness, breath, and simple embodied practices.
Here’s one way to begin:
Throughout your day, gently notice:
"Am I inside the stream of thought right now — or can I feel the deeper current beneath it?"
When you catch yourself caught in the mind’s grip, try this:
Pause.
No need to fight the mind — simply stop and notice that it’s chattering. Name it softly: “thinking.”
Exhale.
Let a long, slow breath out through your nose. In Ayurveda, the exhale is the body's release — an invitation to soften excess rajasic energy in the mind and nervous system.
Drop awareness into the body.
Feel your feet on the earth.
Feel your sitting bones or the weight of your body being held.
Let your attention spread, rather than stay trapped behind the eyes.
Tune to the heart or belly.
These centers — the heart space and the lower belly — often hold a quieter, older wisdom than the head. You might even place a hand here.
Listen from this place.
What is felt beneath the thought?
What is true beneath the story?
Do this again and again, with kindness. The goal is not perfection. It’s re-patterning. Over time, the mind learns its rightful place: in service, not in charge.
You can’t think your way out of a bossy mind — but you can feel your way back into a steadier place.
What to expect:
As this linchpin habit begins to shift, you may notice:
✨ Less reactivity
✨ More clarity in decisions
✨ A growing sense of inner steadiness
✨ The ability to hear your body's cues more clearly
✨ A quieter nervous system — even in the midst of challenge
It’s subtle at first, but profound over time.
And like all linchpin habits, it’s one of those small hinges that swings a very big door.