how amazing it is to find someone who wants to hear about all the things that go on in your head

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Source: wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock

When did the vocalization within your head starting time talking? I became aware of mine at about the age of 15. Upward till that point, I had been a very happy and carefree child, but in a short space of time, I became acutely self-conscious and socially awkward. In that location was a commentator within my caput, observing and criticizing my actions. My behavior could no longer be spontaneous or natural, because I was thinking too much. At dark, I sometimes found it difficult to become to sleep, because there was then much "thought-churr" within my head.

In fact, "thought-chatter" is completely normal for homo beings. Normally, whenever our attention isn't occupied, a stream of mental associations flows through our minds — thoughts well-nigh the futurity or the past, fragments of songs or conversations, daydreams about alternative realities or friends or celebrities. Commonly we call this mental action "thinking," but this isn't really accurate. Thinking suggests something active, over which nosotros have conscious control, but almost all of our thinking isn't like this. It'south almost always random and involuntary. Information technology runs through our heads, whether we similar it or non. That's why I prefer the term "idea-chatter."

Real thinking is when nosotros consciously use powers of reason and logic to evaluate different options, deliberate over problems, decisions, and plans, and then forth. Nosotros oft similar to recall of ourselves as rational creatures, superior to animals because nosotros can reason, but this kind of rational thinking is actually quite rare. And, in fact, idea-chatter makes it harder to use our rational powers, because when we practice have issues to deliberate, it streams through our minds and diverts our attention.

For example, imagine you're trying to decide what to buy your partner as an anniversary present. While yous're thinking virtually it, memories of your hymeneals day run through your mind and and so of your honeymoon in Italy, which reminds y'all about a scandal y'all recently read about the Italian prime minister, which sets you thinking virtually the political situation in this country, which reminds you that take to file your taxes ... It's so difficult to focus your thoughts that no ideas come into your listen, and yous accept to ask your colleagues at piece of work what they would like to accept every bit a gift if it were their anniversary.

Being immersed in thought-chatter isn't so unlike from dreaming — at least, the kind of associative dreaming that sorts through the impressions and data nosotros've captivated recently and sends a strange mixture of them back through our minds. We accept a picayune more control over thought-chatter than dreams, and it comes from the witting mind rather than the hidden, simply essentially it's the aforementioned whirl of mental cloth. (Of course, this is suggested by the term "daydreaming.")

Why should nosotros have a voice in our heads all the time, a racket and image-producing machine constantly recalling our experiences, replaying bits of information we've absorbed, and imagining scenarios earlier they've occurred? Why should our minds jump so chaotically and randomly from 1 association to the next? People with schizophrenia are considered to be insane because they hear voices in their heads — but is our "normal" thought-churr really so different? Information technology should really be seen every bit a kind of madness also — or at to the lowest degree equally a kind of pattern fault, a malfunctioning of the man listen.

Dealing with Thought-Chatter

Fortunately, at that place are some steps we tin can have to deal with our idea-chatter. One approach that is often used is simply to gear up our attention to an external focus that doesn't allow us to be witting of idea-chatter. This is the reason why watching television has been such a popular pastime over the past few decades — considering information technology is a very effective manner of keeping our attending focused outside our own minds. Only this isn't a very satisfactory arroyo — it actually just ways replacing idea-chatter with another kind of chatter. And once the TV is turned off, thought-churr just begins again.

A much more effective approach is meditation. The are many different aims of meditation, only one of them is to tiresome down and repose thought-chatter. Idea-chatter is fueled by the attention we give to it. In meditation, we switch our attending to another focus — to our breathing, to a mantra, or mayhap a candle flame. As a upshot, thought-chatter fades abroad, and nosotros experience a sense of inner spaciousness and stillness. We feel calmer and somehow more inwardly stable and whole. Later on months of regular meditation, nosotros may notice that our thought-churr becomes permanently slower and quieter.

Nonetheless, it's unrealistic to expect to silence our idea-chatter birthday. It'southward such an intrinsic part of our minds that it'southward unlikely to disappear. It's important for us to take a mindful attitude toward thought-chatter, accepting it without identifying with it. That is, we should treat our thought-chatter as a kind of physiological process that takes place inside us, simply which is not role of our identity. We should treat it in the same way that nosotros care for physiological processes like digestion, or the circulation of our blood. We should permit information technology to flow past, in the background, without paying much heed to it, and without letting it make up one's mind our moods or state of heed. The important thing to remember is: Your thoughts are not you, in the same manner that your digestion is not you. They are but part of a process that is taking identify inside you. Later on all, nosotros don't derive our sense of identity from our digestion or claret circulation, and so why should we identify with the voice within our head?

Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-darkness/201803/the-voice-inside-your-head

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