My mental chatter is worst first thing in the morning. For me it goes something like this…
What time is it?
Has my alarm gone off yet?
Have I woken Martyn?
Is Noah still asleep?
What time is it?
What shall I do first?
What time is it?
Meditate, always meditate first otherwise you won’t fit it in.
What time is it?
Will I have time to run before Noah wakes up?
Will Martyn take him to nursery or will I need to fit that in?
What time is it?
Will I have time to ride?
I must remember to do this, this and this…will I fit everything in?
sit, just do your meditation!….Deep breaths…
20 minutes of mindful meditation later…
Still…calm..peace. Mind settled for the day… much better.
So anxiety about fitting everything in and checking the time are the makeup or my mental chatter. It tends to be different for everyone but negative thoughts and worries are often the topics that pester people.
Repetitive thoughts are really common in mental chatter too, hence me repeatedly jumping back to check what time it is. Physically I feel a tightening in my throat area and tension, often in my shoulders.
My mental chatter is always totally calmed and relieved though by a twenty minute meditation and it makes my day calm and clear. In the past I would not even have recognised mental chatter let alone had a mechanism for calming it all down. I would have carried this chatter on all the way through my day until I started worry about tomorrow. Then it would start again.
The Buddhists call this Monkey Mind. The thinking is that our thoughts are like monkeys swinging form brach to branch not allowing us any peace. Our thoughts perhaps only last for a split second, then they’re gone. Before you know it they have been replaced by another thought. This is all very hectic and if we can’t calm it then it really distracts us throughout our day.
So the problem with mental chatter is that it exhausts us. If we carry on this monologue all day and night then we wear ourselves out. We get physical symptoms of stress, aches and pains are common, and we lose focus on what we are doing because the monkey is distracting us over and over again.
Recognising our own mental chatter is the first step to calming it down. Try to notice yours, what sort of topics does it go over? What is repeated? what time of day is it worst? Often just recognising what is going on helps to relieve it.
Sitting to meditate is a great way to start training your brain so that you can avoid slipping into mental chatter and are more skilled at focusing your mind.
Next time your mind is on overdrive try sitting, closing your eyes and focus on noticing your breath for five minutes. Count your breaths up to 21 and then start again. Each time you lose count start again. Try not to alter your breath, just observe it. You will notice the difference even after the first go. Being physically still really helps our mind to slow down. The trouble is that most of us very rarely sit still.
Come on a Revitalise Day to lean how to approach your Monkey Mind with more skill.
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