Quieting the Chatter in Your Brain

A friend asked for my advice for quieting chatter. She gets ideas psychically and sometimes they are too much and too many. In her morning meditations, she asks to remain open and receptive to new and creative insights, but laughs to think that maybe she should stop that.

I told her it used to be harder for me to quiet chatter, but I learned a bit. When I can see that a friend is sick or dying, I have to force myself to pretend it’s not true and continue as we have, unless I get clues otherwise. When I get bombarded with intuitive thoughts, I sometimes clap my hands and say, get to it, Jan. Meaning do something left-brained and practical like balancing my bank account. Other times, I do my yoga breathing and clear my mind of crowded thoughts.

My favorite is the morphing game. I noticed on Facebook, there’s a little game that goes, My Mom made the best….! But I couldn’t play because I only remember my dad and his corn fritters. Mom, nada. As a result, when my children were young, I baked every weekend. You see, as a child, I envied Libby’s mom, who made what her family called the cement mixer cake, commonly known as crumb cake, which they mixed in their mouth with milk. Since my mom only bought baked goods, I morphed into Libby’s mom as an adult.

Substitution thoughts can work for quieting chatter, especially at night as we try to sleep. At the dentist, I always go on my last vacation in my mind, and time passes quickly.