Meditation tips...What helps you quiet the Chatter?

Discussion in 'Religion, Beliefs and Spirituality' started by Dyani, Jan 23, 2010.

  1. Ok so I hope this all makes sense

    During meditation my mind is constantly trying to narrate my experience and it is very hard for me to quiet the chatter. Many times its like I am thinking(narrating) out a kind of script of how i would describe what I am feeling/experiencing to someone, I'm constantly putting everything into words. I even starting writing the very beginning of this in my head just before I stopped meditating to come and post.

    I will try to regain focus by concentrating on my breathing, but most of the time i will be saying breathe in breathe out (in my mind) as I inhale and exhale. And sometimes somehow the thoughts begin to emerge behind the repeating of "breathe in......breathe out".

    The moments that i do let go of all thought and experience I have intense positive feelings and body sensations, it is a truly beautiful experience, but it usually does not last long because that's when the narration wants to kick in to begin trying to "explain" what just happened.


    Does anyone have any tips?
    I know it is a process and something I will have to continue to work on, and everyone has different methods. What works for you?:)
     
  2. Well lately, I have somehow learned how to silence my thoughts all together, but this is only very temporary. I've been getting better with practice.

    What helps me is visualization. Whenever I am visualizing something, my mind is less likely to interrupt.

    Try this one out for example: imagine a ticking clock; Keep time with the clock and see if you can get through five minutes without interruption. If you can, you're better at it than I am. :)
     
  3. google the pdf of Initiation into Hermetics by Franz Bardon.

    The first or second mental step is all about thought control and gives great tips and exercises to help you build the will power (which is what its all about, in the end) to stop thoughts for extended amounts of time.
     


  4. Don't think of meditation as an exercise in developing concentration, it isn't about that. You're really trying to relax into (not create) a mental space that already exists within your mind, by doing nothing. You can't make muddy water clearer by stirring it with a stick - ie, you can't stop the mind thinking by thinking.

    What you need is something that naturally helps block your dominant problem, your inner dialogue. Until this problem goes -which it will - you use sound rather than an awareness of breathing. Go to YouTube and put on oneof the non-musical vids of say, forest sounds or water running and listen to that instead. Don't 'focus' on it, just let your mind listen to it in a natural way. Every time your inner voice comes up just bring your mind back gently towards listening.

    The rain and water vids are particularly useful for relaxation as they contain white and pink noise, well-known for calming the mind. If it puts you to sleep, move onto something like an ambient bird/country sound instead. You can even use a steady sound, such as the sound of a computer motor running, etc.

    One of your other problems sounds like you may not be relaxing in your upper body enough - could you pay some extra attention to your solar plexus, shoulders and throat, relaxing them regularly as you listen.

    However, and this may seem counter-intuitive, meditation isn't about stopping thoughts, thoughts are allowed to dissipate, they're left alone.

    MelT
     
  5. I like to count the first 100 breaths or so to focus
     
  6. Meditation's goal is not relaxation, but the negation of consciousness. Relaxation is however, necessary to achieve this.

    Take a warm bath with salts and a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar. As the bath drains feel your racing thoughts clear and all stress release from your day and body. Try to reach a state of peace, relaxation, and serenity.

    Meditate afterward, and see if that helps you clear your thoughts.
     
  7. MelT had some good tips.

    Me personally, I look it at from a neurological perspective. meditating is about accessing my "right hemisphere". The left hemisphere of your brain is the one the eternal dialog and unfortunately its the part of the consciousness that cannot experience oneness.

    I suffer(ed) from PTSD and earlier in life I had problems with OCD (along the lines of obssesive intrusive thoughts)

    I would go on an endless dialog arguing with myself, it was impossible to win. Many years I suffered from insomnia and "night terrors" and this was always preceded by an endless debate with myself. One that I simply could not win.
    It was very very frustrating, torture you could say.

    It took a very a long time for me to realize this, but eventually I realized that many of the thoughts I automatically generated (the chatter, the endless narration, whatever may be the case) were not entirely my own

    What I mean by that is that any information expressed by the chatter had no real correlation to what you could call " a soul " or at least my idea of my true self

    I decided to just let these thoughts come into existence without objecting to their grotesque imagery, without adding or detracting. I decided to become detached from these thoughts (it happened very gradually, still is ongoing)

    When I was able to treat these thoughts as parallel thought processes that had no bearing on my "true self" ( i know, whatever that means)
    the thoughts simply came into existence and disappeared, they became briefer and briefer until they became as unintelligible and meaningless as static on a radio, something your mind can tune off


    Anyways, perhaps because of these difficulties with my thoughts I've become very good at letting go of thoughts. When I meditate, the first thing I try to do is make sure my body is comfortable and can mantain a stable position

    Once i'm assured my body can remain this way a decent while I focus on my breathing (something I'm really bad at) but then, I simply let go. I let go of any thoughts relating to body discomfort, any thoughts related to outside noise, any thoughts related to what I saw on tv, what my gf is doing, if i'm gonna get a job, all of these things

    I let go of

    How I do that, is something I unfortunately cannot teach you. I suppose its like dying, but neither can I teach you that. Its like accepting that you're going to die and allowing your consciousness to let go of its attachments so that it can continue to shift

    Go to the place where there are no words, where time and space are meaningless

    from a neurological perspective, I suppose what you're really doing is accessing some right brained functions you've forgotten to use, the ones that allow you to be connected to the universe, neural networks far better adapted at seeing the holistic view. But to access these in a sense, you're not learning anything, you're setting aside a lot of your left brain function instead, so they stop supressing your right side functions
     

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