How To Shut Off Your Brain

Science-Backed Tips To Stop Thinking And Relax

If your like me, you sometimes have a difficult time shutting off the chatter that’s racing through your brain.

Mindfulness is everywhere. Mantras adorn everything from food cartons to T-shirts, while office culture has started borrowing from yoga teachers to bring these techniques into the workplace. It a billion dollar industry hallmarked by pleasant phrase and nice ideas: Empty you mind. Focus on the present. Quiet the voice in your head. Respect your inner child.

Simple, right? in the face of life’s curveballs, no amount of meditation or therapy will stop some people’s brains from tipping into overdrive. I know it doesn’t work for me. You might know the phenomenon yourself.

When adversity strikes, humans tend to turn inward to work through the problem. But if we don’t quickly find a solution, our thought patterns go awry, creating a negative feedback loop where one confusing thought leads to another and so on like a nightmare spiral staircase leading you down the brains darker paths,

This distinct and sometimes destabilizing phenomenon is called CHATTER. Chatter undermines our work performance, causes friction in relationships, and jeopardizes our mental and physical health, and keeps us from getting sleep. But there is a better way.

What Is Brain Chatter?

Most of the time, our inner voices serves us well; we can work through a problem and move on. But, sometimes we find that we access the inner voice and we start getting stuck, and it turns in chatter.

There is a psychologist and professor at the University of Michigan who studies emotions and self-control. And the author of “The voice in Our Head, Why it Matters, and How to Harness it.”

Chatter, Kross explains arises most often when you find yourself perseveration on a problem. “You can’t stop thinking about a problem and the way you’re thinking about it isn’t improving the way that you actually feel and doesn’t allow you to move on with your life.” Kross says.

Common and maddening, chatter isn’t unstoppable. According to Kross there are some simple techniques that can help you master your inner voice and keep chatter at bay.

Is Mental Chatter Bad For You?

On any given day, people have approximately 6,000 individual thoughts. This human ability to introspect is a crucial evolutionary advantage, enabling people to process complex information, better store memories and make split-second decisions.

Our minds evolved to travel in time – to be able to reflect on the past or anticipate the future. Kross says, the ability to do that flexibly is a remarkable asset of the human condition.

These thought patterns make up what some people, call the “inner voice.”

This silent internal dialogue is vitally important to our ability to solve problems, cultivate a sense of self, and understand our place in the world. But our inner coach can become out inner critic. This toxicity is perhaps most apparent in situations where we find ourselves up at 2:00 AN ruminating on a awkward run in, for example, or unable to focus on the task at hand because we’re mulling over a life decision.

You’re worrying, you’re ruminating, you’re catastrophizing, and the key is you really are turning a problem over and over. But you’re not making any progress toward solving it,

Chronic and persistent chatter – also known as repetitive negative thinking – has been linked to anxiety and depression, as well as the tendency to experience u wanted intrusive thoughts or have low levels of mindfulness.

“Chatter consumes our attention,” Kross says, making it difficult to think and preform.

Chatter isn’t only an internal problem. It can also harm our relationships by causing us to displace negative emotions onto others, or simply, overwhelm people with out outward negativity,

Whiles it’s often a natural impulse to vent to others when we are stuck in a chatter loop, doing so doesn’t always deliver the relief we seek. Talking about our thought spirals with a friend can become external continuations of our internal fulminations.

Chatter can drive stress, and that puts our physical health at stake. Chronic stress can surprises the immune system, increase the risk of medical conditions like diabetes, stomach ulcers, hearth disease, and worse.

How To Tame Your Inner Voice

There’s no magic bullet that will quell chatter when it bubbles up every time, Kross says. But there are straightforward actions you can take to mitigate the phenomenon.

One of the reasons why chatter feels so bad is it’s all-consuming and you feel trapped. Kross explains. You’re not in control and just zooming out to recognize that, as bad as it is, you’re going to feel better tomorrow or next week. That gives hope, which is really powerful.

Every individual can develop a personal “cocktails of tools,” For anyone feeling stuck in a negative thought look, Kross recommends trying the following tricks.

Broaden Your Perspective

“Chatter zooms us in on the problem and makes it hard for us to think rationally or objectively.” To reset our perspective try giving yourself advise as you would a friend or colleague, or using “distanced self-talk.” Speak to yourself (out loud or in your head) using a second or third person pronoun to coach yourself through a situation or problem.

Think Long Term

One of the best ways to cut through chatter is to use “temporal distancing.” Imagine whether a situation or issue at hand will still bother you in a month, year, decade. Typically, the answer is no, and this future forecasting can put problems in context, reminding you that most issues are temporary even if the feel permanent.

Reorient Your Surroundings

When you can’t stop spiraling, take a walnut outside, cleans your home, work out, or switch activities. Sometimes the best thing is to distract yourself- then refocus. While this may no be possible when you cannot sleep, in this case try getting up and reading, or make yourself some tea and then refocus.

Check-In With A Chatter Buddy

Even though it can feel good in the moment sessions don’t often lead to concrete solutions. Instead of spewing your thought like a fire house to each person you encounter m consult a few trusted buddies who can broaden your perspective.

Importantly, remember you aren’t alone in experiencing chatter however maddening it may be,

Just because you experience chatter doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. On the contrary, it just means you’re doing just fine as a human.

Are You Loyal To Your Soul?

At the very center of who we are, lies our soul. This is the truly special part of what makes you, you. Your soul is not tangible, however, that doesn’t mean that we cannot feel the unseen. To be able to gain access, it has to be felt through deep levels of love. To be loyal to your soul means, just that, remaining faithful to the deepest part of you, and you only.

Whether intentional, or not, people pull energy from us that often drains our loyalty. This can happen even in the most cherished of connections: pouring all of yourself into the loyalty of others can lead to neglected your own spirit, your own love, and ultimately, the deep understanding of your own self.

In order to truly entwine with another soy, you must be loyal to yourself first. The first and most important level of deep loyalty is to your own soul. Once this has been filled, and on,y then, is it okay. To move to another. Think about how easily we are to become angry, sad, or even loved. Without a solid foundation, your loyalty can easily be manipulated, drained, or abused.

Much like the energy the emanates from us; a soul can be felt moving through us. It can be felt the most with growth, I’ve felt it at different stages of life.

Remaining loyal to your soy, will require deep conversations with yourself about courage. You will have to come to an honest understanding that yo-yo will have to separate everything else in life I. Order to fully develop who you are, and how your soul speaks. Loving yourself is a great step, a required step, but loyalty to yourself is the ultimate goal.

Loyalty to my soul assure as the earth moves and the water falls. I will remain loyal to me. When the world appears to be at a complete standstill and in the midst of chaos and you don’t feel like another day is reachable; dig deep into your soul.

Be unapologetic in allowing you soul to live through you, teach through you and love through you. Allow your soul to grow, and remain committed to that growth. It may require sacrifice, distance, and complete change; but there is no one that will ever be more devoted to you, than you.

Your souk is such a special part of who you are. It’s the unseen; it’s only felt through deep levels of love. Being loyal to your soul simply means just that being loyal to the deep parts of you and only you

People pull from us and we tend to shift our loyalty to the soul of others and neglect our spirit, our own love, our own understanding to oneself.

How can you love and truly and not be loyal to you, your soul first. Our own soul must feel the first level of deep loyalty and love before you move to another.

Being loyal to your soul takes deep amounts of courage. You have to have the ability to separate everything else in life to do this very task. Loving yourself is one stage. Loyalty to yourself is a entirely different energy.

Loyal to my soul, as the earth movs and the water falls. I will be loyal. When the world seems to be to much and your world around you looks as if your stuck and can seem to see another day, my soul is loyal. Only you know me soul. Only you see me for me. I will remain loyal to you and allow you to live through me teach me and love me.

Chasing Happiness

I’ve spent most of my life chasing happiness.

I used to react to my negative feelings like a game of whack-a-mole pushing them down inside my soul as quickly as possible.

Eventually, I learned the truth about emotions. They are simply vibrations in the body caused by neurochemicals generated by our thoughts,

  • My disappointment was not because I didn’t reach my goal.
  • My frustration was not because I didn’t have enough hours in the day.
  • My unhappy was not because I was missing something.

It was because my brain was offering me unhelpful thoughts that created those unpleasant feelings. When I really understood my emotions and what was causing them, it changed everything.

I learned how to process my emotions instead of judging and numbing then. I made space to feel them instead of resisting them. I was curious about how I was creating then instead of making them mean something was wrong with me. I stopped my numbing behavior like emotional shopping, or eating.

Feelings play a bigger role that you might realize. They are the drivers of our life.

Because when negative emotions are not the problem. Nothing hold your back and that’s true freedom.

Chasing happiness only leaves us feeling unhappier. Why?

Because there is a familiar feeling that accompanies chasing happiness. The chase for happiness, only makes you wanting more of that feel good feeling. And we end up feeling overwhelmed and anxious.

The pressure to be happy all the time can take a toll on us. Our brains tell us “try this, it will make you happy.” It’s like a vicious rollercoaster. The truth is we really don’t understand what happiness is. Societal misunderstanding have fed us a lot of pressure and anxiety surrounding discussions about happiness, so making happiness an end goal can leave us feeling frustrated and unfulfilled.

It results is chasing happiness out of our lives, instead of letting this blissful feeling in. We can be so busy looking for something else we don’t recognize when happiness hits. The societal misunderstanding are myth surrounding happiness that we have accepted for far to long.

Focus on what you have instead of what you don’t have. On what right in your world instead of what’s wrong. On where you’re going instead of what you’ve been through.

How To Begin A Daily Quiet Time With The Lord

I often have people ask me how I find time to be quiet with the Lord. It really isn’t complicated as we make it out to be. The main thing is simply to do some, but in case you are of those still wanting to but not sure how.

Do you know what quiet time is? It is fellowship with God. The reason that so e people do not have quiet time is that they feel uncomfortable. They don’t want to look God in the face because there is I confessed unrepented, sin in their life. Quiet time allows us to seen out God in a way that reveals truths.

What did Adam do after he sinned and God came walking in the garden? Adam fled. Before that, Adan had quiet time alone with God, didn’t he! They conversed. They combined. It was paradise. But when Adam sinned, he did not want to look God in the face,

When Moses went into God’s presence God said, “Draw not nigh hither: take off your shoes from your feet for the place you stand is holy ground. Moreover He said, “I am the God of your Fathetm the God if Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; forge was afraid to look upon God,” God cannot be in the presence of sin been He is Holy.

If you find a reflectance to go into the presence of God, there may be unconfessed unrepented sin in your life. If you say “I don’t have the time” take even 5 minutes to pray. Part of our quiet time is to get our hearts clean and pure. Each of us needs to take ourselves by the nape of the necks and confess and repent before we come into God’s Holy presence to fellowship. Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,

Here are some easy steps to begin a daily quiet time:

Find A Place

Pick a definite place where you will be every day for your quiet time. It should be as free from detractions as possible. This place will soon be very comfortable with to you.

Schedule A Time

Pick a reasonable amount of time and put it on your schedule. If you use your cell phone or electronic calendar like I do, you can set it to repeat the appointment everyday. Start with 15 minutes. The key at this point is consistently, so make sure you don’t burden yourself with something you will not do. It most likely seem like a sacrifice at first, but keep the objective in mind. You need this. As you accomplish discipline in a little time it will be easier to increase the time you spend.

The Format

Decide basically how you will structure your quiet time. You may ask first what you hope to achieve and base your format around that. If developing intimacy with God in prayer is your goal, then certainly choose to spend more time in prayer. If Bible knowledge is your goal, then you may want to choose to do a Bible study. I so enjoy doing a good Bible study. Pick something you want to know about and then dig into the Bible for answers. You can change the format over time and do combinations of each of these.

When I was a new Christian the pastor of my church told me, if I didn’t know what to study to take the Bible and open it and study what is on that page. It may seem silly, but it works and you will be blessed. Naturally you can’t do this on your cell-phone or computer.

Activities

Decide what you will specifically do in your time. Will you do a Bible study or simply read Scripture and pray? If your time is 15 minutes, for example you could spend 6 minutes talking to God ; 2 minutes in silence, asking God to speak to you; and 4 minutes writing your thoughts at that time. The goal is not to be mechanical or punch a clock here, but rather to provide structure, which will lead to productivity in building your God relationship. Don’t worry as much about what activities you are doing at this point, just do something.

Discipline

Commit to doing something consistently for at least 39 days. Every day… without exception… do it at the same time every day. Again, it will require sacrifice. Habits and lifestyle form this way and you’ll need this discipline, because as soon as you attempt this dozens of obstacles will stand in your way.

As a new Christian I used to think quiet time with God had to be done every morning. I had a difficult time with this time I am not really a morning person. Quiet time with God can be any time as long as you are consistent.

Forming this time will not be easy. Nothing of value is ever easy. The main objective for any of us, including pastors, is disciplining ourselves to do something everyday. Over time, it becomes a habit that is easily repeated. Even better,nit will soon become the best and most productive part of you day.

Reasons To Stop Complaining

Up until recently, I’ve noticed I have gotten into the habit of complaining about everything. Yes I’m a complainer.

And it wasn’t until recently I noticed how annoying and useless it was. All I was doing was dragging myself down. Because when you complain, you’re not solving the problem, but you’re making it seem bigger than it really is.

Sometimes, some things are just out of our control and we have to just let them be.

But other times when you can do something ablution, it’s best to just detach yourself from the situation a bit until you can gain some clarity on the situation and start taking action.

The reason why I complained so much was because I’ve been taking a family member to work for a couple months now, I have received no Compensation for this, which I would need but now that gas prices are through the roof it taking a toll on my finances. I have been acting like a victim and even more do I feel like a victim. I realized today that I’ve grown weary of my goodness. Complaining about something makes you feel stuck, hopeless and trapped. Like it’s out of your hands.

But it’s not.

You are not stuck, hopeless or trapped. You may feel that way, because you choose to be.

The next time I take this person to work, I’m asking for gas money. Family member or not. I feel like I’m being taken advantage of.

You can’t expect to talk circles around it until things get better. You have to make better and I think that’s the hard part.

When you’ve played the victim role your whole life. It’s really hard to get out of it. (speaking from experience). But until you do, you’re just going to keep running on the hamster wheel complaining. Saying “Why does this always happen to me?”

The truth is things like this happen it everyone, but you’re so focused on yourself that you think it’s only happening to you.

I’ve found that the most effective way to stop complaining is the next time something happens and you’re about to tell someone, don’t. Don’t tell anyone. I’m not saying to bottle out all your emotions, But let yourself cool off for of hours or days. If you can’t (or won’t )find a solution to what your complaints are, then just let everything be.

And it’s going to be real hard to do this at first, especially since we live in an era of instant gratification.

When we complain, we want to feel validated. We want someone to say “Oh yeah. Your pain is so horrible’ and so the next time something happens, we want someone to agree with how horrible our ,Ives are which ironically you end up attracting more of,

The more you complain, the more horrible your life in going to seem. We attract more of the energy we’re sending out into the world and whatever energy we’re allowing in, that’s what we’re going to attract is negative energy.

Here are Some great reasons why you should stop complaining:

It Takes Up Time

This coyote be time spent coming up with a solution, taking action, and working on more important things. When we complain we’re spending not only our time, but also our energy and attention. If you haven’t noticed yes, we on,y have so much time, energy and attention in the day.

Misery Loves Company

When people complain about how much do you hate your jobs after work, it’s hard to be a person that loves her job. Or even likes her job. Do you really want to spend 40 hours a week hating your life and spent 10 hours a week talking about how much you hate your job? Even in my case complaining that someone is not giving me a couple bucks for gas cans in time, I have learned in some cases just ask maybe they don’t realize that you were complaining to others about them. It seems ridiculous and silly to complain.Even over simple things I have a few bucks for gas.

You Can Get Addicted To Feeling Bad

We get to where we live playing victim. I used to be that person, and here I am complaining about something simply but can turn into something bigger if I don’t stop complaining. Negativity is really addicting and I can tell you it’s not fun being empowered and hopeless. Take action and empowering yourself to be better seriously. You don’t have to live life a certain way because someone else told you this it’s just the way life is. Life is literally what you choose to make it out to be.

Why Did This Happen, God?

As Christians, we will often say that we trust God, but in reality, we trust in the plan we think God should follow. And then when our lives take shocking turns so far from our expectations, our foundations shake. Our peace evaporates. And everything in us wants to run and hide and stop trusting God.

This is where we find Elijah in 1 Kings 19:1-5. God has just used Elijah to prove to the nation of Israel that He’s the one true God in a miraculous and powerful way. Elijah must have been on a natural high seeing God do what he expected God to do.

But how quickly Elijah’s absolute trust in God evaporates with one death threat from Jezebel. Verse 3 tells us that Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. His desperation came from unmet expectations. Elijah assumed Jezebel’s reign would come to an end after the dramatic deliverance of the Lord. Yet, that was not the outcome, and in that place of unfulfilled expectation, fear ultimately crumbled his faith.

Even though Elijah experienced the miracle on Mount Carmel, he still succumbs to the fear of persecution. Elijah flees into the wilderness, and falls short in terms of both faith and affection for the Lord. Even so, the Lord deals graciously and gently with Elijah, drawing him close with a whisper and giving him instruction of what to do next.

God didn’t fix things the way Elijah thinks they should be fixed but He does lead them, and He leads him back through the wilderness (verse 15). That’s often where God takes His people to teach them His perspective that blooms into deeper faith.

The Lord gives Elijah a second chance to face the same struggles before he ran and hid, except this time it’s the right perspective and faith. Elijah sees God’s plan is good even if it isn’t the way Elijah would have done it, And the same is true for us. God’s plans don’t have to match our plans for then to still be good.

Whatever life comes are thrown at us that seem unfair, unreasonable or hurtful, beyond what we can bear, let God whisper His truth that He is good. He is good to you. And He is good at being God.