You are probably still doing a mental activity instead of resting the mind by being in a state of non-doing. If you are saying the mantra (mentally or verbally) it would be a doing activity. Switching from a hectic mental activity to a milder mental activity does help to some extent but staying for a few minutes in a completely non-doing being is the only wholesome rest for the mind.
The following two articles would help you learn how to calm down or quieten your mind.
Self_Love_Respect ·
1y
Is it normal to experience uncontrollable self-talk?
If you define normal as something that happens with the majority of the people living on this planet, then yes, it is normal to experience uncontrollable self-talk. But if you ask whether it is good for you to experience this condition, I would say, no. In self-talk, who is talking to who? Self-talk means you are talking to yourself. But you need someone to be talking to, isn’t it? Self talk is usually the voice in your mind playing out. It is as if a recorded audio is on auto play in the mind. Whose voice? The voices of all the people in your life, the society around you, telling you constantly what to do and what not to do. It could be negative or it could be positive. If you successfully distract your mind from this activity, it would end up doing something else in the mind. These include the dialogues we carry out mentally with an imaginary person, memories of past events, worries about the future, planning, working, calculating, computing, watching something (video), listening something (audio such as podcasts), reading, studying, focusing, concentrating, paying attention, fantasising, imagining, dreaming, etc. We are habituated to this and so it seems to be happening effortlessly and automatically although we are doing it. Our mind gets tired of this constant uncontrollable, unstoppable habit and wants to rest. It actually gets exhausted. We easily know when our physical body is exhausted and we rest it by sitting down or lying down or taking a nap or long sleep or having a hot bath or a nice massage. But we have no metric or measure to find out when our mind is tired and we have no means to allow our mind to rest because any of the above resting that we give our physical body doesn’t rest the mind. Mental exhaustion shows up in the form of the following: Stress, worrying, indecisiveness, feeling restless, anxiety, panic attacks, depression, burnout, insomnia, impatience, constant irritation, etc. If you are feeling any of these it indicates your mind is tired and no amount of sleeping will be enough to make this mental tiredness go away. Long term mental exhaustion is the root cause for all the chronic life-style diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, etc. Positive self-talk is not an answer to this. It doesn’t help because the mind is already tired and we end up doing something more with the mind so it is neither effective nor does it give rest. I have written extensively in my Quora posts and previous answers about how to enjoy a quiet mind and allow our mind to completely rest and be rejuvenated. Please browse through and read a few of them if you are interested to begin controlling the uncontrollable self-talk.
Selvan Srinivasan · 1y
On most days meditation works for me, and 20 minutes will be more than sufficient, but why does it not work sometimes? Sometimes I am still in an undisciplined and irrational state of mind after 2 hours of meditation, which is rare, but still, why?
If you look back and see to compare how you feel before sitting down to meditate you may be able to perceive a difference in the state of restlessness of your mind. The vibrational frequency of such restless state of mind completely obscures and prevents the grounding connection. A few simple things will help. 1. Have a shower or bath with cold saltwater. If it is winter you may use mildly lukewarm or tepid saltwater but please do not use too warm or hot water. Mix one cup of rock salt to about five litres of water and pour it slowly over your head all over your body. In case you have too much hair and do not want to wet your hair please use a shower cap. You are not washing your body but you are washing your energy body, After this you may wash off the salt residue with soap and normal water and then apply lotion all over your body. 2. Place your feet on a steel tray or a steel plate while sitting to meditate. You may use either iron or steel, not any other metal. This helps with grounding. 3. Deep crossing energy movements is a very effective and quick way to release restless energy. Selvans Deep crossing: https://youtu.be/qq6iKZquuVI 4. Gentle yoga movements and stretches also help. Selvans 30 Yoga Training version https://youtu.be/g7rUsB_6sGY. Selvans 30 Yoga Shortest version https://youtu.be/m7dIBVswWtk 5. A few minutes of walking on grassy lawn with a bare foot also helps. Starting your meditation with a few minutes of eyes open meditation will also help the mind release the restless energies and settle down quietly with ease. The following article and the five minutes guided meditation thereafter would help you learn and experiment with this. Selvans Guided Meditation – Witnessing the four simultaneous activities: If you are interested, I would suggest you to please read some of my posts on my Quora profile to learn more about grounding and healing.
Mantra meditation can be practiced as a being state rather than a doing activity when you choose a suitable short mantra that automatically resonates with the in breath and the out breath so that you are simply sitting and listening to it effortlessly as you breathe without actually saying it in your mind.
Selvan Srinivasan · 2y
How do you chant “Om” internally?
Chanting OM internally is the same as Awareness of Breath meditation. Once your mind shifts into a quiet mode, simply sit in awareness and be aware of the movements of air in to your nostrils and out of your nostrils. With your intuitive mind you will hear the sound of Oo as the breath flows in and the sound of Mm as the breath flows out. You are not doing anything. Breath is happening by itself and it gives rise to these sounds by itself. You are not even focusing or concentrating on the breath or the sound. You are simply sitting in awareness and the arising phenomena of the breath is happening in the awareness. In addition to the breath, everything else arising or happening in each moment is also perceived by the awareness but you simply choose to sit as a witness and not get engaged with any specific phenomena. A state of grounded presence is essential before you can allow this to happen. For shifting into the quiet mind space Of grounded presence, you may use any effective practices. You can use chanting OM aloud in the beginning, or practice bhramari pranayama for a few minutes, and then soundlessly chant OM by doing the breathing and imagining the sound before the mental shift happens and then you will be able to sit quietly in a state of non-doing being, simply witnessing Om arising and flowing with each breath. You may use the guided meditation audio linked below to practice chanting OM internally. You may read the linked article below to learn other effective tools to quieten your mind to be able to practice this with ease. Selvans Guided Meditation – Awareness of Presence and Arising Breath