How Do You Turn Off Your Mind

[Nixie]

Pardon if this is the wrong place.

I have trouble turning my thoughts off when I want to relax and rest.

I also have a lot of trouble with balancing, "going out my feet" (whatever that is, my sister always said this to me) and centering.

What are some things you have found that Calm your mind?

 

[Linda Loo]

ASMR videos, yoga, tao te ching

 

[Scientia]

Exercise, love, and forgiveness. Forgiving others is easier but the more difficult task is forgiving myself for being human. Apparently, I expect much more from myself and it keeps me up at night.

 

[Kgal]

Pardon if this is the wrong place.

I have trouble turning my thoughts off when I want to relax and rest.

I also have a lot of trouble with balancing, "going out my feet" (whatever that is, my sister always said this to me) and centering.

What are some things you have found that Calm your mind?

I don't know if it's similar to your sister's advice but I purposefully connect my 1st energy center/root chakra to the earth magnetic core and as I do this I see/envision energy flowing down my legs through the soles of my feet and traveling on down.

I noticed in the last two days a surge of mind activity energy in me. It sort of felt like someone added momentum to an already spinning wheel. Today I finally feel calmed down.

I listen to repetitive instrumental music designed to calm the mind down. I also do yoga breathing techniques along with Toning sounds and humming. Now that I think about it Humming seems the most effective. The trick for me is slowing my mind down long enough to remember that tool.
I wish you success.

 

[Rit4lin]

Whilst it might sound a bit backwards, I find playing strategy games helps me wind down. Or even when I study for Uni, or to learn Portuguese. Or doing a puzzle.

Basically anything that forces me to focus solely on one thing, to stop myself from suddenly getting distracted by something as menial as a passing butterfly.

 

[Linda Loo]

Exercise, love, and forgiveness. Forgiving others is easier but the more difficult task is forgiving myself for being human. Apparently, I expect much more from myself and it keeps me up at night.

I like this answer very much.

 

[aeon]

Walk in nature, music, ironing, lorazepam, taking care of leather goods, ritual of making coffee, dextroamphetamine sulfate, a wee dram of single malt, shaving with a double-edge safety razor, giving a massage to my sweetie, two Cosmos, interacting with docile animals, breathing exercises, having a couple of orgasms.

Cheers,
Ian

 

[Impact Character]

"going out my feet" (whatever that is, my sister always said this to me)

Wow that is one weird phrase! I'm not a native speaker.. Is that supposed to mean some sort of grounding thing? Or over-exhausting yourself to pass out or something?
Here in Germany many people tend to say that they just function until they break or work until they pass out - basically having no time to ruminate. But I sincerely doubt that this is something useful for every type.

I think an important question might be: How long are you already not resting and not processing until you have trouble doing the previous...?

It might help to spend some time writing down your thoughts on a regular basis to even out and balance, in case you are not already doing that...?

 

[John K]

I have trouble turning my thoughts off when I want to relax and rest.

It depends just how insistent are the thoughts and in what circumstances they bother you. For everyday, the best way I've found short-term is distraction - that places all my attention on something else and removes the energy from what is rattling around in there. What works will depend on you - for me it's re-reading a favourite story, or doing killer sudokus for example. Going for a walk in the country can help, but not always for me because I'm quite capable of walking for miles on autopilot while my mind churns on. I find it better to go for a fairly strenuous hike under those circumstances where I have to pay attention to the trail, and put significant effort into going uphill and downhill. Taking photos while I'm out helps a lot too because it makes me pay attention constantly to what's around me and how things relate to each other in pictorial form.

I also have a lot of trouble with balancing, "going out my feet" (whatever that is, my sister always said this to me) and centering.

If you are looking for a long term peace of mind, let me know if you find one LOL. To centre means among other things starting to let go of our ego, in a sense, and that can mean letting go of some of the things which we take for granted are part of who we are. I think for most of us, the imbalance we find within is echoed by an imbalance in our external lives - our jobs, our relationships, our leisure activities, our commitments. The job I did before I retired was a good one that fascinated me most of the time, but I was unbalanced the whole time I was doing it, and I was never going to find inner balance as long as I was doing it. It's hard to deal with such things, though, because (for example) I was bound to my work for economic reasons, with the lack of an alternative and with other folks dependent on me - so I just had to find the best balance I could until I retired. Life is like that for most of us, but without these sort of experiences we maybe would never become aware of the direction in which our balance lies. It's often easier to look at and learn from externals like this than to try and explore and judge what lies within us directly, and if I had spotted the way that these external things affected my inner balance a lot earlier in life I could have considered alternative paths.

You can try meditation techniques, and similar, but my impression is that they won't help us unless we start to center our outer lives at the same time as trying to centre ourselves within.

 

[Enso]

Super chilled Lo-fi hip hop my friend (about 80 bpm or sometimes even slower), specifically types that almost border into lullabys (or at least that type of vibe).. and just sit.

Also, YouTube streams of rivers and things like that work well too.

 

[Krypton]

For me it's less about turning it off and more about diverting it. Playing videogames does that usually. Sometimes forumposting also depending, or watching a show.

 

[Enso]

but the more difficult task is forgiving myself for being human.

It goes deep, very deep...like represented in archetype level deep. If you really want to resolve it spiritual teachers have talked about it being an integral part of the ego. I recommend the book or audiobook "Healing the core wound of unworthiness: The Gift Of Redemptive Love by Adyashanti. I think it's on youtube, he actually explains it in a very rational way even though it's a spiritual teaching.

 

[Nixie]

My sister used to say that "going out your feet" was to have your spiritual energy flowing the wrong way.

To channel energy through the feet and out the head, not to try and go the other way

 

[worthy]

Great question. I find repetitive exercises on a musical instrument help while they're happening. Focusing on my footsteps as I walk outside (in a cemetery or on a hiking trail). I do seem to be able to turn it off when I fall asleep, but I know it's still working because when I wake up, I'm in the middle of different new thoughts. don't have enough tools for giving my brain a break, so I'm interested in what others have to say.

 

[Wyote]

I have an off switch, it's called conversation with idiots

 

[Impact Character]

My sister used to say that "going out your feet" was to have your spiritual energy flowing the wrong way.

To channel energy through the feet and out the head, not to try and go the other way

Ah, I see! Thank you for explaining.

 

[John K]

I have an off switch, it's called conversation with idiots

And as a spectator sport too .....

 

[April]

And as a spectator sport too .....

 

[milo]

I think instead of trying to turn it off, the better option is to accept and observe what's there. I've found meditation useful for learning this, but it isn't easy and it certainly takes a lot of time and patience.

 

[David54]

. Grounding..spend time with your feet on the earth...get outside, into nature. Hug a tree. Wade in the waves..lay in the grass
the mind is much like a river. things float on its surface. You are not required to pick each thing up and ponder it. Let them float by without notice or comment.