Why the constant chatter in the mind?

Chatter in mind

“How hard it is to control the mind! Well, it has been compared to the maddened monkey. There was a monkey, restless by his own nature, as all monkeys are. As if that were not enough some one made him drink freely of wine, so that he became still more restless. Then a scorpion stung him. When a man is stung by a scorpion, he jumps about for a whole day; so the poor monkey found his condition worse than ever. To complete his misery a demon entered into him. What language can describe the uncontrollable restlessness of that monkey? The human mind is like that monkey, incessantly active by its own nature; then it becomes drunk with the wine of desire, thus increasing its turbulence. After desire takes possession comes the sting of the scorpion of jealousy at the success of others, and last of all the demon of pride enters the mind, making it think itself of all importance. How hard to control such a mind!” – Swami Vivekananda (Complete Works – Raja Yoga) 

This famous quote from Swami Vivekananda sums up the state of our mind – incessantly restless! There is constantly something or the other happening in the mind – thoughts, worries, anxieties, likes, dislikes, variety of emotions, negative feelings, positive feelings, planning, scheming …. and the list can go on. The change in the mind is continuous.

To understand what goes on in the mind, we need to start by realizing that every experience that we have in life gets stored in our memory bank. Each experience also gets labeled as – I like/dislike it; I love/hate it; I want/don’t want it; It is pleasant/unpleasant etc.  When we have a pleasurable experience, it leaves an impression in the mind along with a desire for a repeat of that experience. When a similar desire comes up, we repeat that experience. With every such repetition, the impression in the mind, called samskara, gets stronger and stronger. Now that becomes a natural response, and you may develop a craving for the same experience to happen on a repeated basis. When the need to consume some item becomes totally compulsive, we call that an addiction.

When we have an unpleasant experience, it leaves a negative impression in the mind along with a desire to avoid similar experience in the future. Now, when we have an experience which is “seemingly” similar to that unpleasant experience, but may be totally unconnected, we still want to habitually avoid that experience.

Some possible causes

Let’s look at some possible scenarios which can lead to this constant barrage of thoughts in the mind.

Six enemies of the mind (shad-ripu)

In a previous article, I talked about the six commonly mentioned enemies of the mind:

• kāma (lust/craving)
• Krodha (anger)
• Lobha (greed)
• Moha (delusion)
• Mada (arrogance, vanity)
• mātsarya (jealousy) 

In many situations, an experience caused either by an external event (say, a dispute with the spouse), or by pulling something from the memory (an event that may have caused pain in the past) can cause one or more of these six emotions to erupt in the mind. Once triggered, these emotions can spiral into more negative thoughts caused either by digging deeper into the past or projecting into the future. Essentially, we are unable to stay focused on the present moment while the chain of thoughts continues to circle in our mind. Please read this article to learn more about these six negative emotions. 

Unresolved conflicts in the mind

Conflicts and concerns can be caused through personal relationships with family and friends, situations at work, any competitive sport that you may be involved in and many similar situations. These conflicts can range from a minor difference of opinion to major disputes leading to lawsuits, aggressive confrontations, physical abuse etc. Once triggered, they can have a spiraling effect and occupy the mind for long periods of time. 

Depression, anxiety and stress

Any one of these emotional states of the mind can cause a loss of self-esteem, self-confidence and lead to constant worry, guilt feelings, a sense of dejection etc. When the mind is in such a state, it repetitively goes through the same scenario that caused the anxiety or stress in the first place. This, of course, only aggravates the situation further making it even harder to pull out of the situation. 

“Modern” lifestyle

Let’s say we are deeply focused on preparing the final report of the project just completed at work. Suddenly we receive a message on whatsapp about a “must see”/ “not to be missed” video and we get distracted away from our work. Once there, we get pulled into other similar messages and eventually it’s time for a cup of coffee and we end up missing the deadline for submission of our report. As we can imagine, missing the deadline will be a cause for more stress and anxiety and the circle goes on. 

Not knowing how to calm the mind

As we know, practices like yoga, including all its aspects – asana, pranayama and meditation – are techniques that are known to help still the mind. Like learning any new skill, how to calm the mind is also a skill that takes some time and effort to learn. Having learned the basic techniques, it requires regular practice to achieve the desired results. 

How can yoga help in stilling the mind? 

If you recall, the very definition of yoga according to Patanjali (sutra 1.2) ¹ is “the ability to calm the fluctuations of the mind is defined as yoga”. To help achieve the goal of yoga, he has provided us with the eight limbs of yoga, commonly known as “Ashtanga Yoga”. You can read a brief introduction to the eight limbs of yoga on my blog here. From a practical point of view, the three most important components of yoga practice include asana (physical postures), pranayama (breathing techniques) and meditation. As we know, most people tend to practice the asana part of the eight limbs as their yoga practice. Practicing asanas will no doubt make the body stronger and more flexible. However, to still the constant chatter in the mind, the other two limbs – pranayama and meditation – play a more important role than just the practice of asana. In fact, in terms of priority, Patanjali recommends giving the highest priority to meditation, then pranayama and finally asanas. So, when the goal is to still the mind, while allocating time for our yoga practice, we need to allocate time for meditation and pranayama in preference to asanas. 

Here are a few other ideas to help calm the mind:

Burning the emotional backlog

This is a powerful practice. First you need to create what can be called a “thought dump” of everything that’s occupying your mind at a given time. On a piece of paper, try to write down the most dominant thoughts and emotions. Then make an effort to write down what could have caused that emotion. As you go deeper into the cause of these thoughts, you might even dive into your past and write down all that seems related to the current emotion. You will need to do this for all the thoughts that are prominent in your mind.

Having written everything that came to mind related to a thought, you need to read it aloud to yourself. While doing this reading, some other thoughts may come up which again you need to add to the writeup. Read once again the final writeup aloud to yourself. Having finished the reading, you need to burn that piece of paper, symbolically getting rid of your emotional backlog. This will give you a feeling of lightness and give a deep sense of mental relief. This exercise will help you loosen the hold that these deep-seated emotions have on you and keep coming back to haunt you all the time.

Engage in self-care

Going for long nature walks, listening to music that you enjoy, spending time in some kind of a hobby or activity that will keep your mind focused and engaged for a period of time, spending time with close friends and family members etc.

Minimize distractions

As and when convenient, stay away from social media, phone, TV and any other such activities that can stimulate and distract your mind.

Keep in mind that attaining a state of mind that is calm and peaceful is a slow, gradual process. Of the suggestions made above, pick those that seem to resonate most with you. Establishing a set daily routine will be helpful in “getting there” quicker.

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[Note 1]: योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः॥२॥ 
yogaś-citta-vr̥tti-nirodhaḥ ॥1.2॥ 

“The restraint of the modifications of the mind-field is Yoga.”