How do I deal with thoughts/mind chatter?

[Devansh Saharan]

It's like, I'm still at the bottom. I still don't feel like I've made any growth in what we call the basic meditation or controlling / observing your thoughts, I'm still completely bothered by them. I have watched hundreds of videos on the topic, now I'm doing my Shambhavi Mahamudra kriya, but I still just can't deal with them, it's always on, and I believe 90% of my confusion originate from this chatter, but at the same time I value this thought process of mine, all of my ideas ,understanding I believe stem from these very thoughts, what should I do, just what to do, how to just be an observer to these thoughts as they say? 

[Rilles]

Youre at the mercy of the ever spinning mechanical hamster wheel that is the mind. There is no hope. Surrender.

[Preetom]

16 minutes ago, Rilles said:

Youre at the mercy of the ever spinning mechanical hamster wheel that is the mind.

Samara ?

Question the reality of those thoughts. How real are they and what purpose they are really serving.

 

[Devansh Saharan]

22 minutes ago, Rilles said:

Youre at the mercy of the ever spinning mechanical hamster wheel that is the mind. There is no hope. Surrender.

How do I surrender? 

[Rilles]

1 minute ago, Devansh Saharan said:

How do I surrender? 

Trying to surrender is not surrendering. See the problem here? 

 

For real though, Leo has a Guided Meditation, check that out, its really helpful.

Edited May 11, 2019 by Rilles

[Preetom]

Just now, Devansh Saharan said:

How do I surrender? 

Basically sitting through the shitstorm without resisting and not giving much fuck.

Kinda like being the eye of the storm. No tendency to avoid or change anything, just letting the whole thing run its course 

[Rilles]

Just now, Preetom said:

Basically sitting through the shitstorm without resisting and not giving much fuck.

Kinda like being the eye of the storm. No tendency to avoid or change anything, just letting the whole thing run its course 

Resist! Thats the only way to learn that resistance is futile. 

[Devansh Saharan]

1 hour ago, Rilles said:

Trying to surrender is not surrendering. See the problem here? 

 

For real though, Leo has a Guided Meditation, check that out, its really helpful.

I'll check that out. 

 

1 hour ago, Rilles said:

Resist! Thats the only way to learn that resistance is futile. 

I've learnt it's futile cause it freakin doesn't work, for me personally, it makes me go crazy. 

[abrakamowse]

@Devansh Saharan  In my case mindful meditation helped me a lot. Leo has a video about it.

What you do is you observe everything that arises but you don't try to interpret it. You just say the sense that you use to see that movement around you. For example, if you hear a sound... you just think "hearing" or "listening". So you don't focus on the thinking or on interpretations.

This IMO creates an habit in the mind and it is easier for you to let go of thoughts. If while meditation you have  a thought about something like "I have something to do" or "this is good or bad"... just say "thinking" without paying attention to the content of the thought.

That helped me a lot, but the thought machine will keep running always. You need it. Thought is good for practical things, like everyday tasks, the only problem is not good for understanding reality.

Use it with caution.

hehehe..

 

 

[mandyjw]

Focus on having more thoughts that you want to have. 

Rainbows.

Unicorns.

Cotton candy.

Sunsets.

Insights.

Understanding.

Intuition.

 

[Nahm]

It sounds like you have somehow managed to wrap your meditation practice around thoughts. As if they’re the theme, or star of the show, to be “controlled / observed”, or focused on.  Consider thoughts are stars, and meditation helps you to realize you are the night. 

Be aware of breathing from your stomach. Thoughts arise and you notice your attention shifted from stomach breathing to thought story...just return your attention to breathing from your stomach. 

If you feel overwhelmed, stop, breathe, relax, and write about the sensations you’re feeling on paper. Do this very slowly. Aim to articulate more and more refined. You’ll discover the commonality of specific sensations, and links to your past will be revealed. Links as in, sensations + memories are a match to the sensation you’re currently experiencing in the meditation. As you read, understanding is present, and mis-contextualized emotional responses which were overrode are released. 

Sometimes allowing the repressed emotions to surface can be scary - because thinking kicks in with a thought story. Your practice of stomach breath focus comes in handy...as the aim is to let the emotions out, without getting sucked into a narrative via thinking. 

Meditation is breath, focus, purification. Thought has nothing to do with meditation. If you go to the doctor’s with a flu, you go to be without flu. You don’t go to focus on the flu. 

 

[Devansh Saharan]

4 hours ago, Nahm said:

It sounds like you have somehow managed to wrap your meditation practice around thoughts. As if they’re the theme, or star of the show, to be “controlled / observed”, or focused on.  Consider thoughts are stars, and meditation helps you to realize you are the night. 

Be aware of breathing from your stomach. Thoughts arise and you notice your attention shifted from stomach breathing to thought story...just return your attention to breathing from your stomach. 

If you feel overwhelmed, stop, breathe, relax, and write about the sensations you’re feeling on paper. Do this very slowly. Aim to articulate more and more refined. You’ll discover the commonality of specific sensations, and links to your past will be revealed. Links as in, sensations + memories are a match to the sensation you’re currently experiencing in the meditation. As you read, understanding is present, and mis-contextualized emotional responses which were overrode are released. 

Sometimes allowing the repressed emotions to surface can be scary - because thinking kicks in with a thought story. Your practice of stomach breath focus comes in handy...as the aim is to let the emotions out, without getting sucked into a narrative via thinking. 

Meditation is breath, focus, purification. Thought has nothing to do with meditation. If you go to the doctor’s with a flu, you go to be without flu. You don’t go to focus on the flu. 

 

Thanks a lot, I can relate and will try in my kriya. I don't know why but it feels like it'll help. ☺ 

4 hours ago, mandyjw said:

Focus on having more thoughts that you want to have. 

Rainbows.

Unicorns.

Cotton candy.

Sunsets.

Insights.

Understanding.

Intuition.

 

K, I'll try that more throughout day, better than having unwanted thought.

6 hours ago, abrakamowse said:

@Devansh Saharan  In my case mindful meditation helped me a lot. Leo has a video about it.

What you do is you observe everything that arises but you don't try to interpret it. You just say the sense that you use to see that movement around you. For example, if you hear a sound... you just think "hearing" or "listening". So you don't focus on the thinking or on interpretations.

This IMO creates an habit in the mind and it is easier for you to let go of thoughts. If while meditation you have  a thought about something like "I have something to do" or "this is good or bad"... just say "thinking" without paying attention to the content of the thought.

That helped me a lot, but the thought machine will keep running always. You need it. Thought is good for practical things, like everyday tasks, the only problem is not good for understanding reality.

Use it with caution.

hehehe..

 

 

Okay, I'll try to do so, but it's hard not to label them, it just happens automatically

I guess it'll take some time, cause I would say till now I haven't continued it over a period of time. 

9 hours ago, Rilles said:

 

 

[ValiantSalvatore]

@Devansh Saharan Not sure what the focus of the Kriya technique is. I use labeling techniques to deal with thought, basically vipassana. Internal chatter.

Knowing what your technique does would give me more insight and potentially others. 

You could test a do-nothing technique and test that it is inevitable to stop thoughts, even if you know it intellectually after a couple of sessions of do-nothing for ideally 1h you will notice ok this does not work. 
 

9 hours ago, Devansh Saharan said:

It's like, I'm still at the bottom. I still don't feel like I've made any growth in what we call the basic meditation or controlling / observing your thoughts, I'm still completely bothered by them. I have watched hundreds of videos on the topic, now I'm doing my Shambhavi Mahamudra kriya, but I still just can't deal with them, it's always on, and I believe 90% of my confusion originate from this chatter, but at the same time I value this thought process of mine, all of my ideas ,understanding I believe stem from these very thoughts, what should I do, just what to do, how to just be an observer to these thoughts as they say? 

After doing my 1h session today I noticed the same, lack of progress. I get very angry about posture for example. Thoughts come and go don't worry too much. Training in daily life with a couple of seconds here and there can help to deal with constant rumination and having a journal to write down meditation sessions or thoughts about rumination can help tremendously and give you insights and feedback. That your system already provides you with.

Potentially you did not see this video and it can help.

In the end, it is training.

Edited May 12, 2019 by ValiantSalvatore

[ajasatya]

@Devansh Saharan change the way you live. mental phenomena are a consequence of what you experience on a daily basis.

[ValiantSalvatore]

Very true I notice this a lot too. Like they say you are what you eat. Take care of your information intake it will be reflected in your thoughts. You can even feel that they arise as phenomena. 

[WelcometoReality]

@Devansh Saharan Be the awareness of all sensations. If you are identifying with thought you can start with being aware of the feelings in your body or your breath. You'll inevitably become caught in the thought stories but don't beat yourself up about it because that is only part of the thought story. Just put the awareness back on the breath or feeling sensations.