Space that needs filling

Are you able to sit and chill without any chatter in your mind?

It's a practice that is taught in the early lessons of meditation.  

I remember being quite young and asking many people around me..."what do you think about when you're not doing anything" and people would often reply..."nothing".  

It would absolutely astound me that there are people who can comfortably sit without any random thoughts, concerns, or memories just inviting themselves into their mind. Learning to meditate has been a wonderful skill in that it does let me sit quietly and remain present. In mindfulness, you think about your body and you scan your body or focus on something physical around you to keep your mind present. All this is awesome but I still struggle with truly not thinking anything.  

So in other words, I still don't know what it's like to sit with nothing in my mind.  What's not been wonderful in the last 5-7 years is that instead of creative, cool, and encouraging thoughts inviting themselves into my mind, the strangling thought strangers are critical jerks and useless guests. I wish I could blatantly tell them that they just aren't welcome into the cozy warmth of my grey matter home. But of course, we tend to fall victim to their harsh whispers and are unknowingly and subconsciously possessed by their rude presence. 

You may think ok, yes, I've heard about this before...it's clearly the issue of the cluttered mind.  A cluttered mind is a dangerous mind. But what if you just declutter it? I mean, that's definitely a place to start. Talk to someone, preferably a professional and take steps toward taking out the unnecessary junk. But again, for some people this is just not possible. Your mind may just not be wired to stop thinking.  Your neurons may be transmitting faster than others and it could be incredibly discouraging to work on decluttering when that approach just doesn't work.  So what can you do? 

Divert.  Find something in your life that you genuinely love but isn't always easy. Choose something that requires care and attention at various hours. Something that requires a commitment is best because it keeps you accountable. Do this for you. Register in a course or sign up to volunteer. If you're able to, have the means and the time, maybe adopting a pet is right for you. Maybe learning a language or learning to draw or sing. Anything it is, just make sure you're doing it for YOU and you will soon see that filling space can be a healthy way to begin to declutter other parts of your mind.

 Sam