A friend confided to me recently that his mind is so active, he can’t get to sleep at night without first wallowing and flopping in bed for hours. When he finally does, he wakes up shortly thereafter, only to repeat the process. He always rises too early in the morning and needs a long nap during the day.
I empathized. For as long as I can remember, I’ve also been plagued with mind chatter – the endless chain of internal dialog that bounces from one subject to another and never seems to desist. It often kept me awake as well.
Not only that, it continued when I was awake so I that I couldn’t enjoy the present moment. My mind was always lost somewhere in the past or the future. As a result, I missed some precious experiences in life.
I tried to repress my mind chatter, but that only amplified it, as it did feelings of impatience and frustration. Finally, I had to concede that I had no idea how to control my internal dialog, so I did some research.
In a Buddhist text, I came across an idea so simple, it actually worked. It suggested that we should look at our thoughts the same way we look at the clouds. They are constantly shifting and moving about, and though we are aware of them, we regard them for what they are; the ethereal movement of vapors.
The Buddha suggests that even though the clouds be full of sound and fury, keep them under foot so that we can abide constantly in the sunshine. Our insecurities, worries, and fears are little more than vapors; they don’t belong to us and we should not take possession of them. If we focus on them, they'll become self-fulfilling prophesy because we’ll think and act in a fashion consistent with their actualization. If we ignore them, they usually dissolve into the ether.
Courtesy of Pexels.com/Pixabay.
Buddhists teach us to escape the prison of endless mind chatter through breath work. Take a half-breath by expanding your chest, and the other half by expanding your stomach. That saturates all four lobes of the lungs.
Hum the word “om” on the slow release of air. Purring like a cat also seems to work. So long as you exercise your vocal cords, it doesn’t matter.
The best way is to breathe in and out through the nose. Sometimes I have sinus problems which plug me up, but the vocal vibration in the throat seems to relax the sinuses enough to release their grip on the nasal passages. It also relaxes a couple of glands in the brain just above the throat which release dopamine and suppress epinephrine – producing a feeling of peace and relaxation.
Breathing exercises can be practiced anywhere: in the car at stoplight, while stuck in a DMV lineup, at a staff meeting, or in a hospital lounge waiting for a quadruple bypass. People will be amazed at your composure.
If controlled breathing isn’t enough at bedtime, imagine you are a Raggedy Ann doll filled not with straw, but with buckshot. You try to move your limbs but you can’t. Your body is so heavy your bed feels like a hammock. You’re locked into your position because you just can’t budge the weight.
As it’s impossible for the mind to be anxious if the body is at ease, with practice this drill will cause your musculature to relax to the point where your brain must follow suit.
Initially, your internal dialog may try to sabotage you by suggesting that this practice is ridiculous (and so are you). Self-criticism and self-doubt has ruined more creativity and growth than any other type of resistance. When I’m faced with it, I refocus on my breathing.
Another way to meditate is to listen to music, not as background noise, but as the focus of attention – so much so that there’s no room left for inner dialog. Combining music with the exercises above works even better.
With practice, you’ll find yourself able to control your mind chatter, not by fighting or denying it, but by simply letting it float by underfoot like the clouds. Without a reaction from your prefrontal cortex (the conscious brain) your subconscious soon learns that there is no threat and therefore no reason to initiate the fight or flight response (assuming you don’t watch the news before bedtime).
Once the subconscious learns that mind chatter will not be indulged, it’ll suspend the internal dialog and chill out. This is a prerequisite to gaining sovereignty over one’s life. In the words of the Greek philosopher Epictetus, “No man is free who is not master of himself.”
It’s easy to find research verifying the benefits of meditation. The brain scans of people who’ve been at it for only 15 minutes per day show positive results in as little as a week. You’ll sleep better and as a result, you’ll live better.
Courtesy of Pixabay.com/avi_acl.
Header image courtesy of Pixabay.com/cloud_purple.
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