Silencing the Mental Chatter

Controlling the Mental Chatter

The inner chatter constantly goes on in everyone's mind. Be aware of the mental noise, because it does become a deeply embedded habit. It is considered as natural and an inseparable part of life. The mental noise is a background noise that never does cease, from the moment accountable to waking up in the morning and rightup to the moment of falling asleep at night. Often, it moves to prevent falling asleep.

When the need to focus the mind on a certain activity, such as studying, reading, or solving problems; do become totally aware of the buzz followed by the constant flow of irrelevant, useless, or distracting thoughts. This is the character of mental noise.

One of the innate characteristics of the mind is the habit of repeating the same thoughts over and over again, as in a loop, like a video or audio that has got stuck. Once there are positive thoughts it is fine. However, too often, these are negative thoughts that do intensify stress, worry, anger, or more so frustration. These are thoughts that are not needed.

Thinking of the sun, the first thought might be about the possible damage it can do. Too much sun exposure can propagate towards causing several kinds of serious health issues. When it is early in the day before it is the brightest, the small amounts can be good in some possible ways.

The human mind does have much capacity to concentrate, also it is observed the more intelligent the mind is, the more it remains distracted and inattentive. This indicates that the mind needs training throughout the day to comply with utmost discipline. There is nothing wrong with thinking, so we have to direct the thinking in the right direction. It is all about controlling the mind and then progressing towards governing the thoughts.

Eight Ways to Control the Mental Chatter

1. Become highly conscious of the mental noise. Many of us are in fact not even aware that the mind is constantly thinking.
2. Do pause and then arrest the thoughts. Do believe that we are in charge of our mind and not vice-versa.
3. Learn to filter thoughts like a gatekeeper. Do allow only those in need to be a part of the present.
4. Engage the mind to move towards getting involved in an activity that does hold the attention.
5. This will divert the energy on what has been done and then will leave no space to entertain the 'monkey' mind.
6. Be present, do live in the moment and the 'now'! As all we do have is 'now,' so do enjoy every moment.
7. Practice meditation regularly. In fact, with all the common practices and more so awareness, we can certainly train the mind to focus on the positives.
8. Practices such as Trataka (a form of yoga) indicating gazing at one fixed point, encourages the mind in doing the activities that are going on around us.

Zen Buddhists imply the constant chatter to be the monkey mind.

The Buddha has reminded us that the human mind is about being filled with drunken monkeys flinging themselves from the tree branches, jumping around, and then chattering away non-stop. Buddha indicated that our minds are in fact in constant motion.

Typically the mind chatter sounds like:

• Recalls hurtful things that have happened in the past
• Judges the present
• Creates all the catastrophic "what-if" scenarios of the future
• Reads off a laundry list of all the to-do items
• Lists down the fears that are both real and imaginary

A monkey mind does hamper the ability to concentrate; it has a negative impact on the behavior; and it often does interfere with the ability to have any positive interactions with others. It does become stressful and more so draining to bear a bunch of monkeys screeching within our heads all day long. The good news is that there are ways to get the monkey mind to calm down completely.

Taming the monkey mind will:

• Improve the quality of the sleep
• Increase the very sense of calmness along with the well-being
• Make a person happier
• Give the clarity of mind
• Allow focusingon the present and the task at hand

It is interesting to note that this concept is part of early Eastern philosophy. Meditation teachers have coined the term "monkey mind" because before the mind is trained in meditation our attention wanders and all our internal dialogues do chitter like an excitable monkey. It is said this is the natural state.

The goal of meditation is to enable us to be quiet and mindful. The relationship of the body towards the ground, the sounds we hear, the feeling of the clothes against the very skin and the movement of the breath in its very rhythm.

This all moves way down to the thoughts we are having moment by moment, by acknowledging the sensation of the thought and letting it pass on mindfully.

Mind chatter entails the grievances that have occurred quite a long time ago. Permitting to let go of the past does hurt. The choice is to forgive and move on, or then dwell in the past.

Final Word on Quieting the Mental Chatter

Mental chatter means to have a normal brain. The brain makes noise, never stopping itself for long. It is all about remembering that chatter must not take over one's life.

Then do remember most of the mental chatter is nothing but the random noise. The best thing you can do is recognize what it is and then let it go.

Lastly, do apply all the appropriate steps which are indicated in the article to quieten the mental chatter.

References:

1. The brain on silent: mind wandering, mindful awareness, and states of mental tranquility - (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5866730/)
2. How to Control our Mind and Stop Mental Chatter - (https://theyogainstitute.org/how-to-control-our-mind-and-stop-mental-chatter/)
3. 3 Simple Ways to Settle a Busy Mind - (https://www.mindful.org/3-simple-ways-settle-busy-mind/)
4. The Busier You Are, the More You Need Quiet Time - (https://hbr.org/2017/03/the-busier-you-are-the-more-you-need-quiet-time)
5. Researchers study how it seems to change the brain in depressed patients - (https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depressed-patients/)

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