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How do you stop thinking?

as RATM quite distinctly put it...

"a fucking bullet to the head!"

ok, all silliness aside

i represent all my thoughts as white dots...
once i am happy that I have only the important white dots...
i concentrate on only one at a time...
reinforcing myself that I am looking at a white dot...
if i do this right, it disappears...
i repeat this process until all the white dots are gone...
then my mind tells me that there are no longer any white dots...
and then slip into my "no thought zone"
its a surreal place...
its nothing...
only external forces can kick me back out again...
time means nothing in there...
 
heh. thinking about wasting time thinking can be a problem. by this, i meant, realize that you're thinking... and go do something instead. Essentially, you need to act like a stupid person who never spends time thinking.

thinking doesn't offer everyone eternal freedom. what if your brain's capacity and potential stops just under that ellusive freedom? then you end up feeling very confused and unhappy all the time... in all obvious ways, you're worse off for the time spent questioning the paradigms that used to run your life perfectly smoothly.

my grandpa believes the bible in its most literal interperations... and has no problem trying to rationlize or determine how to feel or act or react to the stimulus he encounters in life. he has very black and white answers for everything. I think this is the true beauty of 'not-thinking.' Everything has a face value -- and that's all it has.

I used to be able to decide my actions based on whether or not something was 'good' or 'evil.' I have a huge list of rationalizations for not stealing from people based on the economic considerations of myself versus society. It took me months to reach, and is not more satisifying then choosing not to steal because it's 'wrong.'

Maybe I'm not thinking 'the right way' though. But right now, a life devoted to -getting- pleasures seem so much more enjoyable than a life spent -understanding- why and how certain activities are pleasurable and whether or not pleasure should be an ultimate goal. Does this make sense to anyone? This is why I'm a lazydullard and want to help the OP become one too (if that's what they're looking for). I just want to drink a beer and not worry about why I'm drinking a beer. Writing this post antagonized me greatly -- by all obvious measures, I'm wasting time when I could go play video games or look at porn. But I wanted to see if maybe one of the smarter people I was talking about examined 'not-thinking' like this as a way of living and has good feedback.

maybe i can summarize it like this: "there are no answers, so why look for them?"
 
Well, in order for YOU to stop thinking, it would make sense to begin by taking the YOU out of the equation first, no?
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maybe whenever i am doing this i can actually point inwards and ask who really is thinking? maybe that will kill all thoughts... if i constantly ask myself but who is thinking these thoughts? just to develop awareness...

There is a certain point of awareness that is totally seperate from thinking


I need to develop a method to destroy all thoughts all together... sounds like meditation actually? but do its effects last long?


there are no answers why look for them
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That is very true.... I feel like there only IS .......... there is no answer there just IS
 
Ham-milton said:
I have to disagree. Thinking is a conscious act. You do it deliberately. You have the ability to control your thoughts.

You are the cause of your thinking. You are the end to your thinking as well.
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How do you know this? How do you know thought is caused by humans, and not something received by humans?
 
Yes: do stuff. Be with friends, real people, real life. People think when they're alone, it's our nature. If you don't value it it's probably because you do too much of it. Try some activities that will help you cut down.
 
How do you know this? How do you know thought is caused by humans, and not something received by humans?
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lex parsimoniae, or Occam's Razor? I think if you're thinking that thought is being received, perhaps Abilify can set you straight ;)

We either accept that we can control what our thoughts are or we accept that we're incapable of any sort of self control, or that we're really just machines having our thoughts beamed into us from somewhere (I guess...).

The first seems far more plausible.

I wholeheartedly agree with negrogesic, above, though.
 
i was just about to start a new thread because i have the same problem. its worst at night, god its so bad at night i just cant relax.
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From personal experience, some of this night time thinking comes from knowing that something is pending, i.e. you have a big exam coming up, you need to pay an important bill, a friend/family is sick, etc. etc.

Sometimes I'll lie in bed with the same problem, thoughts, ideas and anxieties racing through my head. I'll get to the point where I have to stop thinking random thoughs and think about why I'm thinking random thoughts.
I look at everything in turn and ask myself - Is there anything I can do about the problem there and then, in that moment.

Chances are, in the middle of the night, there is nothing you can do about it. If for example, you have a bill nagging you that you can take care of, then get the hell up, pay it online and be done with it... If something is keeping you up that you are able to take care of then get the hell out of bed and take care of it - You're not gonna sleep anyway!

90% of the time, I realise that theres nothing I can do until the morning anyway. There - You just answered your own problem - There is nothing you can do until the morning!... After that I resign myself to the fact that I'll take care of it first thing in the morning, and I sleep better after that.
 
frustration

i have noticed having the exact same problem lately.
i can't pay attention in school because i'm off on my own thought trails or am thinking more about why the teacher is acting a certain way than what she is saying.
I can't watch movies because i'll hear one line and start thinking about the actor, or the person who wrote the line, or what the line means when in reference to society.

this problem seems is intensified when im high and when i trip i'm constantly trying to figure out how to put my mind at peace.
 
benzos help keep your thoughts focussed so not all over the place - try valium or xanax but not the solution to everything - depends on how bad the thoughts are impacting your life
 
There are a lot of things you can try, here are a couple.

Mantras are good. Instead of thinking just focus on a humming noise or repeat a phrase like "ommm" in your mind. Another idea is counting. Count your breath up to 10 and start over. And yet another is focusing on the "pause" between breaths when you switch between inhale/exhale.

These are all meditation tricks. They work extremely well for stopping "thoughts" but you can't do these kinds of things while focusing in a class or on a movie or whatever. You can't stop thinking about things if you're paying attention to anything. It's just the way our minds work.

However, meditating and doing the things I said above during times in your life when you don't have to pay attention (passenger in car, laying in bed at night, etc) can calm your everyday life down and slow down those frantic thoughts you describe and return your consciousness to a more relaxed state.
 
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