Have you ever experienced how thoughts stop listening to you and get confused? Have you been lying at night, not closing your eyes, constantly thinking about plans, about the expected consequences, about the possible future, lost in the most incredible guesses? We have all experienced this, and the feelings associated with this kind of mental activity are far from pleasant. We can’t rest, we don’t sleep, we rush through emotions headlong and get up completely exhausted. We are plagued by our own thoughts that seem unstoppable...
Sojal Rinpoche says that the purpose of meditation is to stop the internal dialogue, and this is extremely beneficial. Meditation serves as a counterbalance to the wild race of unbroken thoughts that robs us of mental peace.
Beyond the thought process lies another level of consciousness called the true mind. The deep ocean is not waves that briefly ripple its surface. Likewise, the breadth and spaciousness of the true mind is very different from the constant play of thoughts which, as we well know, rush through our minds. This method will allow you to grasp the difference between true mind and thinking mind. Use a traditional Buddhist image for meditation - contemplate the image of the endless ocean. Watch the waves ripple across it. Waves never calm down, because they are inherent in the very nature of the ocean. But you can identify your mind with the great depths and the waters that rest there. Title Dalai Lama, which is worn by the supreme servant in Tibetan Buddhism, means Great Ocean.
Technique for achieving inner silence
In order to become more aware of the higher mind, we need to develop an awareness of the space beyond the flow of thought. Such awareness is developed by observing the contents of the mind from the position of an outside observer. So sit down, close your eyes, turn your attention inward and just focus on what is happening. Watch as your thoughts arise. Do it from the position of an outside observer. To understand how to stop the internal dialogue, let the thoughts that arise freely flow. Watching how thoughts rise and fall, float and roll back, allows you to see the line that lies between the thought that is in consciousness - and consciousness itself. Such detached observation develops spatial perception, which is the beginning of awareness, the germ of inner vision. Finding inner space by stopping the internal dialogue is often accompanied by a new and joyful discovery. Calmness in this space appears as a blissful rest. Recognition of the distinctive properties of thought and space shows us the difference between temporary and permanent, the basis of the mind and its activities. In addition, we can learn to determine when to think and when to rest. Ideally, we should achieve a state where the internal dialogue stops instantly with one effort of will.
The practice of stopping thoughts
You can gain space in your mind in the following way. Sit down and start meditating, being aware of the thoughts that arise. Watch them as an outside observer. Concentrate your attention at the point between the eyebrows, literally grope for it with your eyes. Look for that brief moment that separates the thought leaving and the thought arising. Watch this moment and prolong it. Gradually move into the space between thoughts. Relax in this space. Watch the difference between mind and thought, ocean and wave. Meditate on connecting the breath with the moment of spatiality.
Sojal Rinpoche states: “When you exhale, you go along with your thoughts. Each time you exhale, you allow mental tension to subside and thereby loosen its grip. Feel how your breath dissolves into your body. The internal dialogue will stop effortlessly. Each time you exhale and before you inhale again, you will notice that tension disappears in this natural pause. Relax in a pause, in her open space, and when you naturally begin to inhale, do not focus too much on the inhalation, but continue to rest your mind in the pause that has opened.
This is the way to meet new opportunities, which is the opposite of narrow perception, dogmatic thinking. When we lose the ability to open, we seal the mind itself and bury the chitta within us. Spatiality appears as an open window through which the light of enlightenment can pour. An open mind is full of life and it can look and see. An open mind is able to perceive the light of enlightenment.
How to stop thoughts?
Highly important ability that allows you to accumulate energy and not waste it, is the ability to stop the uncontrolled running of thoughts. This matter is by no means simple. Indeed, some questions constantly arise in the head, problems are solved, forgotten facts are remembered, future activities are planned, a dialogue is being held with an imaginary interlocutor, etc. etc. Thoughts do not leave you alone for a second! Moreover, many people, even in a dream, cannot stop the work of their “word mixer” - they worry about something, scream, toss and turn. There is no real rest even in a dream! And so the whole life, which is noticeably shortened due to the lack of rest from thoughts.
The "word stirrer" does not just distract our attention, it really takes away our vitality, our energy.. If we think a lot about a person, then we unconsciously direct our energy towards him. If we think that everything is very bad and will only get worse, then we give energy to the “egregor of an unhappy life”, and he will already try to make sure that you can fully enjoy depression and all its attendant troubles. Therefore, the ability to control your thoughts is a very important quality for a successful person..
The classics of various spiritual teachings talk a lot about the need to control the state of one's mind. For example, Roshi Phillip Caplot in The Three Pillars of Zen writes: “Most people never think of trying to control their mind, and unfortunately this fundamental exercise is left out of modern education, is not an integral part of what is called the acquisition of knowledge.
One of the first steps on the path of spiritual development in Zen is the development of the ability to concentrate and stop the running of thoughts. A complete stop of the running of thoughts is the ultimate goal of many Eastern spiritual schools. For example, the highest phase in yoga is called "samadhi" and translates as "higher spiritual insight, ecstasy, trance, superconsciousness." Samadhi can only be achieved by long meditations, as a result of which the running of thoughts stops for several hours and a person in a state of complete emptiness comes into direct contact with the inhabitants of the invisible world. But in order to learn how to stop the running of thoughts for several hours in a row, you need to train a lot. Most people do not need such extremes, so let's look for other ways to curb our restless mind.
Methods for stopping the running of thoughts
How to stop thoughts?
There are many ways and techniques to stop the running of thoughts. Conventionally, they can be divided into four large groups.
1. Methods of crowding out thoughts (by other periodically recurring thoughts).
2.Methods of concentration of attention on some object.
3.Methods of using mental images.
4. Methods of switching attention.
Let's look at each of these groups in more detail.
Displacement methods
The essence of the "displacement method" is to replace the chaotic running of random thoughts with the repeated repetition of the same phrase or a certain sound combination. In Eastern theological schools, such sound combinations like “o o u m m” or “oum mane padme huum” are called “mantras”. If you repeat the same mantra for a very long time, for several hours, then you can steadily move into an altered state of consciousness, in which a person begins to manifest unusual abilities and a strong contact is established with the inhabitants of the invisible world.
Prayers in Christianity “work” in approximately the same way - it is well known that only a long and frantic (i.e., concentrated and highly emotional) repetition of a prayer leads to the desired results (purification of the soul, enlightenment, receiving help). You can try this method to stop the running of your thoughts by repeatedly repeating the mantra “o u m m” to yourself or some kind of prayer, or do the “forgiveness meditation” already familiar to you, in Reiki we practice Gassho, when we switch all attention to touch middle fingers in palms joined together. It also works great to suppress the uncontrolled running of thoughts. Practice - and you will "kill three birds with one stone": stop the "word stirrer", increase your energy and clear yourself of accumulated experiences.
As soon as you notice that your "word stirrer" has started up again, start repeating any of the formulas of this meditation. For example, this one: “With love and gratitude, I forgive this life and accept it as it is. I ask forgiveness from life for my thoughts and actions regarding it. In order to learn how to stop your “word mixer” as necessary, you will need to make some effort. Experience shows that the first results appear in those who were engaged in the exclusion of unnecessary thoughts every day for 20-30 minutes at any free time for two weeks.
As a result, you should learn to enter a state of complete absence of thoughts for 5-10 minutes (then they will appear anyway, and this is normal).
Attention Concentration Techniques
The next method of "concentration of attention", also widely used in teaching in many Eastern theological schools, requires focusing attention and continuously observing some object or process. It can be a point on the wall, a picture or a drawing (special drawings for concentration and meditation are called “mandalas”), or it can be your internal process: breathing, blood pulsation, etc. For example, in Zen Buddhism, one of the first exercises is to count your own breath.
At one of the Club sessions, I talked about the method of establishing the boundaries of your body: touch and direct your attention to the left leg, to the right, to the hands, head, etc. - feel the boundaries of your body, it will help to be "here and now".
Methods of using mental images
You can stop the flow of thoughts, get rid of their uncontrolled run, using various mental images. For example, you can imagine that you take an eraser and use it to “erase” all the thoughts in your head. As soon as a new thought appears, immediately put an eraser in your hands and erase it. Or sweep with a broom, or erase on the mental screen with a cloth. Great results are obtained when you "fill" your head with a viscous "liquid", such as liquid gold. In it, not a single thought can emerge - it fades as soon as it begins to manifest itself. For the best effect, use the Golden Ball meditation. Such exercises are usually performed with closed eyes, solely in order not to catch other visual images.
Techniques for Switching Attention
They are the simplest and most often used in Everyday life but are to load your mind with controlled thoughts instead of uncontrolled thoughts. For example, when you shake a rattle over a crying baby, you are using the attention switching technique. Previously, the infant was focused on a problem known only to him and loudly demanded its solution. But then you shook the rattle, and his attention switched to a new stimulus. He began to think about it, and the old problem was forgotten.
This technique works just as well for adults, especially when you use it to switch the attention of another person who is immersed in their problem. How to use it? Yes, very simple. If you are tired of the interlocutor's long verbal outpourings, then ask him such a question that he forgets what he just talked about, i.e. The question should touch on an important topic for the interlocutor. For example, if your friend talks long and tedious about how her husband (or friend) turned out to be a scoundrel and you are tired of it, then ask her unexpectedly: “Are you sure that you turned off the iron when you left the house?” Or: “And where did you get a hole (or stain) on a new sheepskin coat?” Most likely, after that she will run to examine her sheepskin coat, and her husband will be forgotten. You will surely be able to stop her "word mixer" in this way.
Choose your "switch"
The latter method can be strengthened if you choose in advance a certain “switch”, i.e. a topic to which you will consciously switch your attention if necessary. It is best if it is some very fun and enjoyable event in your life. Or just a humorous statement that can put you in a fun state from any situation. At the same time, along with the switching of attention, there will be a depreciation of the problem that your “word stirrer” has just successfully savored. Thus, you will disconnect from the egregor of the "unhappy life", to which you just gave your vitality.
Quick way to stop thoughts
Tatiana Elle
*****************************
How to fall asleep in one minute
Many people cannot fall asleep for a long time at night, thinking about the eternal for hours. Or a fly on the ceiling. I also suffered from insomnia until I learned a special breathing technique that helps me fall asleep within a minute.
Don't get me wrong, this technique is not an anesthesia that knocks you out on the first hit. It requires long and constant training to develop calming reflexes in the body. Be that as it may, even for beginners, this technique will help reduce stress and reduce the time it takes to fall asleep.
To begin, place the tip of your tongue on the palate, on the ledge behind the front upper teeth. Then, with your mouth closed, inhale through your nose for four counts, hold your breath for seven seconds, and then exhale loudly, making a whistling sound. Watch your tongue carefully - it should always be in place. Repeat this exercise several times without interruption.
In this technique, the speed of breathing is not important, the main thing is to keep the proportion of stages 4:7:8.
Inhale for 4 seconds
Hold your breath for 7 seconds
Exhale for 8 seconds
Relax
The effect of relaxation and calm caused by this exercise will increase significantly with time and practice.
Dr. Andrew Weil, professor and best-selling author, says that to get the most benefit from this technique, you need to do this exercise at least twice a day for eight weeks. A month after the start of training, the exercise should be performed in eight repetitions.
This technique is used to reduce stress, anxiety, and even the desire to smoke and eat something unhealthy. The next time something upsets you and tries to knock you down, stop for a second, relax, do the exercise, and only then react to the situation. You will be surprised by your calmness and clarity of thought. As already mentioned, this technique also helps to fall asleep quickly at night.
The reasons for this effect are simple. As we all know, our breathing speeds up during excitement, but this also works in reverse side- Frequent and shallow breathing can cause a feeling of stress. Oxygen is, of course, a necessary component of a healthy body and mind, but HOW we breathe is also important.
Like everything in this world, this technique takes time and practice to achieve the best results, but if you are willing to devote just a minute a day to doing this exercise, you will be amazed at how easily you can control your emotional state.
Psychologists and psychiatrists know the so-called "idiot geniuses" - mentally retarded people with exceptional abilities in one, usually quite narrow area (the word "idiot" here must be understood in the original ancient Greek sense: special, strange). This phenomenon was discovered at the end of the last century, and since then only about a hundred such cases have been described in scientific works. Approximately 25 "idiot geniuses" are known to scientists now. The general public imagines such phenomena from the famous film "Rain Man". All these people show low results in intelligence tests, are almost unable to communicate with fellow citizens, suffer from so-called autism, that is, a painful isolation in themselves. But they show amazing abilities in mathematics, music, visual arts or in other areas. One of them, barely looking at any building, can make its most detailed architectural drawing. The other, without looking at the clock, at any moment knows the time to the nearest second. The third, looking at any object, calls its dimensions with an accuracy of two to three millimeters. The fourth one speaks 24 languages, including a couple of his own. Someone knows by heart and freely quotes a thick telephone directory big city etc. Some of these people even make good money demonstrating their abilities from the stage.
According to a new hypothesis by Allan Snyder and John Mitchell of the Center for the Study of the Mind at the Australian national university in Canberra, all of us have such abilities, and they are quite easy to awaken. The authors of the hypothesis believe that the abilities that manifest themselves in "idiot geniuses" are masked in ordinary people by higher forms of thinking. We automatically try to comprehend facts and observations, but the "rain man" does not do this, dwelling on bare facts and not moving on to generalizations and concepts. This work is performed in him by the lower, simpler and evolutionarily more ancient parts of the brain. In ordinary people, they also act, but they are "muffled" by more highly developed departments.
Snyder and Mitchell formulated their hypothesis based on numerous studies of such phenomenal people, especially mathematically gifted ones. Modern installations for positron and nuclear resonance imaging allow you to see how parts of the brain work, how information from the senses is processed before a person receives any impressions and reacts to them with his thoughts and concepts.
For example, between the moment when an image focused by the lens falls on the retina, and the conscious perception of what he saw, about a quarter of a second passes. During this time, different specialized areas of the brain, working separately, identify each aspect of the image: color, shape, movement, position, and so on. These components are then synthesized into a single complex, which is transmitted to the higher parts of the brain, and they comprehend what they see. Normally, we are not aware of this process. And well, otherwise our consciousness would be clogged with a mass of disparate details, each of which separately does not make much sense. “In a normal person,” says Snyder, “the brain takes in every minute detail of the picture, but processes everything that is registered and deletes most of the information, leaving a general impression of what he saw, a general conscious concept, which is necessary for a reasonable response to the flow of information from the outside.” "Brilliant idiots" do not have such editing, so they perceive everything around them with incredible details that we usually do not notice.
One of the favorite tricks of the so-called miracle counters, who also belong to the category of phenomenally gifted and at the same time flawed people, is calendar calculations. For example, a question is asked from the audience: "What day of the week will the first of September 2039 be?" And after two or three seconds, the miracle counter answers: "Thursday." According to Snyder, even you are capable of such instant calculations, but the answer remains in the subconscious, since the higher parts of the brain, realizing the complete practical uselessness of the calculation, suppress its result, not allowing it to be "output on the monitor."
The Dutchman Wim Klein (1912 - 1986), a miracle counter, instantly performed the most complex calculations in his mind, but otherwise his intelligence was below average. Klein worked for a long time at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) as a living computer, until personal computers became available to every employee of the organization.
Another example is the ability to instantly determine the pitch and duration of any note in music. Australian psychologists are sure that this skill is inherent in any of us, it's just that the brain realizes the uselessness of such information, and as a result we perceive music as a whole, and not as a sequence of separate notes of a certain height and duration.
The same applies to, say, the ability to look at the page of a book, close your eyes and read it aloud from memory from beginning to end. Psychologists are sure that any of us can do it.
But if this is so, and our brain imperceptibly does all these tricks, then is it possible to remove the censorship of consciousness and demonstrate to ourselves and the world our extraordinary abilities? Niels Bierbaumer of the Institute for Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Tübingen (Germany), an ardent supporter of the ideas of Snyder and Mitchell, is sure that it is possible and that some of us have already mastered this skill. He cites as an example one perfectly normal student who developed the ability to instantly count, which is not inferior to the best miracle counters. The study of his electroencephalogram showed that while performing complex calculations in his mind, his brain is extremely active, and before the student says the result aloud, brain activity drops sharply. In ordinary people, during mental counting, such a decline in activity does not occur. Birbaumer believes that this student has learned to turn off the censorship of his consciousness and therefore is able to instantly give the result "past consciousness".
Perhaps the famous cases of discoveries made in a dream (Mendeleev's table, the structure of benzene, and others) are also explained by turning off part of the brain during sleep, which allows the mind to consider the most seemingly unacceptable versions of hypotheses or inventions.
There are well-known examples of teaching people to control physiological processes that we are not normally aware of, that is, in fact, to control our subconscious. For example, by supplying a person with a blood pressure sensor and placing him in front of a computer screen, which constantly displays measured numbers, you can teach him to reduce or increase pressure. After such training, this ability is retained even without sensors and a computer. Last year, the same Birbaumer, having glued sensors of brain biocurrents to the skull of a paralyzed disabled person, taught him to move a cursor on a computer screen through thought. By moving the cursor to the image of the keys with letters on the screen, you can type without hands. Perhaps it will be possible to teach a person to temporarily turn off the “interfering” part of the brain.
Not all neuroscientists agree with Mitchell and Snyder. The most common opinion is that "idiot geniuses" have one-sidedly developed one brain ability at the expense of the others, perhaps even with an increase in the area of the brain that is responsible for this ability. For most people, this one-sided development is hampered by the fact that from early childhood the brain is tuned to conceptual thinking, aimed at generalization and conclusions, and not at fixing details. The normal brain combines different impressions, sensations and thoughts and extracts meaning from overall picture without focusing on individual details.
British scientists Utah Fries and Francesca Happe believe that the brain of a "brilliant idiot" is not capable of such generalizing thinking, and the brain of ordinary people is not capable of phenomenal "patchwork" thinking. In an ordinary person, according to Fries and Happe, the impulse for global generalization and specific conclusions is so strong that the brain instantly sweeps away individual impressions and thoughts into an overall meaningful picture, doing this faster than we can register every detail. Happe explains: “If we could look into the brain of an “idiot genius”, we would find that his unusual talent stems from very clearly defined, specific areas of the brain that have no neural connection with those areas where the comprehension of perceived information takes place and concepts are born. As a result, these zones are not interfered with from the outside and can become highly specialized, say, in mathematical calculations, musical abilities or visual memory, and so on.
In Germany, a system has been created that allows you to print on a computer screen with the help of thought.
Recently, this view has been supported by the published results of Einstein's brain research. Areas of the brain commonly associated with math ability are enlarged and do not intersect with the gyrus as in normal people. The convolutions of the brain often limit specific functional areas of the brain, so it is tempting to suggest that the "math module" in Einstein's brain, taking advantage of the lack of boundaries, occupied neurons from neighboring areas that would normally be doing something else.
The weakness of this hypothesis is that we study the structure of the brain of a phenomenally capable person only after his death, therefore we cannot say with certainty whether some area of the brain is enlarged from birth or increased from exercise, in the process of constant exploitation.
English psychologist Michael Howe believes that the abilities of both "idiot geniuses" and ordinary people talented in some area are explained in the same way - by increased exercise. It's just that some mentally retarded people concentrate their efforts on a task that would not occur to a normal person (say, hardly anyone dreams of memorizing a telephone directory), and practice in this area until they achieve perfection.
However, there are facts that contradict this theory. A mentally retarded girl, who went down in the history of psychology under the name of Nadia N., from the age of three she was able to perfectly draw horses in different poses
And angles. Unlike ordinary children who go through certain stages in learning to draw, starting with drawing “byak-zakalyak” and “tadpoles” with sticks instead of arms and legs, Nadya began to draw horses brilliantly from the very moment her fingers could hold a pencil. There was no training, no exercises. Children are known who can instantly calculate the days of the week of any month and year, without having yet mastered the operation of division, and who have learned their ability without the help of adults.
Perhaps in early childhood we are all "idiot geniuses" or geeks. After all, every child learns his native language, although he is not specifically taught this. It has been found that eight-month-old babies unconsciously perform fantastically complex calculations that allow them to understand where in the flow of speech one word ends and the next begins. And soon the child simply "knows" where the boundaries between the words in the spoken phrase are, just like the miracle counter "knows" what it is equal to. Square root from a six-digit number. An adult, on the contrary, has to specifically learn a new language. Simply living among its bearers is usually not enough.
The “science” of phrenology, which arose at the beginning of the 19th century, argued that each part of the brain has its own function, and with a special development of one or another part of the brain, the part of the skull covering lying above it “protrudes” in the form of a bump. Therefore, as the founder of phrenology, the Austrian physician F. Gall, believed, one can judge the inclinations and abilities of a person by the relief of the skull. As the further development of brain science showed, there was a sound grain in these arguments: different parts of the cerebral cortex specialize in different functions. But the bumps on the head have nothing to do with it. The picture shows a porcelain bust with bumps of various spiritual qualities painted on the surface of the skull. A century and a half ago, study guides on phrenology issued by the thousands.
In the same way, children learn much more easily than adults to accurately determine the pitch of sounds. They are more likely to have eidetic memory - an absolute visual memory that allows you to store and reproduce what you see in front of your mind with photographic accuracy.
Snyder and Mitchell suggest that these abilities are lost in adults as the maturing brain changes the way information is processed. Research on tomographs has shown that in newborns and infants those parts of the brain are active that are "silent" in adults. These areas receive information from the senses and react to it, producing emotional outbursts and automatic behavior. The cerebral cortex, its highest region associated with rational behavior, comes into action only after a few months, and its role further grows. This growth increases dramatically around the age of one and a half years, when children begin to try to speak.
In autistic children, such a switch to the cortex does not occur or it occurs too slowly. Therefore, they retain the amazing abilities of the infant brain. If the inclusion of the cortex does occur later, these abilities may be lost. For example, the young artist Nadia almost lost her talent when, at the age of about 12, she learned to speak.
The American psychiatrist Darold Treffert believes that the male sex hormone testosterone, which inhibits the development of the left hemisphere, where the center of speech is located, can disrupt the development of the brain even before childbirth. If this is true, then it is understandable why there are about six times more men than women among "idiot geniuses" and those with autism. Treffert's hypothesis is supported by some clinical cases. So, an ordinary nine-year-old boy became a brilliant mechanic after part of the left hemisphere of his brain was damaged by an accidental injury. Recently published data on adults who acquired extraordinary ability to draw after part of the neurons of the cortex of the left hemisphere was destroyed by the disease. The death of neurons seemed to take the brakes off the innate ability to draw, which had been suppressed all my life.
Allan Snyder believes that these theories can be tested. He plans to turn off the concept-producing area of his brain. This can be done through the bones of the skull with magnetic impulses, you only need to choose the place of application of electromagnets and the strength of the impulses. “If this brings back clear childhood images to my mind, or if I suddenly start calculating multi-valued prime numbers instantly, I will know that my theory is correct,” says Snyder.
From time to time, each person has situations when he, tired, goes to bed, but cannot fall asleep. Various thoughts arise in the head related to the unpleasant events of the past day, or disturbing thoughts about possible events begin to torment. A person lies in the dark for hours, unable to get rid of these thoughts before going to bed. Fortunately, there are many techniques that will help you relax and free your head from obsessive thoughts. Some of them are said to be very effective.
Night is the time when anxiety, worries, fears most often occur. The difficulties that a person thinks about before going to bed may seem insignificant in the morning. But these thoughts do not allow you to fall asleep for hours, and in the morning you can feel overwhelmed and tired. This state is characteristic of responsible people who take on an overwhelming burden of obligations.
Often this is accompanied by overexcitement caused by the turbulent events of the day experienced. In this case, you should learn to switch from work life to home life, leaving all professional problems beyond the threshold of the apartment. It is necessary to focus on pleasant activities related to relaxation.
You need to allow yourself to relax before going to bed by watching a pleasant movie or listening to music. Any activity that evokes calm thoughts will do.
What to do if thoughts do not let you sleep
To clear the mind of thoughts that often interfere with sleep, you can use the "trash bag" technique. Every time such a thought arises, one must send it there. Imagine how space was freed up for calm and pleasant reflections. We must do this with each new "garbage", and then mentally take this bag, tie it up and throw it into the abyss. After that, you can get comfortable and fall asleep.
The method of presenting pleasant sensations is suitable for people with a kinesthetic type of perception. It will be useful for them to imagine how they are lying on a soft cloud, plunging into warm sea water or levitating in a fog. Visuals are more suited to reproducing beautiful landscapes in their heads, and listening to pleasant music is more suitable for audials. Visualization and meditation perfectly help to disconnect from annoying thoughts and fall asleep more quickly.
The method of reciting verses or quotations repeatedly is an exercise aimed at relaxing the mind. Reading prayers, affirmations (which is more to your liking), texts of your favorite songs that improve your mood will help. It is necessary to repeat the words many times until you want to doze off.
How to get ready for sleep
Sufficient exercise stress helps you fall asleep easily in the evening. Exercise should be done 3 hours before bedtime. Then you should take a warm relaxing bath, you can essential oils lavender or lemon balm. The change in temperature after swimming causes drowsiness (due to a decrease in metabolism) and improves well-being.
It is useful to do deep breathing exercises. It helps to relax and calm the imagination. You will need to turn off the lights and sit on the floor. There must be silence in the room.
Sequencing:
- Inhale through the nose for a count of 4.
- Hold your breath for a count of 7.
- Exhale for 8 through your mouth.
- Do 4 repetitions.
Another effective method overcome insomnia - lower the temperature in the room. To do this, before going to bed, turn on the air conditioner for a while or open the window, you can change the blanket to a thinner one.
Comfortable night temperature - from 15 to 20 degrees.
Sleeping place
In order for the rest to be complete, without bad dreams and difficult falling asleep, it is important to create comfortable conditions. The sleeping place should be comfortable, the pillow and mattress should be comfortable, and the underwear should be loose enough not to interfere with blood circulation. Before going to bed, it is advisable to turn off the light completely, as it can disrupt the circadian rhythm and force the brain to work actively.
If you need to turn on the light at night, it is better to use lamps with red light instead of blue, which increases efficiency. If conditions do not allow you to reduce the illumination in the bedroom, then you should use an eye mask.
City apartments often have a small area, so sofas perform the function of a bed. It is important that in this case, in addition to the main mattress provided for by the design, there is a topper (a thin orthopedic mattress used only at night). When buying a sofa or bed, people with diseases of the musculoskeletal system should choose a hard bed.
Relaxation
In order not to excite the nervous system, you need to reduce the amount of caffeine consumed during the day and do not eat before bed. If hunger prevents sleep, then you can eat a little, preferring foods containing tryptophan and calcium (dairy products, almonds, bananas, peanuts). Such food triggers the synthesis of melatonin. But sweets are best avoided, as they do not contribute to falling asleep.
If it is hard to fall asleep quickly, then to relax, you can turn on slow, quiet, beautiful music. It's okay if it's boring, that's even better. Before going to bed, it is useful to take a warm shower and meditate. There are many different types meditations that will free the brain from annoying thoughts.
The technique of gradual relaxation of the muscles of the body works effectively: you need to start from the bottom and gradually rise step by step to the head.
Stress
You can get rid of the stress accumulated during the day with the help of calm activities. Reading your favorite books or watching funny videos is very relaxing and soothing.
Sympathetic relaxation exercises help to fall asleep nervous system. To do this, slowly inhale through the left nostril, covering the right finger of the hand, exhale and repeat several times. It relieves stress and helps you sleep peacefully.
How to turn off your brain for sleep
Scientists after the experiments have found that the computer at night can lead to disruption of falling asleep. However, watching TV does not have the same effect. Communication via the Internet at night overexcites the brain, which leads to sleep disturbance.
An hour before going to bed, a leisurely walk in the fresh air is useful. This will tire you out a bit and help turn your head off. Right before going to bed, it is helpful to drink a warm drink, such as milk with honey. It relaxes and tunes in healthy sleep. Some teas (chamomile, lemon balm, lavender, thyme) have a calming effect. But do not add sugar to them, it will interfere with sleep.
No relaxation methods will help those who do not care about their health. If a person has already brought himself to such a state that he cannot fall asleep without pills, has become depressed or suffers from insomnia due to alcoholism, then it is better for him to contact a psychotherapist.
"Teach me to turn off my head!" - this is the main request that people who come to my courses address. A person seeks to let go of himself in sexual contact and experience vivid strong sensations and feelings, but this is prevented by thoughts creeping into his head about anything, distraction to something that prevents him from feeling and relaxing: sounds, partner’s actions, self-esteem, comparisons, everyday factors, waiting for something to interfere...
Man is so arranged that at the moment when he thinks, he ceases to feel. Any distractions and extraneous thoughts reduce our sensitivity and interfere with enjoyment. For example, we want to experience a strong and all-consuming orgasm, we heard about “flights” and “ecstasy” at these moments, and some of us occasionally experienced something similar (but we just can’t repeat it at our own will). Such an orgasm is like a ghost: everyone thinks about it and wants it, only few have seen it.
But such a deep bright orgasm is impossible without complete dedication, without a temporary loss of self-control, which many are afraid of. The desire to experience an orgasm and the desire to control oneself at the same time are incompatible. At best, there will be a physiological discharge, a relaxation similar to a sneeze in the lower body, which is basically what most people experience. And since after that there comes a temporary calm, it seems already good. Often the moment of transition from strong tension to relaxation is called an orgasm (this moment is pleasant, many strive for it, and therefore we will talk about it in the future).
Moreover, some thoughts can kill arousal and the desire to have sex in general or with this partner, while others, on the contrary, can be a catalyst for desire, increase sensitivity and help sex.
It is useless to try to think about not thinking - fighting with the head with the help of the head is unpromising. One thought replaces another - and the process can be endless.
Practical advice:
Learn not to turn off your head, but turn it on so that it helps you in the sexual process.
And for this it is necessary, first of all, to get rid of any mental garbage with which it can be overloaded.
It is useful to know how and how to tune in to sex so that you get what you want during it, and how to use your head for this.
⇐ Previous12131415161718192021Next ⇒
Didn't find what you were looking for? Use the search:
Read also:
brain shutdown
After relaxing the body, transfer the concentration of attention to the point of the third center of tension - at the base of the neck. Keep your attention on this area and mentally count first to 12, then to 18, and then to 36. Concentration of attention at the base of the neck creates a feeling of a soft cloud on the shoulders.
Attention! This is your “thought space”.
Imagine that the head is a nut. The bones of the skull are the shell, and the brain is the nucleus. And the shell reliably separates the core from external influences. The image evokes the feeling that the brain lives on its own, and you feel its volume and even heaviness.
The next step is to turn off the brain. At the point between the eyebrows, under the base of the skull and on the top of the head, there are three virtual switches (Fig. 50). Mentally turn the switches and imagine that energy circuits are opening in your head. After turning off the switches, an unexpected sensation arises: the brain froze, the constant work that you considered the thought process stopped. However, this does not cause any unpleasant experiences. Your head is empty and you feel the weight of your own brain. Thoughts flow in an even stream in a cloud on the shoulders. To return to reality, you just need to open your eyes. The brain turns itself on.
After turning off the brain, perhaps for the first time you will feel that anxieties and worries are left aside.
In the body - peace, emptiness and thoughtlessness. This is the second stage of relaxation.
The third stage is numbness. It is believed that bones are solid formations. But they, like muscles, are able to tense up and relax. Only the amplitude of tension - relaxation is insignificant, and you can feel it only with concentrated self-observation.
Concentrate on the sensations of the bones in your legs. Inhale, imagining that the breath fills the feet, shins, thigh bones ... Bone tissue absorbs the breath like a dry sponge.
The bones of the legs relax, filled with warmth. Together with them, the adjacent tissues relax.
Focus on the bones of the pelvis. As you inhale, imagine that the inhalation penetrates through the skin and muscles and fills the bones of the pelvis.
Move your attention to your spine. Take a few breaths, imagining that the breath through the back of the head flows into the spine in a wave, rolls along its entire length and goes down through the coccyx.
Now inhale through the coccyx and raise the wave of inhalation up to the back of the head. This breathing exercise will help you feel your spine along its entire length: from the back of the head to the tailbone.
Waves of breaths accumulate in the vertebrae, fill the bone tissue.
The spinal column relaxes, the body becomes numb in languor, a wave of relaxation fills the ribs, bones of the shoulders, arms ...
Concentrate on the back of your head. Inhale and imagine that the inhalation fills the bones of the head and relaxation spreads through them.
Thoughts flow in a cloud on the shoulders, and the head is like a balloon on a string. It has become light, empty and sways on the stalk of the neck. Relaxed brain cells absorb the life-giving force of peace.
Relaxation of the body, head, brain creates inner harmony. It has no place for disease. A program is created in the subconscious when relaxation activates the body's defenses and strengthens the resistance to the disease. Now relax deeply enough to create a protective barrier against the disease.
And the last - the fourth stage. The mind relaxes along with the body. From the outside, it may seem that a person just fell asleep. In a dream, the body repairs itself, restores good health.
But sleep is a passive state. It is important to stay on the shaky line between falling asleep and detached observation of yourself.
For beginners, this state is typical: consciousness turns off, and the person seems to fall into the darkness of the unconscious, and then emerges into the light. This is the so-called "swing" - a transitional state between deep sleep and the emptiness of thoughtlessness. It is necessary to fix emerging from sleep and mentally note that the period of manifested perception is coming.
Deep relaxation will help restore inner balance and harmony!
Thought space
A person habitually believes that he thinks with his head, and all thoughts are born in the brain. It is necessary to talk about a new, unexpected for many, understanding of the space of thoughts. And for this, use original practices that will help you vividly feel the structure of the mental apparatus, get rid of excessive brain tension. Surprisingly, the brain of most people is in constant tension. It is not physical. The brain is not a muscle, and its structures are subjected to stresses of a different nature - psychoenergetic.
The psycho-energetic tension of the brain arises due to negative thoughts that people consider to be the normal mental background of life.
And there is even an excuse for this: life is full of nasty things and troubles, and therefore one must live in readiness for the worst. And when it does not happen, then immediately everything will turn pink and the sun will play in the sky. True, those who adhere to such a position do not notice (or do not want to) that the readiness for trouble attracts the trouble itself ...
To relieve enduring stress, you can use a technique called "turning off the brain." It is not difficult to master it; in the classes of training groups, this technique was obtained by almost everyone the first time.
Imagine that the bones of the skull are the shell and the brain is the nucleus. And the whole head resembles a nut. And its shell reliably closes the nucleus (brain) from external influences. Indeed, the physiological role of the bones of the skull is to protect the most important human organ - the brain from injury and concussion. You can close your eyes to eliminate visual stimuli that distract from inner concentration. When you get the feeling that the skull is a nutshell, you will feel that the brain in the head is full of inner movement. To stop it, you need to use virtual switches. Imagine that you turn off the brain with three switches: at the point between the eyebrows, at the point on the top of the head, and at the third - under the base of the skull (where the neck connects to the head).
Put your hand on the first switch, located at the point between the eyebrows. Imagine that your palm is a virtual switch. Then sharply turn your hand, as if turning a real knife switch. At the same time, imagine that invisible energy chains are opening inside the head, in the frontal lobes of the brain. There will be a feeling that the work of the frontal lobes of the brain stops ... In the same way, turn off the second switch located at the top of the head. There is a feeling that the movement stops there too. And you need to complete this technique by turning off the third virtual switch. Also, as in the first two cases, put your hand on a point located at the base of the skull, turn it sharply and imagine that the energy circuit in the back of the brain is breaking. An unexpected experience arises: the constant work of the head, which you thought was a thought process, has stopped. It seems that the work of the brain by inertia continues a little more and stops. But there are no negative feelings. The body still works, and even better than before. The head is empty and clean. It is an unexpected but pleasant experience. A disconnected head ceases to participate in the thought process, does not even interfere with physiological reactions. Everything inside is calm and quiet. And if you keep the state of the disconnected brain for a while, then you will be able to rest as if you had been sleeping deeply and peacefully all night.
Many people use the technique of turning off the brain to quickly and deeply fall asleep. Lying in bed, they mentally turn off the virtual switches, and fall asleep. A night with the brain turned off gives the effect of deep rest and healing. Minor ailments disappear without a trace.
The practice of turning off the brain has a beneficial effect on your well-being. This technique can be used without restrictions and at any time of the day. Don't worry about turning your brain back on. As soon as you open your eyes and look at the surrounding reality, the brain will turn on its usual work. But this will not happen abruptly, but slowly and gradually. As a rule, a person does not even notice the inclusion ...
You have learned to turn off and relax the brain. Restorative and healing effects are evident. Now you need to repeat all the steps and turn off the brain. You will feel the weight of a free-lying brain in your head. When he is actively working, you usually do not feel his weight. But when the brain stops, relaxes, there will be a strong feeling that there is a heavy lump inside the head. Everything is quiet, but thoughts still flow without stopping, and you are aware of them. But where do they live - your thoughts? If you carefully follow the sensations, you will understand, at first glance, strange - a stream of thoughts flows at shoulder level. Your thoughts flow in a cloud that rests on your shoulders. You clearly feel the train of thought inside him. And in the head is a relaxed brain. He is disconnected from the analysis, does not affect the reactions and rests. There is lightness and purity in the head, deep peace and inner silence.
And thoughts flow in an energy cloud that resembles a frill collar. Such collars can be seen in the portraits of medieval nobles. They cover the neck and shoulders with lush folds. A cloud of thought space also lies on the shoulders, but unlike a real collar, it does not hide or hide anything. It is invisible to the ordinary eye, but no less real for that. In order to feel it, you need special skills and techniques. When you master them, you will be able to carry out a deep correction of the mental space, get rid of the layers of negativity. Figure 8)
Relaxing and turning off the brain, you felt the space of thoughts. Enter it with the concentration of attention and descend into the depths of the energy cloud. Inside the thought space you will feel a ringing tension. It serves as a source of negative emotions. Each negative thought, like a pebble falling on a tightly stretched fabric, causes a resonance in it, provokes local tensions and disturbances in the space of thoughts. And then the waves of tension scatter from the epicenter, like circles, from a stone thrown into the water. This causes a resonance of the biological and informational structures of the body, provokes negative reactions of organs and systems, and leads to functional changes in them.
A reasonable question: why do negative, malicious, or simply annoying thoughts arise in the space of thoughts? The reason is the tension provoked by the control center of the "middle" of the "cauldron of the mind." This structure controls tactical, everyday thinking and generates irritation, anger, dissatisfaction and other negative emotions. They cause involuntary tensions in the “cauldron of the mind” and the cloud of thought space. The space of thoughts is permeated with unconscious tensions that provoke ill health, apathy, indifference… To get rid of them, you need to relax the energy cloud in which thoughts are born, develop and die out. Otherwise, the constant tension of this field education can become a source of deep ill health, despondency, depression ...
To correct this depressing condition, a technique has been created that will help turn your imagination into an effective tool for self-influence. With your mental hands, begin to “smooth out” the tightly stretched space of thoughts from the center to the edges. Imagine that you are removing excessive tensions from the space of thoughts with soft and gentle palms. It is important to achieve the feeling of the touch of mental hands on the fabric of the space of thoughts. After several touches, the fabric of the space of thoughts is released from the tension of energy dirt and relaxes.
You can use another mental image: you are wiping a cloudy, dusty glass. At first, the dirt is only smeared on the surface. But with each new movement, the glass is cleared. To wash dirty, crap glass requires patience and perseverance. The space of human thoughts differs from such glass only in that it does not have a solid physical nature. And like a dirty glass that lets in a weak gray light, the overstressed space of thoughts delays the light of joy, happiness, freshness of perception of the world. Relaxation of the space of thoughts contributes to the rapid cleansing of energy dirt. Its purification opens the way for waves of joy and peace. Gradually, the space of thoughts becomes transparent, the tension weakens, disappears, and a quiet, balanced emptiness appears in the cloud. In this state, hitherto unknown "emotion of emptiness" is born. It spreads from the space of thoughts to the cells of the body, gives rise to an even deeper relaxation, in which the residual tensions of cellular structures disappear. External sensations die out in it, the body dissolves and instead of it, only a wave-like soft stream remains. It seems that the body freezes, freezes. A person does not react to light, sound until he wants to return to his usual state.
As you remain in the deep relaxation of numbness, you will feel the last, hidden barrier of tension. This barrier is your sense of self. Remove it from yourself like old, dirty clothes. Throw it off and you will feel complete inner freedom. You experience a touch of eternal, infinite and immeasurable peace. Stay in it. Compare the state of health, which was before the start of this work with your new state. I believe that the difference will be very noticeable, and you will be able to appreciate it.
