~ Working with Repetitive Thoughts ~
If you anything like me, sometimes your mind is filled with repetitive thoughts. Thoughts that repeat themselves over and over again and then proliferate into emotions, which get progressively stronger as my mind goes around and around in circles.
Repetitive thoughts can be very frustrating and they are rarely beneficial. Although it can be good to allow yourself the time and space to think about things that are important, when thoughts repeat themselves over and over again it's not helpful. Most of my repetitive thoughts are negative. They narrow and constrict my mind, reducing options and possibilities, and limiting creativity and imagination. And if left unchecked, repetitive thoughts drag me down into a spiral of worry and anxiety.
So if you find yourself stuck in repetitive thoughts, you might want to try working with this unhelpful pattern. One way of doing this is called mental noting. This is the practice of gently and silently naming to yourself whatever you are experiencing. It can take a while to learn but with practice, it can become second nature.
The practice of mental noting interrupts repetitive thoughts and gives the mind something else to do. It does this by changing our thinking so it becomes very simple and basic, rather than letting it stay caught up in repetition. In contrast to much of our thinking, noting is not discursive or conceptual. It does not involve analysis or judgment. Rather, we give our current experience a simple one-word name. For example, if you notice a sound you might say silently to yourself “hearing”. Other common sensory mental names include seeing, touching, and feeling. You can also name the quality of your sensory experiences, such as warmth, coolness, loud, quiet, soft, hard, and so on.
You can also note when you are thinking. Thinking can be named simply as thinking. Or you can be more precise and note the type of thinking - wanting, planning, resisting, and the like. As well, you can name emotions. For example, fear, sadness, grief as well as happiness, joy, or excitement.
It's important that any naming is gentle and kind. It is not a judgement or a criticism; it is simply acknowledging an experience. Usually, a specific name is repeated until the experience being noted disappears, is sufficiently acknowledged, or is no longer predominant.
In addition to interrupting repetitive thoughts, noting practice has many other benefits. One is that it keeps you in the present moment. The mind is less likely to wander off, if one keeps up a steady stream of relaxed noting. And when the mind does wander, noting practice can make it easier to reestablish mindfulness. Another benefit of noting practice is that when we can calmly name what is happening in our experience, we are less likely to get caught up in emotional reactions. With noting, it becomes easier to maintain a non-reactive form of attention. It also helps us become more familiar with our actual experience and to identify patterns in our thinking, which in turn leads insight into our beliefs, assumptions and expectations about life.
If you try this practice, don't think about how to name your experience - simply see if a name arises in your awareness. And if one doesn't appear, it's OK. If you spend time and mental energy trying to come up with a name, then noting becomes a discursive practice that will take you out of the experience. Instead, stay with the actual experience as much as possible and simply observe any name that offers itself up. So please experiment with noting practice and see if it helps you to interrupt repetitive thoughts. You may find that how you do it changes over time and in different circumstances. For example, sometimes you may want to name your experience more precisely than at others. Sometimes you may want the naming to be gentler or softer than at others.
Even if you aren't having any repetitive thoughts right now, why not take a few moments and try some noting practice? What do you have to lose?
Repetitive thoughts can be very frustrating and they are rarely beneficial. Although it can be good to allow yourself the time and space to think about things that are important, when thoughts repeat themselves over and over again it's not helpful. Most of my repetitive thoughts are negative. They narrow and constrict my mind, reducing options and possibilities, and limiting creativity and imagination. And if left unchecked, repetitive thoughts drag me down into a spiral of worry and anxiety.
So if you find yourself stuck in repetitive thoughts, you might want to try working with this unhelpful pattern. One way of doing this is called mental noting. This is the practice of gently and silently naming to yourself whatever you are experiencing. It can take a while to learn but with practice, it can become second nature.
The practice of mental noting interrupts repetitive thoughts and gives the mind something else to do. It does this by changing our thinking so it becomes very simple and basic, rather than letting it stay caught up in repetition. In contrast to much of our thinking, noting is not discursive or conceptual. It does not involve analysis or judgment. Rather, we give our current experience a simple one-word name. For example, if you notice a sound you might say silently to yourself “hearing”. Other common sensory mental names include seeing, touching, and feeling. You can also name the quality of your sensory experiences, such as warmth, coolness, loud, quiet, soft, hard, and so on.
You can also note when you are thinking. Thinking can be named simply as thinking. Or you can be more precise and note the type of thinking - wanting, planning, resisting, and the like. As well, you can name emotions. For example, fear, sadness, grief as well as happiness, joy, or excitement.
It's important that any naming is gentle and kind. It is not a judgement or a criticism; it is simply acknowledging an experience. Usually, a specific name is repeated until the experience being noted disappears, is sufficiently acknowledged, or is no longer predominant.
In addition to interrupting repetitive thoughts, noting practice has many other benefits. One is that it keeps you in the present moment. The mind is less likely to wander off, if one keeps up a steady stream of relaxed noting. And when the mind does wander, noting practice can make it easier to reestablish mindfulness. Another benefit of noting practice is that when we can calmly name what is happening in our experience, we are less likely to get caught up in emotional reactions. With noting, it becomes easier to maintain a non-reactive form of attention. It also helps us become more familiar with our actual experience and to identify patterns in our thinking, which in turn leads insight into our beliefs, assumptions and expectations about life.
If you try this practice, don't think about how to name your experience - simply see if a name arises in your awareness. And if one doesn't appear, it's OK. If you spend time and mental energy trying to come up with a name, then noting becomes a discursive practice that will take you out of the experience. Instead, stay with the actual experience as much as possible and simply observe any name that offers itself up. So please experiment with noting practice and see if it helps you to interrupt repetitive thoughts. You may find that how you do it changes over time and in different circumstances. For example, sometimes you may want to name your experience more precisely than at others. Sometimes you may want the naming to be gentler or softer than at others.
Even if you aren't having any repetitive thoughts right now, why not take a few moments and try some noting practice? What do you have to lose?
