Can You Stop Thinking?
Discover The Joy Of A Quiet Mind
Cherish the times when you are not thinking about anything
Can You Stop Thinking?
According to Zen Buddhist priest Shunmyo Masuno the art of not thinking about anything is not easy to achieve. Even practising monks find it difficult.
But it is possible.
Imagine being able to stop thinking at will, on demand, at any time and in any place.
Imagine being able to create a space in your head where there are no thoughts and no emotions... just space and awareness of the sounds and smells and visual images around you...awareness of the sensation of your breath entering and leaving your body.
How To Stop Thinking?
Shunmyo Masuno is of course correct in saying that it is difficult,
but with the mastery and consistent practise of a few simple techniques
it is very possible. Most people can learn how to do this.
What is it like to be able to stop thinking?
I have learned how to do this and in this article I am going to share with you how you can stop thinking. So, what is it like to be able to stop thinking?
The best way I can describe it is to say that it's like having your own personal safe room in your head where you can take refuge from your thoughts. When I am in my safe room in my head it is as though I am in a place where there are no thoughts and no emotional reactions.
Well strictly speaking I am aware of a limited amount of distant "white noise" coming from thoughts and emotions but this is very peripheral to the core of where I am. So I guess to be completely accurate this means that I stop 80% of all thought and emotional reactions more or less on demand.
So what is the secret sauce?
Zen teaching offers us a 2 minds model:
1] The thinking mind - or monkey mind as it is often referred to - which runs on autopilot and is constantly spewing out a stream of thoughts some connected and many seemingly unconnected. It is impossible to turn this mind off. It just is what it is and it does what it does.
2] The witnessing mind - or observing mind - which watches and observes the mental noise of the thinking mind and the ebb and flow of our emotional responses to the events that take places in our lives.
Mark Manson explains this very well in an article called The Two Minds and he outlines very lucidly how we make the mistake of identifying with our thinking mind by saying "I am angry" rather than saying "I feel anger".
# The first big takeaway in learning how to stop thinking is to understand that you are not your thoughts.
# The second big takeaway is that the fastest way to unfuse your thinking mind and your observing mind is to accept your thoughts.
In real time you can do this on demand and it will take you about 5 - 10 mins. Here is the process for:
The Practice Of Deep Acceptance
This is very simple, very powerful and very effective. If you follow this process exactly as described - don't think it just do it - and you will very quickly enter your own personal safe room.
If you are having a really tough time I have outlined two further techniques that are equally powerful:
Intense Present Moment Awareness Using NLP
Intense Present Moment Awareness Using A Simple Mantra
# The third big takeaway is that the best longer term approach to gaining control of your thoughts is the practice of mindfulness.
A very good place to start is with these:
6 Key Practices From Eckhart Tolle
Why Stop Thinking?
Who would you be without that thought?
For me, knowing how to stop thinking is more important than learning how to think.
I have found that when I still my mind through mindfulness practice, it becomes a whole lot easier to see my thoughts and emotional states as they arise and subside.
I have also found that it is surprisingly liberating to spot the boringly repetitive pattern of these thoughts and emotional states.
It's quite shocking to observe just how much I run on emotional and mental autopilot.
It's as if there is a very personal Windows 10 operating system running everything.
The next big realization occurred when I began to observe myself getting caught up in these thoughts and states, and becoming totally identified with them.
This was quickly followed by the further realization of how much my identification with these thoughts and states was shaping and affecting my responses to the events in my life and ultimately the outcomes that I experienced as a result of those responses.
A reality check!
However, I do not want to create the impression that I no longer suffer from my thinking mind. I do.
But the difference now is that I know exactly what to do, and how to do it, to side-step my thinking mind and just stop thinking for a while.
I also do not want to create the wrong impression that mastering the practices of acceptance and mindfulness will permanently remove all your negative emotional and mental patterns - it won't!
But what these practices will give you is the toolkit to manage these things and considerably reduce their impact on your life.
To put this into perspective, on a scale of 1 as really bad and 10 as really good, before learning these practices my experience with my thinking mind was an average of about 2.5 out of 10.
Now it is an average of between 7 and 8 [let's call it 7.5] out of 10.
Over the 20 years I have been doing this, that adds up to a whole lot of benefit. For much of my life I have lived a very stressful life. I am now in my sixties and in good health in all areas of my life. I honestly feel that without these practices I would most likely have died years ago.
A list of benefits from stopping thinking
About 10 years ago I wrote this list of the benefits of being able to stop thinking, and I reviewed it today and with slight editing and no order of priority it still stands:
- To witness or observe (without narrative or analysis) the recurring or autonomic nature of your thoughts and feelings
- To watch how your inner map of reality applies filters
- To see how you become immersed in and identified with your thoughts and feelings
- To learn how to stop thinking – to turn your thoughts off - at will
- Seeing through the noise
- Peace
- Enhanced intuition
- Refuge from the insanity and frantic nature of daily life
- Clarity of perception
- Insight into the nature of things
- A deeper sense of what is and isn’t important
- Being able to let go and knowing you will be OK
Here are 3 personal takeaways on learning how to stop thinking
- It provides me with a sanctuary and refuge from the tyranny of my thinking mind.
- This break from my thinking mind give me an opportunity to recharge my mental, emotional and spiritual batteries
- It really does allow new ideas and fresh insights to emerge. I find that the space that arises between the thoughts in my thinking mind is a very fertile and creative space
Ideas or sparks actually emerge from the empty spaces within your mind - from the gaps between your thoughts. To
increase the chances of teasing out those ideas from between the gaps,
cherish the time when you're not thinking about anything. [Shunmyo Masuno]
Resources
Here is the whole end-to-end 4 stage process to dealing with your thoughts:
- Awareness of your thoughts
- Understanding your thoughts
- Accepting your
thoughts
- Living with our thoughts
Highly Recommended:
Zen The Art Of Simple Living by Shunmyo Masuno
Further Reading:
- Mark Manson - Two Minds Model
- Freeing Yourself From Your Mind - 6 Key Practices From Eckhart Tolle
- Eckhart Tolle - Present Moment Awareness
- Thich Nhat Hanh - Living In The Present Moment
- Brainwave Entrainment - Experience The Benefits Of A Balanced Brain
- Conscious Thinking - Its Limitations & Life Beyond Your Thinking Mind
- Duality - Exposes The Limitations Of Time, Foreground And Background
Next Article: Are You Waiting For Change?
Return from "Stop Thinking" to: Walking The Talk
LATEST ARTICLES
Like A Prayer - Life Is A Mystery
It Isn't The Process Of Prayer That’s The Problem, It’s The Way It’s Framed. Regardless of what we feel about Madonna or her song the topic of prayer often arouses strong reactions. Usually, it is som…How Things Really Are - The Inbuilt Design Flaws
Chaos, Disorder And Decay Is The Natural Order Of Things. Nobody has the perfect life. We all struggle and strive to attain health, wealth and personal happiness. Yet these three big areas: our health…Intuition Or Anxiety - Are There Angels Or Devils Crawling Here?
How To Tell The Difference Between Intuition and Anxiety. How do you know whether the voice of your intuition is real or just the product of your inner anxiety? Several months ago I was having a drink…What Is Truth - How To Tell A Partial Truth From The Whole Truth?
How the truth and nothing but the truth is often not the whole truth. My great aunty Flo broke her arm and died. It is true that she broke her arm in 1923. It is also true that she died in 1949. But t…Duality And Life Beyond Your Thinking Mind
Duality and life beyond your thinking mind focuses on the limitations of time, foreground and background, duality and "stuckness". The first aspect of duality and life beyond your thinking mind focuse…The Conscious Mind Is Limited - Be Aware And Be Prepared
Being aware is the first stage of being prepared. The conscious mind is limited in so many ways. There are some who would argue that there is no such thing as conscious thought and that it is represen…Your Inner Map Of Reality - Here's Why You Think The Way You Do
The big picture of how your inner map of reality creates your feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. Your inner map of reality is based on the filters of your own ethnic, national, social, family and rel…The Failure Of Cancel Culture - Suppression Not Engagement
Why we need to wear our beliefs lightly and develop negative capability. Throughout history people have campaigned to fight beliefs, ideologies, and injustices that they perceived to be oppressive, di…4 Big Reasons Why We Get Stuck In Our Attempts At Personal Change
Most People Spend Their Entire Life Imprisoned Within The Confines Of Their Own Thoughts. This first of the 4 big reasons why we get stuck is, in my view, the most important. The "self-help industry…How Do I Change And Why Is It So Hard?
We Would Rather Die Than Change, And We Usually Do In my experience, the vast majority of people who say they want to change don’t change. Most people reading this won’t change because they don’t real…The Illusion Of A Separate Self - Windows 11 With Self Awareness!
Beyond the content of your mind you are so much more than you think you are. When we talk of "myself" this is the conventional way of referring to our self image which is in fact the ego's constructio…Finite And Infinite Games - Dazed, Confused & Ultimately Transcendent
This is not an instruction manual, it is a wake up call!
Over this past week I have read Professor James Carse's highly regarded "Finite And Infinite Games - A Vision Of Life As Play And Possibility"…The Gap And The Gain - How Your Brain Sabotages Your Happiness
How Your Lizard Brain Sabotages Your Happiness We are hardwired to measure our progress in any and all areas of life where we have goals and aspirations. We can't not do it. But what we measure and ho…How To Wake Up - 4 Simple Practices To Help You Wake Up Now
So What Exactly Does It Mean to Wake Up - What Is "Enlightenment"? There is nothing magical, mystical or mysterious about waking up we’re actually having glimpses of enlightenment all the time. Enligh…Situational Communication - Different Strokes For Different Folks
Situational communication is about taking account of 3 often ignored factors about the other person. You are a situational communicator when you recognise that effective communication is not an event…How To Influence Without Authority - 6 Key Tips
The secret to how to influence without authority is that you get what you really want by giving other people what they really want. We live in an interconnected world and knowing how to influence with…Change Questions To Change Your Outcomes
Asking The Right Questions Is Critical For A Successful Change. Every time we initiate a significant change - whether in our personal life or in an organisation - we will most likely over-estimate our…Group Culture - The Invisible Software That Rules Your Life
Group culture is: "How we do things round here". We like to see ourselves as free agents making our own choices and living authentically but the reality is that The Matrix has many layers and we are u…Why Getting From A to B Is Not Aways A Straight Line
In circumstances of significant change, the progress from A to B will not be in a straight line. We run our lives largely on auto-pilot. In most circumstances your experience of getting from A to B is…The Art Of Persuasion Planning For Success - Here's How To Do It!
To be successful in the art of persuasion you must ensure that certain things happen. To be successful in the art of persuasion you must establish a framework of what has to happen to get you to that…The Art Of Persuasion Advanced Communication Skills - Gaining Buyin
Create The Environment Where They Want To Buyin to Your Proposal In order to build the win-win you have to uncover what it is that the other person really wants or needs, and to do that you have to as…The Art Of Persuasion The One Fundamental Principle - Create A Win-Win
The art of persuasion is based on the simple idea that you get what you want by enabling the other party to get what they want. Being a nice friendly person with good inter-personal skills may be a go…Communication Persuasion And Change - Key Skills To Survive & Succeed
It's not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, but those who are most responsive to change, the most persuasive, and the best communicators. We are living in an age of unprecedented ch…The Eisenhower Box - What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent
What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent And What Is Urgent Is Seldom Important. The Eisenhower Box is a time management and decision-making model devised by President Dwight Eisenhower to help him prioriti…Zen Enlightenment [Satori] - The Stink Of Zen
Lost In Our Delusions About Enlightenment. There is something in human nature - a desire to glamorise, sanctify, objectify and idolise – that elevates people who have offered deep insights to the huma…5 Zen Mindsets For Mastery - In Any Area Of Your Life
The Wisdom Of A Person Who Masters In Any Art Is Reflected In Their Every Attitude. The state and quality of your mind has a very large bearing on the quality of your performance in any area of life t…Dealing With The Toxicity Of Online Dating - 6 Key Tips From A Clinical Psychologist
Toxicity Is The Price Tag Of Accessibility. In the early days of online dating, users were vetted and had to go through a registration process and agree to comply with a code of conduct designed to en…Why Understanding Ergodicity Is Critical To Your Long Term Survival
How Not To Be Fooled By Randomness. Ergodicity is an ugly word from the world of mathematics. It is an umbrella term for two sets of conditions of probability and outcome. These two conditions form th…Dealing With Imposter Syndrome - Ego Is The Enemy
How You Frame A Situation Has A Profound Impact On How You Respond To It Emotionally. Imposter syndrome is a psycho-emotional experience of a fear of being found out as incompetent despite ongoing evi…The Challenges Of The Road Less Traveled
Issues You'll Face When Playing The Long Game. The challenges of the road less traveled is loosely based around the phrase popularised by M.Scott Peck with his book "The Road Less Traveled". This arti…