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Originally Posted by Foggy  I didn't realize this until I started practicing meditation, but I don't even notice half my thoughts. I am constantly thinking, without even meaning too, and most of the time my thoughts are redundant, unfocused, and completely irrelevant to what I'm doing. For example, today I went to pick blue berries with my brother and he picked about 3 times as many as I did. I was paying careful attention to my thoughts, and noticed that when I directed my focus to picking I picked way more, but after a short while I would return to a state of absent minded picking. My thoughts weren't even important; I have a bad habit of "chasing my tail" with thoughts where my internal dialogue never leads me to any conclusion and often I just think the same thing over and over.
I want to know how people here organize there thoughts. Disorganized thinking leads to disorganization in other areas of your life. Do you always think directly about what you're doing? How do you make sure you don't get lost in your thoughts? When you are thinking about something, how do you organize your thoughts so that they lead you to a conclusion instead of in circles? |
Hi Foggy,
Your thoughts are very special, as they are part of you!
They are not disorganized or wrong - they come from a part of yourself that is trying to share something with you...
Your spontaneous thoughts that activities trigger, give a glimpse of your inner beliefs that lay beyond your everyday conscious awareness. They are instrumental in showing the path to heal and resolve your life obstacles.
For instance; Say you heard yourself worrying about the weather or what other's would think if you didn't pick as many berries as your brother. You can follow these thoughts to their cause in your unconscious mind - a memory of being caught out in a bad storm, or being laughed at because you couldn't do things as good as your older brother might be scenarios that are discovered when you replay the hidden movies. You can then resolve the issue (cause of your mind chatter) and voila, silence. Then you would pick berries and hear yourself dreaming up fantastic recipes for these delicious berries.
If you consciously pay attention to your spontaneous thoughts, like you mention, of course they will lead you in circles (and increase the drama and emotion of situations too). It is impossible to reach conclusions or find answers when consciously thinking about thoughts that originated in your unconscious mind.
But that is viewed as the purpose of our minds - to analyze and think about our problems. But hey, all this does is drive people crazy!
Another purpose of our wonderful mind chatter is due to our internal protection method.
Say you were bitten by a dog when you were just a little child. Your wonderful mind decided that it needed to do something to keep you safe, so you would never have that terrifying experience again. Whenever a situation arises that could involve dogs or risk your safety (according to your over-protective mind), it screams out as loudly as it can. “Don’t go for a walk without a big stick”, “There is a dog ahead, so cross the street”, “Ask Johnny to play at your house because there’s a big dog at his.” Then your mind used the adrenaline of fear to alert you to possible danger, so you not only hear the warnings, but feel them too. This is a true story by the way.
The point is, that your mind chatter, while being totally unrealistic for this particular situation, is your mind’s misguided way of doing all it can to protect you from physical and emotional hurt, because it cares.
While it is impossible to permanently
shut down mind chatter (like ignoring a child, they repeat their demand louder and louder) as it does have an important purpose , you can
silence it temporarily, because you are going to
resolve it's cause when the time is right.
1. When you hear unwanted chatter, listen then thank it for its warning (remembering that it is trying to protect you), tell it that you will take care of this topic when it is the right time, and then firmly tell it to silence.
2. Absolutely refuse to listen to it, and then say the 6 times table back and forth 3 times (1×6=6, 2×6=12, etc), to activate your logical mind (mind chatter can’t operate while you are thinking about logical things).
3. Have 5 activities that involve your logical mind on hand at all times, ready to do as soon as you have silenced the chatter. For example; read an intriguing book, talk to a friend on the telephone, surf for new itouch apps.
Btw, the only reason you hear thoughts is because you are thinking instead of feeling. When you feel activities, you feel the joy of life, then it is impossible to think about other things because you are so engrossed with the experience.