How to Stop Thinking
June 20th, 2007You may have looked at the title of this article and thought to yourself why would I want to know how to stop thinking, well the reason is when you stop thinking you can start doing. We all know when we start doing, things get done. However, by thinking too much we often delay what we have to get done or in the worst cases we think so much we actually think of reasons not to do it and then nothing gets done. Although thinking can of course be beneficial in so many ways, knowing how to stop thinking can be a very powerful personal tool.
Over the years I have often wondered how the stop thinking and after reading the Ekhart Tolle book The Power of Now I realized that by stopping the thought process I can get much more done in less time and have more peaceful periods to myself when I don’t think. Often by thinking too much we end up thinking ourselves into negativity and away from productivity. I found as I got a grip on the concept of how to stop thinking so much I would just start doing some of the things I once felt I needed to think about before I started to do. Let me give you a simple example. You are living in a high rise apartment and realize you have run out of milk for your morning breakfast cereal on your only day off this week. So you start thinking about having to get dressed, catching the elevator to the bottom floor, going for a walk to buy the milk, you think about the fact it has also started to rain and then you decide you just couldn’t be bothered and you will miss breakfast all together. However in the back of your mind you can’t relax because you are hungry and finally after a couple of wasted hours you finally decide to go and get the milk and eat breakfast. If you had given it no thought at all and simply got dressed and gotten the milk you would have started your day on a more positive note.
The example I just gave you is basic and insignificant on its own but when you live a life full of thinking moments like this you end up spending perhaps hours and hours every day wasting time. So many people live this way but you can change and become more productive in both your professional life and personal life when you understand how to stop thinking so much. Of course you will need to spend some of your time thinking but your main aim as far as how to stop thinking is concerned is to get yourself out of the habit of unproductive thinking and more towards a pro active mindset or just spend some time relaxing and rewinding without thinking.
The first step towards your goal of how to stop thinking so much is to first make time each day to sit down and relax. It doesn’t have to be for a long period in the beginning, you simply want to get started on creating a new habit. Try taking just 5 minutes a day, anyone can find a spare 5 minutes no matter how busy you are to sit down and relax. Your goal is to do nothing more than to stop thinking. It is a type of meditation but lets not call it meditation, lets just call it your stop thinking time for the sake of the exercise. Sit down whenever and where ever you have time, morning, lunch time or evening and just stop thinking. When I first started doing it I must say I found it kind of difficult as my mind always seemed to be thinking and would wander back to thinking almost immediately. So you need to focus on something so I decided to take the meditation technique of focusing on my breath without actually thinking about it. You will figure out what works for you when you try it. All I do is close my eyes so I cut down on outside stimulus that could cause me to think and sit in a relatively quiet area and focus on my breath, nothing else. When your mind wanders and it will wander, dont worry about it because that will just cause you to start thinking again, just get back to focusing on your breath, that’s all you have to do.
It is just like anything else, the more you do this exercise the better you will become at not thinking and in time as you master the art of how to stop thinking I bet you will start to get hooked on doing it. Even though I am much more proficient at being able to stop thinking at will than when I started, I am still not an expert, however, certain revelations seem to come to me while I am not thinking that are like answers to questions I have been subconsciously thinking about. It’s like magic in a way and I have no doubt that you will experience this to when you get in touch with how to stop thinking by spending quiet periods relaxing. Now I look forward to these short breaks through my day and on the weekends when I’m home alone I sit and stop thinking for longer periods and always feel rejuvenated after a stop thinking session.
As I have learned how to stop thinking and spend more time relaxed and just concentrating on my breath my subconscious mind has seemed to reveal some hidden secrets to me that have helped me to enjoy my life so much more completely. During periods where I have stopped thinking my mind has revealed to me many of the things I write about on this website and a few other websites I also work with. Often the answers to many of lifes questions are staring us in the face but we cannot see them because we spend so much time thinking and not enough time simply observing without thinking.
When you figure out how to stop thinking you may notice a slight sparkle reappear in your life and a fresh batch of creativity emerge. While we think too much we block our creativity by hanging on too tight to the things in our life. When we let go of the tight grip we have on the things and people around us we allow a fresh form of creative energy to wash over us. This has certainly been the case in my experience. I always felt like I needed a measure of control over the things around me but during my stop thinking sessions I now understand I don’t need to be in control I just need to be more observant and not think too much about the little things as most of what I once thought about only ever kept me restricted where as these days I feel much less restricted and ironically, more in control.
For people who are chronically depressed, anxious, moody or just unhappy it is imperative that you understand how to stop thinking since it is all of your thinking that has you angry and unhappy about the circumstances of your life. The answer to overcoming depression and anxiety is in your ability to stop thinking about it. When you spend more time not thinking you will begin to notice those nasty black clouds start to dissipate overhead and as you continue with your stop thinking sessions you will probably have wished you stopped thinking sooner, but when that happens be grateful and don’t think about it.
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July 17th, 2007 at 2:52 am
Thanks for reminding me of the miraculous benefits of meditating. I really want to meditate much more after reading your article. I have a copy of ‘The Power of Now’ at home but I have not got around to reading it. After hearing about your experiences with meditating I’m going to start reading right now!
July 19th, 2007 at 7:25 am
[…] Hill presents How to Stop Thinking posted at Universe Of […]
August 1st, 2007 at 6:41 pm
[…] Spend some time not thinking. Yes that is right, stop thinking so much. To do this I like to take a walk through the bush or away from the city and the noise. Go […]
September 29th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
[…] John Hill presents How to Stop Thinking posted at Universe Of Success[…]
October 5th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I recently felt I was overthinking and hurting my life doing so - especially socially. I decided to do something about it, so I went outside and just starting doing a simple exercise - walk from here to there without thinking anything. I got comfortable doing this, and felt much more controlled. Almost magically, I met somebody who I haven’t seen in a long time that happens to live in the same building. We went back to his room and he offered me pizza, where I got to be around his group of friends who I’d never met before. It’s a small step, but it’s convinced me that my intuition can be more powerful than my thoughts.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
i have suffered from depression for almost 2 years and i recently bought the book”stillness speaks” ,also author of power of now(gotta read that ) and I have come to realize that besides all my anger and sadness that has built up inside and caused me to become depressed with my weight and lifestyles, I need to let go and STOP THINKING. i just couldnt help but google for some sort of answer and im glad i came along and clicked this. I have tried sitting down with myself but the obsession of thinking negatively towards everything i have tried in my past seems to override any urge to get better. I will try hard to sit with myself but i find that when i concentrate on breathing like you said..i’m still doing some thinking..im concentrating! its like the cycle never ends…how do i go about that?
November 9th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
this is a reply for danielle - i have had the same experience as you and still do, tho now it is not so bad as it has been - there have been times when a single thought burns itself around in my mind..
so the only thing i have found to start with is to accept that for the moment your mind will continue to generate negative and self defeating thoughts - accept this but dont allow yourself to become emotionally attached to what those thoughts are saying - think of it as a radio that has been tuned to ‘negative fm’ if you like. those thoughts will continue to run around but let them pass through - wash over you , without becoming involved. remember -trying to ’stop’ them is becoming involved with them. in this way you begin to learn, or teach yourself that you are something other than simply the thoughts spinning around your conscious mind. you can notice of course that the thoughts are negative, but dont engage them or become involved with what they are saying emotionally.
another way is to imagine a candle flame - watch this in your mind , and while all the thoughts are swilling around in there - let them! - just keep your focus on the candle flame while they run their course
meditation is a means to step back and realise that we are not simply whatever our conscious mind is saying to us.
hope this helps a little xxxx
March 9th, 2009 at 7:14 am
I think this is GREAT! I have been meditating for a few years now but I have never heard it been called a “stop thinking session”!! I think it’s one of the funniest and uplifting things I have ever heard of!! Thanks for writing this article!!
June 26th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I suffer from terrible anxiety, I want to thank you so much for this I know it will help me. I love the term you coined, stop thinking session, that’s amazingly perfect.
I feel like I forget all the time that it’s all good, my mind is the cause of that.
Thank you
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I would like to share this cool story. This article enlightened me. The bulb is on above my head. OK, here’s the story: When I was in school I used to stress out about tests. I would cram when I did not have to, and even five minutes before tests. This would stress me out so much I would make bad grades on tests and sometimes not even finish tests in time. I told on of my profs. about this after getting an embarrassingly low grade on one of my tests. This man is brilliant. He told me to try doing something I really enjoy right before on of my tests. No study materials. Just me and my activity.
Here’s what I did. I showed up to all of his tests ten minutes early and sat in a secluded area with a soda. Nothing but myself a pencil and a soda. No books, no study notes, NOTHING. I was like the empty handed warrior.
I just sat there and felt the bubbles from my soda run across my tongue and down my throat. This was super calming and really did leave me thinkless. No dates, no historical events, no nothing.
Guess what? I made A’s on all of his tests and then started doing this with all of my tests, and yes making about 90% A’s on all future tests.
I forgot I used to do this. This article reminded me. I drink more water than sodas these days, but it’s worth a shot. I’ll get back to y’all with the findings.
Thanks,
Mike Guardiola
December 11th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Wow.. I really have to thank you for this. I was having so much trouble in my relationships, my professional life. Everywhere. Everything that I would do, would just cause chains upon chains of thoughts, almost always leading to what the ultimate negative result would be, so that I could anticipate how to handle the consequences that could come from possibly pursuing that venue.
Now, I noticed, while I read this article, I stopped thinking, I found myself happier, and more positive on a daily basis. I keep this article, among others you have written folded up in my pocket, and when I feel myself thinking too much about a situation, I just pull it out, and read it again.
This has been such an amazing tool, thank you for sharing your insight and knowledge.
Sincerely,
Travis Gerardi