Topic: Quieting the Mind

[Endless~Knot]

Here are six steps I found on Psych Central for quieting the mind:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/10/12/6-steps-to-quiet-the-mind/

Step One: Objectless Attention

The most basic approach to attention is referred to as “objectless”–not focusing on any specific “scene” or aspect of experience, but just looking and marveling at the wide range of scenery as it comes and goes….Objectless attention involves settling into this “is-ness,” simply watching thoughts, emotions, appearances, and so on, as they emerge against or within the background of “space.”

Step Two: Attention to Form

Form meditation simply involves raising this unconscious process to the level of active awareness. Just by looking with bare attention at a specific object, the restless bird [your mind] settles on its branch….When you rest your mind on an object you’re seeing it as something distinct or separate from yourself. But when we let go and simply rest our minds in bare attention, gradually we begin to realize whatever we see, and however we see it, is an image made up of thoughts, memories, and the limitations conditioned by our sensory organs. In other words, there’s no difference between what is seen and the mind that sees it.

Step Three: Attending to Sound

Attending to sound is very similar to attending to form, except that now you’re engaging the faculty of hearing instead of sight….Gradually allow yourself to pay attention to sounds close to your awareness, such as your heartbeat or your breath. Alternatively, you can focus on sounds that occur naturally in your immediate surroundings, such as rain pattering against a window, the noise of a television or stereo coming from a neighbor’s apartment, the roar of an airplane passing above, or even the chirps and whistles of restless birds outside.

Step Four: Attending to Physical Experience

Our embodied state is a blessing in disguise, fertile ground through which we may discover the possibilities of awareness. One way to access these possibilities is through paying attention to physical sensations, a process that may be most simply accessed through watching your breath. All you have to do is focus your attention lightly on the simple act of inhaling and exhaling. You can place your attention on the passage of air through your nostrils or on the sensation of air filling and exiting your lungs. Focusing on the breath is particularly useful when you catch yourself feeling stressed or distracted. The simple act of drawing attention to your breath produces a state of calmness and awareness that allows you to step back from whatever problems you might be facing and respond to them more calmly and objectively.

Step Five: Attending to Thoughts

Paying attention to thoughts isn’t aimed at stopping thoughts, but simply observing them. Like taking time to look at a rose or listen to a sound, taking time to observe your thoughts doesn’t involve analyzing the thoughts themselves. Rather, the emphasis rests on the act of observing, which naturally calms and steadies the mind that observes. You can use your thoughts rather be use by them. If a hundred thoughts pass through your mind in the space of a minute, you have a hundred supports for meditation….There’s no need to become attached to the awareness of a thought or to focus on it so intently that you attempt to make it go away. Thoughts come and go, as an old Buddhist saying holds, like “snowflakes falling on a hot rock.” Whatever passes through the mind, just watch it come and go, lightly and without attachment, the way you’d practice gently resting your attention on forms, sounds, or physical sensations.

Step Six: Attending to Emotions

The method of observing emotions varies according to the type of emotion you’re experiencing. If you’re feeling a positive emotion, you can focus on both the feeling AND the object of the feeling. For example, if you’re feeling love for a child, you can rest your attention on both the child AND the love you feel for him or her. If you’re feeling compassion for someone in trouble, you can focus on the person needing help AND your feeling of compassion….A more practical approach to emotions, similar to that of working with thoughts, is simply to rest your attention on the emotion itself rather than on its object. Just look at the emotion without analyzing it intellectually. Don’t try to hold on to it or resist it. Simply observe it. When you do this, the emotion won’t seem as solid, lasting, or true as it initially did.

Reprinted from JOYFUL WISDOM: EMBRACING CHANGE AND FINDING FREEDOM Copyright © 2009 by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. Published by Harmony Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

[Endless~Knot]

This is actually some pretty decent tips from another Toltec follower for stopping the internal dialogue.

Mental Integrity: Five Techniques to Quiet the Mind
by Heather Ash Amara

http://www.toci.org/mental-integrity

Our internal dialogue is comprised of the many voices in our head. They distract, judge, compare, and appear to support us in solving problems. These voices take us out of the present, causing us to cycle old thoughts about the past and worries about the future. Our internal dialogue snags our attention in a mess of stories and dramas, keeping us from attending to what is actually in front of us.

Learning to consciously direct our mind and stop our internal dialogue allows us to soften into each moment and open to all possibilities. It leads us into mental integrity, where we can hear our own true voice.

Deepak Chopra writes, "In stillness, inner energies spontaneously wake up and bring about the appropriate transformation for every situation." When we bring our attention to stillness we tap into our knowing, which is based in love and infinite choice, rather than our thinking, which is often based in fear and scarcity. Within stillness rests our innate connection to Spirit and our sacred creativity.

Stopping our internal dialogue can take many different forms. Try any of the following five practices to quiet your mind.

1. Fill the Space with Something More Helpful

Give your mind a chant or an affirmation to repeat. This action fills the brain space your random thoughts would normally occupy. If you can bring your attention fully to the chant or affirmation you will begin to feel the silence between each word. You must be firm in coming back to your chosen words over and over again, and letting the stillness between the words permeate you.

I like to start my mornings off with chanting, and then take one chant into my day. I keep a list of chants from a variety of cultures (Native American, Hindu, Jewish, etc.) that I have learned over the years. It can be good to work with chants that are not in English, so you don't get stuck on the words, or to have ones that affirm something positive so if the chant does get stuck in your head you will be repeating something like, "I am opening up in sweet surrender to the luminous love light of the One." Your affirmation can be one word or a sentence, e.g., anything from "Peace, peace, peace" or the Sanskrit version, "Om, shanti" to "May I open to all possibilities."

2. Punctuate

Proper punctuation is another invaluable tool for stopping the internal dialogue. We tend to string together huge run-on sentences in our heads, weaving together our fears of the past or future with present events or triggers. We do nonsensical things like talk to ourselves about how we should not be having any voices in our head and then tell ourselves stories about what that means. For example, have you ever caught yourself thinking in a circular, tangled fashion like this:

"The voices in my head are so loud, I am comparing myself to people around me all the time, I can't get still, I just keep thinking and thinking. Will I ever get this right? What if I can't get quiet? I'll never be able to go any farther on my spiritual path until I still my mind, but it is impossible! My mind is totally out of control. Darn, I forgot to get toilet paper at the store. I always forget something. I am a terrible warrior (priestess, healer, teacher, human being...) If only I could be still inside. I hate my mind! I'm never going to have any peace..."

With a mind that busy, it is no wonder we fill our time talking, watching television, or fantasizing, instead of being quiet. Our minds comment on everything, even our thoughts. By learning to use a period and stop the next thought, we create space. For the example above, imagine hearing, "The voices in my head are so loud," and then say, "Period." Stop yourself after the first thought and take a breath. Do not let any more thoughts squeeze in. "The voices in my head are so loud, period." Do not allow your mind to comment on this statement, justify it, whine, or judge. Do this many times during the day, and you will notice gaps of stillness between your thoughts. Keep strong punctuation.

3. Take Mental Breaks

Get habituated to taking breaks during the day to sink into silence. For example, let your mind rest when you eat, have a few minutes between meetings, or go to the bathroom. Instead of running from one activity to the next in constant thought, breathe into your feet. Notice the colors around you. Slow your movement. Walk deliberately from place to place. Consciously reconnect with silence.

4. Let Thoughts Pass

Quieting the mind takes awareness and the commitment to keep coming back to stillness over and over again. A daily meditation practice can greatly increase your capacity to find silence during your day. I recommend you set an alarm (e.g., five to ten minutes to start) for your practice and simply let your thoughts float by without attaching to them. You do not need to stop them, but let them pass without judgment.

5. Stop Thinking

Lastly, an advanced technique is to stop the thoughts before they arise. I sit and imagine the foundation from where my thoughts arise. It looks like a grey-brown field, and I can feel it in my head. From this field thoughts bubble up. By using my intent I stop them from coming. At first they pop out of the field spontaneously, but over time I have learned to feel and witness when a thought is about to arise and gently push it back down into the silence. Over time you can build your capacity to keep the thoughts from being birthed as well.

Stopping the internal dialogue and living from stillness take perseverance and lots of practice. Cleaning your mind is a lot like cleaning a very messy room: if you look at the overall picture it can feel daunting. But if you start in one corner and work your way around step by step, you see that the action in front of you is doable, and before you know it the room is clean. Pick one practice and do not worry about how much chatter or noise there is, or how impossible the task at hand seems. Then do the next step. Breathe. Chant. Punctuate. Meditate. Stop. And then do it all over again, and again, and again.

Make this repetitive cleaning a joy, and be gentle. The stillness that will begin to arise will be the nectar that will motivate you to continue quieting your mind. Taste the silence and let it inspire you keep going.