Firstly, what is Head Chatter or Mind Chatter?
Head or Mind chatter are those voices in your head and that talk to yourself. It is those high intensity inner monologue and in some cases dialogue that distracts or interrupts your activities. In other words, the stuff going on in your head that suggest you should maybe get a second opinion or some kind or reassurance. Does that sound familiar?
There is good head chatter & and bad ones too. These chatters are created by you. When you are in high and positive mood, the head chatter can encourage and give you that confidence that you can do anything! However it also does the opposite for you when you are low, and the negative head chatter could bombard you nonstop. The unwanted thoughts are the most challenging one.
So what do you do about it and how can you stop this?
There are ways to deal with head chatter. I don’t think you can ever stop it, however, you can learn to embrace it and control it.
Here are the steps that I’ve found that work for me:
- Decide what you want to get out of having this “constant chatter” in your head.
- What results do you expect?
- What is your intention of creating this chatter? and
- Why the same chatter keeps re occurring?
Honestly, the truth is whatever goes on inside your head is your own doing. You’re creating your thoughts good or bad, your dreams and your own “chatter”. You do this for your own reasons. So it’s important to find out what they are and if they are important and mean something then you need to take action and if they are not important then stop creating the constant chatter.
If the chatter is too over powering and it keeps going around in circles in your head, then grab a note pad and write those thoughts down. You will be amazed at how this will calm your mind and instead of having those thoughts floating in your mind now it’s transferred onto paper.
Once those thoughts are on paper you can review it and define its priorities and set purpose goals to help you overcome those constant head chatter in your head.
I find this process works for me as I scribe onto paper. It lets me realise why I keep getting the constant same head chatter and gives me options on how to deal with it too. Remember you always have a choice to do something about it. It’s up to you at the end of the day.
If you truly want to control or eliminate your unwelcome thoughts, use the “4-S Method” of thought control. It comes from behaviour theorists/therapists Dr. Joseph Wolpe, Dr. Arnold Lazarus and Dr Bob
Below are the steps that I find very useful and I hope you find them useful for you too:
These are Dr Bob instructions:
1. Stop sign — When you create a thought you don’t want in your head, in your imagination hold up a huge red stop sign, perhaps being held by a stern-faced crossing guard!
2. Shout it out — Shout at the thought, scream at it, yell at it – not literally but out loud in your mind until you can sense that it is leaving your thoughts. (The nice thing about the mind is that it cannot contain more than a single conscious thought at a time.) Treat it like an intruder in your mind, someone you DO NOT want in there! Get angry at it!
3. Substitute — Prepare a sentence or thought to put in the place of the unwanted thought. Make it something strong, something positive, and something you really want to believe! (Some people carry such positive or self-encouraging thoughts with them, on 3 x 5 cards.)
4. Sustain — Keep at it. YOU CREATED THE UNWANTED THOUGHT FOR A REASON! (“Psychology of Use” says you think all your thoughts in order to get something from them!) As you kick the unwanted thought out the front door, it will turn around and try to sneak in a window or down the chimney! DON’T LET IT!
Keep repeating the four S’s until you find yourself to be in charge of the thought you don’t want. As you become more comfortable with this, you’ll find you are more in control of your whole mind, and also of your feelings.
By this time next week you will feel more in control of your unwelcome feelings and thoughts. If not…that’s an indication that you actually get something out of having such thoughts and feelings, and that you do not want to give them up yet…
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