How do you learn to control your thoughts?

Question

I usually have too many thoughts at once going through my mind and they tend to stress me out. I read somewhere you must learn to control what you think about. Well I've tried and I guess I'm not doing it right, so how exactly do you do it?

Answer 1

This happens to me at night sometimes, after I've gone to bed. I start thinking about things and can't sleep. When this happens, I tell myself, "Ok, I'm going to shut this off right here, and I will pick it all up again in the morning."

It really works pretty well. And actually in the morning, I rarely go back to the thoughts again.

Answer 2

Don't worry about it. Just don't think about it.

Could you explain more. You can edit for 3 days, but you'll get the most people pretty quick I think. Is it worry, are nervous about something. It's a real good execise to sit and empty your mind. It doesn't work, but you learn a lot. You may even be thinking consciously to block the subconscious for some reason, even though the subconscious is the sane mind. Nightmares are your concious thoughts left over for the subconscious to try and solve at night. The nightmares are the subconscious saying yeh, keep thinking like that, enjoy the results. It has to do something with our stupid thoughts. It sends them back saying, stupid thoughts, get rid of them. Garbage in garbage out. That's not for you, I don't think there's enough info. I bet you'd be great in an orchestra though, wouldn't miss a note. Do you swing between high highs and low lows? Stop it. But we know that. If that's the case, think of depressing things, that might bring a balanced view and you could figure out all the world problems. Might couuld. Got that now, in case you frogot already
1. Sit is a quiet place free from disturbance and try to think about nothing everychance you get and practice not thinking. Don't worry about it not working, it is very rewrding anyway. You should see that in about an hour. Oh never mind, I don't have that much discipline myself. Plan B
B. If you can't be discipined enought to sit and fail to try to empty your mind, get some kleenex and sit and think about all the bad things in the world. Be careful and don't get too depressed.
I liked some of that about stress. The part about killing though was a bit stressful. I am a sensitive soul. I only have to go to Walmart every week and a half for that good Walmart health donuts and pies and ice cream. I get so used to being home that going out gets me all depressed. Hmm How to develop agoraphobia in 2 easy steps. It's easy as 1, B, 3.
I love it, I love it. All these good posts. I feel better already. I can't stop talking unless someone says let's talk about it tomorrow or I say it. Quirky. Help, is it OK to be quirky?

Answer 3

Depends on what your talking about. If it's thoughts of what your doing needs to be done that kind of thing then you just have to pick out which is the most import and mentally scale them down by importance. worries remember you can't control things,when you feel it becoming overwhelming relax read a book,listen to music,take a walk.

Answer 4

Stress is a disease of modern times. It afflicts people regardless of their station in life. Stress is present in the lives of the rich and poor, literate and illiterate, men and women. Stress is, however, more evident and is probably more widespread in technologically advanced countries, and is common among highly qualified professionals.

Stress is of various kinds — physical, emotional and intellectual, and it is characterised by a feeling of being burdened; of being unable to cope. At a physical level modern technology and facilities have actually increased workloads and decreased relaxation. Mobile phones and laptops have made it easy to carry the office to the home.

Emotional stress increases when there is disharmony and friction in relationships. Unfortunately, the trend today is to take the easy way out — people prefer to break away from relationships rather than repair them. Philosophical and intellectual tensions also add to the stress factor.

The answer to stress can be found in the very letters of the word, ‘stress’:

‘S’ stands for strength: Physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. Physical and emotional weakness leads to irritability. A strong, healthy body developed through proper diet, exercise and pranayama techniques helps reduce stress at the physical level. Through satsang and appropriate learning gained therein, the mind can be strengthened. Love, compassion and friendship are valuable strength-givers that help us cope with stress.

The scriptures say that knowledge of the Self cannot be gained without inner strength. Rabindranath Tagore, in a poem, prays to the Lord not to remove all obstacles, but instead, he asks for strength to bear them. Before the start of the Mahabharata war Arjun was seized with a bout of emotional weakness and he refused to fight the war. Lord Krishna rescued him by giving him emotional strength.

‘T’ stands for traffic control. We need to regulate and control our thoughts. We can cope with stress best if our thoughts are orderly and methodical. Unnecessary accumulation leads to clogging of the mind. The key lies in being able to live one moment at a time. Eat while eating, work while working, leave the home at home and the office in the office. Remember, however long we have to travel we can only take one step at a time. Worrying only reduces efficiency and then even simple tasks cannot be completed correctly and in time.

‘R’ is for re-design. We tend to view life and ourselves through our own philosophy. A readjustment or reorientation in this philosophy increases our capacity to bear heavier loads.

‘E’ stands for erase: The ego, anger, fear and jealousy are negative emotions that reduce efficiency, leading to mental weakness, causing stress. Too much emphasis on the ego, or abrogation of doership is responsible for increasing stress. Sri Rama asked Sri Hanuman how he was able to cause so much havoc in Lanka and yet return unscathed. Hanuman disclaimed all responsibility. He said, “I did not do it, you did it through me”. There is a higher power or strength working through us.

‘S’ is for sharing: Share your wealth, knowledge, workload or anything else you have. By and large people do not know how to share or delegate. Lord Vishnu as the manager of the world is the best example of delegation of work. Everything happens under his stewardship but he remains free and at ease.

The last but most important is the ‘S’ which stands for surrender to the Lord. Free your mind from the weight of worries and become an instrument, adopting an attitude of service. This attitude will ensure efficiency, success, and freedom from stress.


http://spirituality.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1122382.cms