Shhh Brain...
A picture is worth a thousand words. Ever wonder how many words our thoughts would quantify? It’s nearly infinite given the way our brain creates noise from moment to moment. All of us, at one time or another, suffer from some sort of decision paralysis that can lead to a form of anxiety due to our thoughts.
Racing thoughts leave us paralyzed from circumstances that aren’t based on present-day reality. They often come in patterned waves and provide a negative feedback loop that might look something like:
“I’m not good enough to take that opportunity. Where would I even start? Everyone else is so experienced and knows what they’re doing. I need to stay in my current situation. I don’t like my current situation though. I need to work more and get on top of everything else. Thinking about it just makes me feel bad. I hate this feeling. I need to fix this. Ugh… how do I even start?
Sound somewhat familiar? We’ve all likely experienced this train of thought at one point or another. Making life-changing decisions, figuring out life, tackling a major personal development goal, etc. are all daunting tasks to face head-on. Like the feedback loop, the starting point to getting out of it is asking yourself, “How do I even start?” The most profound, yet simple, solution to the problem is to shush your brain.
Simple right? I’ll just mentally say shh to my brain and all will be fixed instantly. Not exactly. Take it from someone who has tried this multiple times before - simply telling your mind to directly be quiet will, in of itself, combat with your mind’s own persona and get into an unnecessary argument between your sensible self and your mind’s “sense of self”. It’s as if you’re trying to win a court case against your mind.
Now how do you go about calming those racing thoughts in your mind so that they have little to no influence on you anymore? Here are some of the top tips to help aid in quieting your mind:
Breathing
It’s the age-old tale - breathing can soothe your body of all nervous system imbalanced responses. Rooted in science, it’s no secret that learning to synchronize your body with the breath is a fantastic way to control irrational imbalances that stem from within. The mind will initially wander on, what I like to call “passionate”, thoughts. Allow yourself to fine-tune the practice and focus on the breath as much as possible to take the mind’s attention away from the innumerate thoughts.
Cognitive Distancing
For a lot of us, we were able to grow up with some sort of central figure to help guide and support our development up to today. Our attachment may grow strong with that central figure, whether parents or mentors or friends, as time progresses. We crave that bond that helps support and build us up. It’s perplexing why we allow ourselves to grow so attached to our mind’s thoughts as if it’s a central figure or force in our lives. Take some time to distance yourself from your thoughts or think about the direct converse of them. Often, your brain noise will be rooted in hypothetical situations that will seem less sane once you distance yourself from the reality of them.
Routine
Sticking to a routine can be a great way to keep your mind from wandering into an empty space of nothingness and start firing on all cylinders with unnecessary thoughts. Routines allow your mind to hopefully follow a structured pattern of thought and schedule of how those thoughts transform throughout the day. By limiting the amount of randomness, you’ll restrict your mind from tapping into that well of racing thoughts waiting to force themselves upon you.
Present-Mindedness
Easier said than done, right? By constantly looking back at past mistakes and future ambitions, we detach ourselves from the present and feed into our racing thoughts of what’s to come and things that could have gone differently. This allows your mind to feed into the uncontrollable and spur up what-if scenarios for these thoughts to branch off of. By focusing on the present with what you can control, you’ll, in turn, control your mind.
Writing
The release from writing is truly so freeing. Racing thoughts often assume power over you because they aren’t organized and seen for what they are in concrete statements on paper. I used to write sporadically and felt those momentary releases from the burden of thought but have more recently found the power in the idea of writing or journaling every day or on a consistent basis. By consistently putting words and thoughts down onto paper, you allow yourself to free yourself of concern, at the very least for that moment to return to later.
None of these are sure-fire fixes that will just magically mask your brain from ever allowing racing thoughts to enter back into it. It takes a lifetime for some to wrestle with them. At the very least, I believe we all can learn to better tackle our brain noise and find a way to identify it as a separate entity that has no bearing on our self-identity. They have absolutely no bearing on who we are when you actually think about it. While I still proclaim that thoughts have a physical being in their own, they do not have any influence on you, nor should you allow them that right.
The root of life suffering is caving to these thoughts as reality and not having the foresight to see the distinction. The moment we begin to realize this and try and tackle it, we will have won the battle. I cannot guarantee that you’ll win the war, but I can assure any, and all, steps taken to control your thoughts will yield numerous benefits and untapped opportunities. So next time you go to bed, tell your brain “Shhh!” Or better yet, follow one of the tips above to actually shush your mind before getting into a sparring match with it.
“Silence has a music of its own. It is not dead, it is very much alive, it is tremendously alive. In fact, nothing is more alive than silence.” - Osho
