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Silencing incessant mental chatter (or ‘mind chatter’ in short) is similar to the way we make darkness disappear in a dark room. We can dispel the darkness with light. Likewise, we can silence mental chatter with mindfulness and concentration. When we turn on the light, the darkness disappears. Similarly, when we turn on mindfulness (means being mindful) and concentrate our mind on a chosen object (for example, mental or physical experiences or an activity we wish to focus our attention on such as eating, walking, solving a problem), mental chatter loses its force and becomes silenced. In order to achieve that, our mindfulness should be sensitive enough to immediately notice when the mental chatter occurs (or is about to occur) and our concentration should be strong enough to hold our mind on the object without being distracted (and the force of our concentration should be stronger than the force of the mental chatter).

Both mindfulness and concentration are built-in abilities of our brain. Mindfulness is the faculty of our mind that can detect mental chatter as well as perceiving other mental and physical experiences. For example, if you are aware of reading while reading this article, that awareness is an example of mindfulness. If an unrelated thought or other incessant chatter occurred in your mind while reading this article and you were aware of the mental chatter, that awareness is another example of mindfulness. Concentration is a faculty of the mind that focuses one’s attention single pointedly on a chosen object or directs one’s mind to a chosen object without any distraction for a period of time. Concentration is the force that allows our mind to remain on a chosen object. Both mindfulness and concentration are working together as a team to silence mental chatter. Mindfulness alerts our mind when mental chatter arises (or when it is about to arise) or a focus is lost, so that our mind can re-enforce the focus to prevent from being distracted or bring our mind back to the object if a focus is already lost.

If our mindfulness and concentration are weak, our mind won’t be able to notice when mental chatter arises and has no power to hold attention on a chosen object. Incessant mental chatter would easily steal our attention away and fill our brain with mental chatter. Hence, we can not silence the mental chatter when mindfulness and concentration are weak. If our mindfulness is weak and concentration is strong, we do not know when mental chatter arises or even when our mind is focused on the mental chatter itself instead of a chosen object. Thus, concentration alone can not silence mental chatter.

Let’s assume that our mindfulness is strong but concentration is weak even though it is unlikely or impossible. Then our mind will detect whenever mental chatter arises but our mind has no power to hold our attention to a chosen object. As a result, forceful mental chatter could steal away our attention. So, mindfulness alone can not silence the mental chatter. When both mindfulness and concentration are strong, our mind will know when mental chatter arises and our mind has power to hold the attention on a chosen object. When mental chatter occurs or about to occur, mindfulness will notice it. This awareness alone can weaken the force of the mental chatter, as a result the mental chatter may go away naturally. The sooner our mindfulness notices, the more likely the mental chatter will go away. Despite the obstacle, the mental chatter may still arise and try to steal the focus by force. If the mental chatter is not strong enough, the attempt is unlikely to succeed and disappear naturally. The stronger our concentration is, the less likely the mental chatter successfully steals the focus. If the mental chatter successfully steals the focus, mindfulness alerts our mind to re-focus. When we refocus, the mental chatter loses its force and disappears. The process is almost automatic. As a result, our mind can remain focused on the object without mental chatter when mindfulness and concentration are strong, especially when the force of concentration is stronger than the force of mental chatter. (If we want mental chatter to arise instead of be silenced, we can do so by intentionally shifting our focus from the chosen object to the mental chatter.)

The working relationship of mindfulness and concentration is somewhat comparable to vestibular system and muscles in our body. The vestibular system notices balance and movements. Similarly, mindfulness notices when mental chatter arises or a focus is lost. The muscles hold our body upright standing position without falling on the floor. In the same way concentration holds our mind on a chosen object. When we lose balance (or about to lose balance), the vestibular system and the muscles immediately work together to regain the balance. Likewise, when our mind loses a focus (or about to lose a focus), mindfulness and concentration immediately work together to regain the focus. The vestibular system and the muscles allow us to stand upright and maintain the balance. Equally, mindfulness and concentration allow our mind to remain focused without mental chatter. After the learning and development of standing upright skill, we can remain standing upright almost effortlessly. Similarly, after learning and development of mental chatter silencing technique, we can remain focused without mental chatter almost effortlessly.

We can build mindfulness and concentration muscles in our mind with mental training or exercise, just as we build muscles in our body. If you know an effective way to develop mindfulness and concentration, you can use the method, which you are familiar with. However if you do not know an effective way, you can do mindfulness exercise to develop mindfulness and concentration capacities. Mindfulness exercise is a simple mental exercise in which one pays attention on a chosen object and attempts to hold the attention for a period of time. For example, you pay attention on an object (e.g. taste of food while eating) however if your mind wanders, gently bring your attention back to the object. In fact, the mindfulness exercise is traditionally called mindfulness meditation. The mindfulness exercise has been being practiced for two thousand five hundreds years. The effectiveness of mindfulness and concentration in silencing mental chatter has been demonstrated repeatedly. Studies also showed that the brain area responsible for incessant mental chatter becomes inactive when the brain area associated with mindfulness is active in a deep concentrated mental state. In recent years, scientists, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists also joined the mindfulness exercise. Nowadays we can also learn mindfulness exercise from medical establishment.

You can also perform mindfulness exercise in almost any occasions while doing your activities like watching TV, walking, eating, driving, using a computer. You can also exercise mindfulness just about any places like home, office, school, street, a restaurant, a store.  The mindfulness exercise won’t steal away your attention from your activities but allows you to do the activities mindfully without mental chatter. The more mindful you are, the better decision and better response you probably make in the activities rather than doing things on autopilot with unrelated thoughts and other incessant chatter in your mind.

When we can stand upright, we can walk, run, dance, hike, travel, ski, and play sports instead of being bound to a wheelchair. Likewise when we can silence mental chatter, instead of being bound to a wheelchair of mental chatter, we can finally start to use potentials of our brain that we could not use before.

The part 3 (final) will discuss some advanced topics related to incessant mental chatter.

Sung Yang writes at MeditationGeek.org

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Have you noticed when your computer gets slow when you run many programs (or open many windows) at the same time? Likewise our brains get slower when our brains are filled with so many thoughts and other distractions. Have you ever noticed your brain is filled with incessant mental chatters, which make you worried, stressful, distracted or angry? These unwanted thoughts hinder your career and drain energy from your brain.

Incessant mental chatter (or simply incessant chatter) is a stream of thoughts, for example, a thought about your past, a worry about your future, criticizing yourself or others, fantasizing about something, arguing with someone, inner narration, (resentful) memories, non-constructive thoughts, images, tunes, and other thoughts. Incessant chatter can make you worried, stressed, depressed, distracted or angry. Usually one thought follows another. Some people may not yet realize it. Have you ever noticed your mind is not there with you? Try to see if your mind is in the car or in the shower next time you are driving, or having a shower. It is all too common our mind often absent in our daily activities. Incessant chatter makes your mind absent from your daily activities.

A problem of incessant chatter is that it keeps on going without your permission. A bigger problem is that it does not stop even though you try to stop. Telegraph, a UK newspaper, says, men and women everyday think about sex 13 and 5 times respectively. (It may be true for some people but it may not be true for others but we can temporarily use it as an example of incessant chatter.) Such thought occurs in our mind without our consent. Although you may be able to stop a particular thought in your brain temporarily, incessant chatter will continue with other thoughts regardless. If you ever tried to stop all thoughts in your mind, you realized that it can be nearly impossibly difficult and frustrating. It is like a puppy chasing its own tail- the harder or quicker you chase the tail, the quicker the tail will run away. Our mind is flooded with thoughts that we do not want but can not stop. The thoughts in our mind persist and refuse to leave.

When such thoughts arise in your mind, they interrupt your thought process, disturb concentration, weaken your mental capacity and make your mind wander while draining your brain energy. Imagine that you are a football player. What if your mind is not in the playground while you are playing a game? What if your mind is not in the concert stage while you are playing music? What if your mind is absent while performing an operation on a patient? The same applies to other professionals. When your mind is not operated under your control but fall under influence of irrelevant thoughts at work or play, your performance is likely compromised. Furthermore you are more likely to make an error under influence of incessant chatter. (A small error can be fatal in some situations. Errors of medical professionals caused annually 250,000 deaths in US according to the Journal American Medical Association. About 93% of all car crashes were partly or solely due to driver’s negligence, driver error, intoxication and other human factors, while about 57% of all car crashes were solely due to driver’s negligence according to a study on British and American crash reports. )

Incessant chatter not only hinders our career but also our life. Imagine you are living in the world most luxurious house and always eating the tastiest food. However what if your mind is not there while eating the tastiest food in the most luxurious house? You may not be able to appreciate and enjoy your life when your mind is not operated under your control but fall under influence of incessant chatter. Furthermore resentful memory or other incessant chatter in your mind can make you angry, worried, depressed or stressful even though you are eating the tastiest food with the most loving family in the most luxurious house.

Would it be nice if you can silence incessant chatter in your mind when you want? So that you can best use your brain for your life and career. It is your brain. (Your brain consumes 20 percent of oxygen in your body and daily draws about 1,080 liters or 285 gallons of blood, which is about 15 percent of your cardiac output.) So you should have more control over when and what thoughts are processed in your brain than as it is now. You choose what program to run on your computer. You run it when you need it. You stop running it when you do not need it. Likewise it would be nice if your thoughts are functional when you want: started when they are needed and stopped when no longer needed, instead of popping up of their own accord and distract you. When your mind is not occupied with worries, irrelevant thoughts or other incessant chatter, you will have no or less mental distractions. When you have no or less distraction, you will have increased concentration, which will allow you to perform better at work at play. When your brain does not waste precious resources on unnecessary mental activities, your brain power and resources will be available for productive mental activities, for example, solving a problem or coming up with a creative idea. You will have less stress when your mind is not occupied with habitual worries, non-constructive thoughts. You will likely perform better at work when you are not under influence of incessant chatter in your mind. You will enjoy your leisure and time with your loved ones more when your mind is also there to appreciate activities and interaction.

A good piece of news is that incessant chatter can be silenced. One of the pioneering scientists in this field is Richard J. Davidson, who is a neuroscientist and psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin and is the world’s 100 most influential people according to a 2006 issue of Time magazine. His research demonstrated, as a byproduct of research on brain, that an incessant chatter-less state of mind, a calm state of mind, can be maintained without exertion for a prolonged period of time.

If you have not noticed incessant chatter in your mind, here is a way to find out. Do the following exercise for five or ten minutes (with a timer). 1. Take some deep breath and relax.   2. Pay attention on thoughts in your mind.   3. Do nothing but notice rising and disappearing of thoughts in your mind without trying to suppress them. 4) Write down all the thoughts when time is up. (In addition you can also write it down if you encounter any thoughts while eating your meal.)

If you noticed that your mind is occupied with worries, non-constructive thoughts, emotional storm and other incessant chatter, don’t worry. The second part of this article will show an effective technique that you can use to silence incessant chatter when you want.

Sung Yang is a freelance writer and a PickTheBrain reader.

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Are you worrying, hurrying or stressed? Stress comes with a long list of damaging effects of stress like heart disease, high blood pressure, accelerated aging, anxiety, depression, anger, forgetfulness, learning difficulty and sleep disorder. When we are stressed, we try to forget about stress by doing something else such as shopping, eating, watching a movie, listening to music, or even taking mind altering substances. By doing so, we might get a temporary relief from the stress but often end up more stressed. A good news is that scientists discovered very effective way of reducing stress with our mind. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, was one of the first Western scientists who discovered and demonstrated the effectiveness of mindfulness in its clinical applications, especially stress reduction. Since he introduced Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in 1979, University of Massachusetts Medical Center Research and other researchers elsewhere have found mindfulness is effective in reducing stress and provides other benefits. Mindfulness training is now becoming an essential stress reducing skills being offered growing number of hospitals, clinics, universities, psychiatrists and psychotherapists in US and other countries.

Mindfulness is awareness of one’s physical and mental experiences. Mindfulness is also an innate ability of human mind, which sees things as they really are without distortion, prejudice or bias. But mindfulness is different from thinking. If thinking is doing, mindfulness is being. For example, you are aware of thirst. This awareness is an example of mindfulness. If you are trying to make a choice between tea, coffee or water. If you were aware of the thinking while you were thinking, the awareness is another example of mindfulness.

In recent years, UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) scientists were intrigued by the therapeutic effect of mindfulness and investigated with a support of National Institute of Mental Health. The UCLA study found that mindfulness positively affects brain functions, e.g. a simple awareness on anger reduces anger. When you are angry, simply be aware of or tell yourself “I’m angry”. You will notice a calming effect.

When you are stressed, a stress response occurs. The stress response is also known as the fight or flight response. The stress response helped our ancestors to survive in life threatening encounters with predators. The stress response includes adrenaline production, increased heart rate, and other reactions that are needed in fighting or running away from the predators. The stress response is subject to false alarm. For example, when we lose job or simply worry about such possibility, our body responds with the same kind of stress response triggered when our ancestors were being attacked by a tiger. False alarm can leave adverse effects in our body. Thus it is important to realize a false alarm when it occurs. Mindfulness is about perceiving things as they really are without distortion or bias. When you apply mindfulness, to stress, it helps us realize a false alarm. When our mind is aware of the false alarm, the stress response is diminished or thwarted from being elevated to the full scale stress response. As a result, adverse effects of stress in our body are minimized.

Try the following exercise for 1 minute when you are stressed. 1) Notice physical symptoms of stress that you are experiencing such as increased heart rate, shallow breath, tightened muscles or tiredness. 2) Pay your attention to your mind and notice thoughts or memories that accompany the stress, or something that makes you worried, feeling overwhelmed, angry, depressed, frustrated, or afraid. Be aware that you are stressed or tell yourself that “you are stressed”. While you are aware of your stress, your stress is lessened. Repeat the exercise if it is desired.

If your mind wanders while you are doing the exercise, your mindfulness is not strong enough to be effective. Our mind tends to wander without focus. You can easily test to see if you can effortlessly sustain mindfulness for a period of time. For example, while you are driving a car or taking a shower, see if your mind is in the car or in the shower or thinking something else. If you want to take advantage of full power of mindfulness, you will need to develop your mindfulness so that you can sustain your mindfulness unwaveringly with clarity long enough to see the in-depth causes of your stress as they are without distortion or bias.

Just as you build muscles in your body, you can build mindfulness muscles in your mind with training and exercise. Here is a simple mindfulness exercise that will help you develop mindfulness. Do this while you are eating your meal or food. 1) Start to eat your food normally (but without rushing it). 2) Notice taste and texture of the food in your mouth. As you chew the food, notice changes in taste and texture. 3) When your mind wanders or lose focus, bring your attention gently back to your eating.

Here is another mindfulness exercise, which develops mindfulness (especially on your mental experiences) and can act as an antidote to stress at the same time. 1) Choose a person who you are strongly grateful to. 2) Recognize all the kindness or benefits the person provided to you. 3) Notice feeling of gratitude towards the person. 4) For a minute, focus your mind on the feeling of gratitude that you are experiencing. You probably noticed calming effect in your mind and relaxation in your body while doing this exercise. Likewise, you can exercise mindfulness in your other daily activities such as walking, taking a shower, commuting, etc. The more you exercise and use mindfulness, the more benefits you get.

You will need to develop mindfulness at least for several weeks in order for mindfulness to be effective. (For example, the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program trains participants for 8 weeks). Mindfulness is not a substitute for medicine or medical professionals. If you need medical attention related to your stress, you should see a doctor or visit clinics, hospitals that offer a mindfulness based stress reduction or management program.

Mindfulness is a powerful stress buster. Mindfulness also helps you deal with life’s challenges and stresses more calmly and effectively. Next time you encounter stress, you don’t have to shopping, eating, watching a movie to forget about stress. Instead you should welcome it. Because each time you encounter stress, the stress trains your mindfulness smarter and more sophisticated in its ability to bust stress and protect you from damaging effects of stress.

Related articles;

• Mindfulness introduction by Mental Health Foundation www.bemindful.co.uk
• Mindfulness exercise introduction.  http://www.meditationgeek.org/2010/01/mindfulness-exercise-introduction.html
• Mindfulness training bust stress, CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/01/mindfulness.training.stress/index.html
• Meditation on prescription: charity urges new remedy for depression, Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jan/05/meditation-on-nhs-urged
• Group therapy ‘beats depression, BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7754632.stm
• Is Buddhism Good for Your Health?, New York Times,  http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/14/magazine/is-buddhism-good-for-your-health.html?pagewanted=1
• Mindfulness, Wkipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness_(psychology)
• Introduction to Center for Mindfulness at University of Massachusetts Medical School http://www.umassmed.edu/Content.aspx?id=41252

Sung Yang is an avid meditator. He occasionally teaches and writes about meditation. He received his first meditation training about 30 years ago. Ever since he learned and practiced various meditation techniques.

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