How do you turn off your brain?

[Calamity Jane]

It may be hard for some of y'all to believe, but I think too damn much. About everything. Always analyzing, looking for reasons, motivations and the thoughts behind thoughts... I paralyze myself with thinking... 'what if I do X and Y happens, or Y doesn't happen, or Y does happen afterall, but it turns out Y is the wrong answer to the original question? And what if the original question was just a clever way to state an entirely different thought?

I seriously need to shut myself the fuck up and get on with it, ya know?

So... when you're overwhelming yourself, what do you do?

 

[Guest]

I can be the same way, PCG. The only thing that helps me is meditation/yoga.
Long walks and music can help, sometimes.
It's all about behavior modification. At first, it may be difficult. But, the more you do it, the easier your mind frees itself.

 

[scylis]

to shut off my brain?

i watch tv.

 

[Ms_Lilith]

I meditate.. I know exactly what you're talking about.. so I began to meditate or pray, and I find that it calms me so that I can sleep.

 

[Calamity Jane]

Ugh, I hate TV, and meditation is a dismal failure lately.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

 

[Rambling Rose]

I indulge in some recreational intoxicant, then I turn the ringer off and crawl under the comforter to sleep.

 

[Cibo]

Shut off my brain...hrm...I just act normally.

 

[Calamity Jane]

I indulge in some recreational intoxicant, then I turn the ringer off and crawl under the comforter to sleep.

Sounds wonderful. Unfortunately, alcohol is off limits til i'm done with my antibiotic and all other recreational phamaceuticals are awful hard to get my hands on lately.

Perhaps I should resign myself to falling prey to my brain.

 

[Guest]

Well, I'd recommend getting away for a weekend. You may just need some time, alone, to clear your head.

 

[Rambling Rose]

Re: Perhaps I should resign myself to falling prey to my brain.

Heaven forbid! I'm sending out the sled dogs with a special cannister. Feed them before you send them back.

 

[bluespoke]

Perhaps I should resign myself to falling prey to my brain.

No need, just keep coming to Lit!

If you really want brain numbing, read dateRape's threads.

 

[AzureAngel]

Me? Well. I don't stop it. *Chuckles n'shrugs.* However, being indecisive is a bit different from thinking too much, period. That's a different topic that I'd love to get on a tangent about, as last night was an excellent example... but I digress.

The ability to critically analyze a problem and see all sides is a wonderful life skill. At least you're able to think! There are a lot of people I can't say the same about. The paralysis of thought in decision-making, though... well, that's NOT good, obviously. For me, I do just what you said. I lay out the pros and cons of it, then I back myself into a corner and tell myself to, "shut the fuck up and get on with it."

If you don't make any choice, you're getting screwed out of the positives of either option and you're robbing yourself of opportunity. In the case of... oh, asking someone out, lets say... by not asking them out due to all the analyzing, you are damning yourself to fail. As long as TRY, there's a chance. Not trying is a guaranteed failure - and the prospect of that failure is the entire reason most hesitate.

So, quite literally, I say in my head, "Fuck it," and do whatever it is. Or make a choice, or whatever.

It all depends on the choice. :\ Don't let yourself be ruled by fear, that's long and short of it. Fear of making the wrong choice or fear of what COULD happen. Analyze the situation the best that you can, be confident in your analysis, and make a choice based on that. Period.

Wow, that all almost tied together into one thought.
Almost.

 

[missy2]

Time to turn off my brain-


Hey brain,you sure have a small dick!

I believe that did the trick.

 

[AzureAngel]

Step 1: Believe you can control your thinking.

Then you're all good.

 

[missy2]

HMM,it didn't work-my brain is not turned off---that line ALWAYS turns off the guys!

 

[DéjàNu]

So... when you're overwhelming yourself, what do you do?

I'm always analyzing things too, it can be very tiring at time so to shut off my brain I do:
-Watch TV or film
-Read book
-Listen to music loud
-Play cards on my computer (on yahoo, Euchre)
-Watch porn
-talk to hubby (sometimes)
-Cook or cock
-Hook my webcam and use it with other webcam users (fun!)
-Passing time with my Online lover
-Having sex
-Going out with friends
-and so on....

 

[freescorfr]

I'd say, Pagan, that when things happen in your life you put them fairly quickly into your head. It's what most of us do when we've had some pretty hard times, we skip the feeling stage and rationalise - go right into thinking. At least I did that for most of my life.

Something happens and before I manage to feel what's going on in me I've started THINKING!

The exercise I do when something disturbs me now is to find a word for how I feel. I posted some of these on a Juicylips thread. Get the word and then try to link the feeling with where the feeling has come from.

Right: an example.

I've just built a new shed without planning permission. I get a phone call from the mayor asking me if I can call round.

In the past I wouldn't be able to turn my brain off.

Now, I say. I feel alarmed - panic, uncertain, guilt.......
When did I feel like this before.????

Then I often get back to some event early on in life - there's a regular set cropping up.

This one takes me back to primary school a day before my first communion when I was hauled out of class and made to go to the priest to make my first confession for the second time because......I never understood why. I think the dinner lady had said to the headteacher that I'd told a lie. I was six years old.

So when the mayor phoned me....boom! I feel the same. In comprehension, fear. By the time I get to the Mairie, I've felt it all out......What the hell if I've built a shed?

""Monsieur Fletcher," he says, "I owe you some money."

Just the other day that happenned.

We're trained to think - not to feel. Feeling skills should be taught in school.

 

[Thumper]

How to turn off a brain?

Ask Rush....he's able to get 20 million to do it every day.

 

[Dillinger]

I'm very much like you, pcg - probably why I have insomnia problems... I just don't shut up, even internally...

The only thing that's ever really worked for me is meditation. I know you say it hasn't worked for you lately... so it might take more "effort" than usual - you might even try some different types of meditation - perhaps Hatha?

The only other thing that works for me is reading... I can get so involved that all there is are the words in the book, and nothing else...

 

[Rambling Rose]

You know what else I do, PCG? I drive. I get into my car and try to get lost a little. Turn the music up loud and just go.

 

[Calamity Jane]

I've been through the feelings.. I know the why's and how's of where I am... but I can't feel my way to the otherside.

I'm not looking for distraction from my thoughts... not television or reading or anything like that. I can't be distracted from them, even if I want to be. I'm looking for some way to actually tell my mind to leave me the hell alone for awhile... i know it doesn't make sense, and I don't know for sure why I posted, but escape isn't what I'm after this time. I've escaped for long enough.

 

[AzureAngel]

There's no way to shut it off, period, without a sort of distraction, I find. *Shrugs.* The only real reprieve I can find from it, without any form of distraction, is another "fuck you" approach.

I think. I think hard, and I think some more. I write it down, or jot it down in a LiveJournal. I push it and squeeze my mind like an orange to squeeze everything out of it. I purge... purge... and purge some more. Put it into high-gear and don't lay off.

Eventually, my mind will hit a wall. It will simply "turn off," to the point that it just won't actively seek things to think about and it won't focus well.

Is this healthy? Maybe not. Works for me, though.

 

[AzureAngel]

Last post may've contradicted in saying you can't "turn it off" and then explaining how I turn it off. *Snickers.* Sorry.

It's the same thing I once did for a stomach ache. I find a Pepsi, which is like Draino for how gentle that crap is on your system, and then I drink it. Fast. "You want to hurt? Fine. Let me help." It's a really silly way of regaining control. *Chuckles.* But oh well. It worked.

 

[Calamity Jane]

I'm very much like you, pcg - probably why I have insomnia problems... I just don't shut up, even internally...

nuh uh! we have nothing in common, nothin i tell ya! And you know me, always a full night's sleep.

The only thing that's ever really worked for me is meditation. I know you say it hasn't worked for you lately... so it might take more "effort" than usual - you might even try some different types of meditation - perhaps Hatha?

It's never worked for me. I just cannot get there. I think in my sleep... I think about other things while I'm reading... I cannot remember a time in my life that I haven't been thinking about something. I'm tired.

The only other thing that works for me is reading... I can get so involved that all there is are the words in the book, and nothing else...

You just want me to hurry up and finish Fierce Invalids.

 

[paphian]

It's never worked for me. I just cannot get there. I think in my sleep... I think about other things while I'm reading... I cannot remember a time in my life that I haven't been thinking about something. I'm tired.

When you are finished with something, are you really done?

I've a friend that complains of this all the time. The problem is, she never is really done with something. She doesn't "move on". Instead, she re-analyzes and reconsiders (and often recriminates).

So if that's what you're talking about here, I'd say... try letting go of what you've already dealt with. Look to the future, not to the past.