Summary: Most of us have a lot of negative thoughts cluttering our minds and colouring our view of the world. We have lots of mind chatter reviewing the events of the day and thinking and worrying about upcoming events. Some of us don’t even notice these thoughts, others are painfully aware of them. Most of us use, whether we are aware of it or not, a lot of sedatives to quieten the mind chatter for example alcohol and other drugs, magazines, TV and even meaningless chatter with other people. A lot of these sedatives fill our brains with negativity – people being cruel to each other on the TV programs, the bad news on the news, the sad or angry stories of our friends. It keeps us believing this is how the world is and should be. It can be quite refreshing to have this mental noise shut up for a while. First step: stop using the sedatives. Turn off the TV, use no drugs, don’t read any magazines or newspapers, don’t engage in general chit chat for a day or even a week and see what happens. Simultaneously do some exercises to turn your attention away from the mental pollution in your mind. One easy way to do this is to turn your attention to your breathing. Here is a short guided meditation by Jon Kabat-Zinn who is a professor of medicine in the States. Trying doing this once a day and see if day by day you can become more aware of the mind chatter , be aware it’s there, rather than having it run your life with out you noticing it. There are a serious of these short meditations by Prof Kabat-Zinn with different focuses. They are just tools to turn your attention away from your thoughts and onto something else. With practice you will find that the chatter becomes quieter, and day by day the negativity around you becomes less apparent and it is easier to see the beauty in people and the world around you. Download audio
