How to Stop the Internal Dialogue:
Practices That Bring Back Silence
Practices That Bring Back Silence
The internal dialogue almost never goes quiet. It comments, argues, replays yesterday’s conversation, and lives tomorrow in advance. It feels like thinking. In reality, most of this stream leads nowhere: a thought appears, hooks the next one, and dissolves, leaving nothing but noise. While that noise is running, attention is scattered. It is harder to hear the body, notice a subtle signal, or hold a state in practice.
Stopping the internal dialogue is not an attempt to switch the mind off forever. It is the skill of clearing the extra commentary for a while, so consciousness becomes quieter and more flexible. Below are several working methods. Some knock the usual stream off course by speed. Others let a thought fade on its own. Others stop it before it becomes a word.
Start simply, and do not chase a long silence on the first try. It is enough to feel the pause once. After that, you already know the state you are returning to.
Stopping the internal dialogue is not an attempt to switch the mind off forever. It is the skill of clearing the extra commentary for a while, so consciousness becomes quieter and more flexible. Below are several working methods. Some knock the usual stream off course by speed. Others let a thought fade on its own. Others stop it before it becomes a word.
Start simply, and do not chase a long silence on the first try. It is enough to feel the pause once. After that, you already know the state you are returning to.
The “Knocking Out” exercise
This type of exercise is based on switching quickly from one thought to another, as if knocking settled thoughts out of the head with new ones. Because you change thoughts so fast, the mind gets unused to letting them settle, and becomes more flexible and mobile.
For example, you start singing a song. You cut it off at once and sing another. You cut that off and sing the next. Then you can switch from songs to poems, to random thoughts, to silently narrating what you are doing right now. The point is to speed up the change of the “current” thought. You switch faster, and faster still… And then — everything flies out of the head, and you are in absolute silence. Consciousness could not keep up with the speed you set, and switched off.
Remember that state and try to return to it by will alone, without the exercise. That is the real task. Most likely, the first time, the mind will recover quickly and thoughts will fill the air again. But you will already know that this is clutter. You have felt the silence. Now you only need time to learn how to bring it back and stay in it longer.
For example, you start singing a song. You cut it off at once and sing another. You cut that off and sing the next. Then you can switch from songs to poems, to random thoughts, to silently narrating what you are doing right now. The point is to speed up the change of the “current” thought. You switch faster, and faster still… And then — everything flies out of the head, and you are in absolute silence. Consciousness could not keep up with the speed you set, and switched off.
Remember that state and try to return to it by will alone, without the exercise. That is the real task. Most likely, the first time, the mind will recover quickly and thoughts will fill the air again. But you will already know that this is clutter. You have felt the silence. Now you only need time to learn how to bring it back and stay in it longer.
The “Fading” exercise
The point of this class of exercises is to watch your thoughts. You think of something, notice it, and follow how the thought develops and what it turns into. Then you see it leave attention and fade.
To make this more effective, you can use a “substitution.” Deliberately bring a simple thought into the field of attention — a mantra, or a simple image. Strengthen it as much as you can, until it takes all of your attention. Hold it for a few minutes. Then begin to weaken it, while still keeping it in view. Gradually this thought also fades enough not to disturb you. If it occupied your attention well, the other thoughts will not return for a while. You get a short stop of the internal dialogue.
This is a compromise, of course, and over time you should learn to do without it. A more concrete image is a pendulum. Watch it swing in the rhythm of your thoughts. Then start slowing the pendulum until it stops completely.
You can also follow the breath, or “tick” in this style: “Tick, tick, tick… tick… tick…… tick……… tick……………… ti………………….. ti……………. t… ….. … …”
To make this more effective, you can use a “substitution.” Deliberately bring a simple thought into the field of attention — a mantra, or a simple image. Strengthen it as much as you can, until it takes all of your attention. Hold it for a few minutes. Then begin to weaken it, while still keeping it in view. Gradually this thought also fades enough not to disturb you. If it occupied your attention well, the other thoughts will not return for a while. You get a short stop of the internal dialogue.
This is a compromise, of course, and over time you should learn to do without it. A more concrete image is a pendulum. Watch it swing in the rhythm of your thoughts. Then start slowing the pendulum until it stops completely.
You can also follow the breath, or “tick” in this style: “Tick, tick, tick… tick… tick…… tick……… tick……………… ti………………….. ti……………. t… ….. … …”
The “Barrier” exercise
You begin to think, but you try not to pronounce the thoughts “to yourself.” Feel where in the head a thought is born, and the moment it wants to become a word spoken inside. As soon as it has appeared and wants to become a word, recognize it and let it go. It has already been noted. It can leave.
Gradually, doing this exercise, you will notice that thinking has become light and pleasant, that consciousness is very mobile, and that you have become, in a way, “smarter.” You begin less to “think” and more to see your thoughts as images. You have only started to think about something, and the answer is already there as an image. This kind of thinking happens instantly.
Once you have that result, you can go further. See to it that thoughts stop forming for a while. In essence, you have already removed the internal dialogue, but you have not yet reached “inner silence.” What remains is to stop forming thoughts at all. For this, you can move all thoughts outside a conditional circle and leave them there, waiting until you need them again. Feel how the images gather around the head and step beyond the area you have marked off. Look at them for a moment from behind that conditional partition, then return into your head. It is empty now.
Gradually, doing this exercise, you will notice that thinking has become light and pleasant, that consciousness is very mobile, and that you have become, in a way, “smarter.” You begin less to “think” and more to see your thoughts as images. You have only started to think about something, and the answer is already there as an image. This kind of thinking happens instantly.
Once you have that result, you can go further. See to it that thoughts stop forming for a while. In essence, you have already removed the internal dialogue, but you have not yet reached “inner silence.” What remains is to stop forming thoughts at all. For this, you can move all thoughts outside a conditional circle and leave them there, waiting until you need them again. Feel how the images gather around the head and step beyond the area you have marked off. Look at them for a moment from behind that conditional partition, then return into your head. It is empty now.
A few more methods
The ability to stop the internal dialogue is a key condition for any spiritual practice. Internal dialogue is present in every person’s head. It keeps in place the picture of the world that society installed in early childhood.
What does the internal dialogue look like? In consciousness there is a constant spontaneous movement of thoughts, the so-called mental noise. Even a glance at an object starts associative chains, and thinking about nothing begins. A person thinks, sorts through options, reasons, runs through situations. The output is zero. Even the reason for the activity is lost within a second, and the thought goes nowhere. It resembles aimless chatter in a large room of near-strangers.
Try not to think about anything for at least twenty seconds. Without preparation, and without straining on the thought “I must not think.” After twenty seconds you will find that the thinking process never left. It ran the whole time you were “not thinking.” In most cases the internal dialogue is also duplicated by articulation. You can notice the involuntary voicing of thoughts, accompanied by tiny movements of the tongue and lips.
To begin, step a little aside from your consciousness and, from the position of an outside observer, try to catch the moments when new thoughts arise. It also helps to catch the points where one thought passes into another. Almost all techniques for stopping the dialogue rest on a clear sense of how it works, and on the ability to notice unwanted thoughts as they appear.
External conditions matter too. A separate room with as few irritants as possible — light, noise, voices — is useful. You will not be distracted, and the spontaneous work of the dialogue is easier to see when there is no obvious reason for a thought to start.
A horizontal position is preferable. Then relax, using whatever methods you have, and set the intention to practice. The easiest time is in the morning, right after waking. The most effective time is before sleep.
First method. Move into the state of the “observer” and perceive your consciousness from a distance, tracking the appearance of spontaneous thoughts. When they appear, extinguish them with a soft push of consciousness. Do not turn the act of noticing or extinguishing into a thought of its own.
Thoughts such as “a thought appeared — now I will stop it” are also internal dialogue. What should be working is intention and the setting you gave yourself beforehand. It is worth learning to stay in this inner silence for at least three or four minutes. After that, a shift into an altered state is possible, and the silence begins to hold itself.
After you have reached that silent state many times, it makes sense to treat it as a beacon and to develop a code phrase associated with it. Using the phrase, you will reach inner silence noticeably faster.
Second method. Focus consciousness on a monotonous mental task that occupies the whole field of attention. Create the thought-form of a blue cube. The cube rotates slowly. The main thing is never to let it leave attention, and not to lose the settings of the form: color, size, shape, smoothness of rotation. This way can also bring the needed state.
Third method. The simplest and the hardest at the same time. The internal dialogue is stopped by will. You simply make the inner voice be quiet. With a developed will, it can work.
Fourth method. In rhythm with the breath, count silently from 1 to 100. If even one outside thought appears during the count, start again. Continue until you get the result. Then you can raise the count to 200, and further. The outcome should be a silence that no longer needs effort to maintain.
Fifth method. You can use the Zen practice of illogical, paradoxical images — the koan. Many can be found online. By concentrating the mind on a koan, you drive it into a kind of stall. With enough concentration, there should be no outside thoughts.
All the previous techniques asked for specific conditions: silence, solitude, and so on. How do you stop the internal dialogue in the middle of a full day?
Almost all of our actions are done automatically, without the area of conscious thinking. Repeated day after day, they become habits, carried out by the subconscious. The freed energy of consciousness needs an outlet. The internal dialogue, besides locking us into the existing agreement about the world, is busy “using up” that energy. Otherwise, unrealized energy can feed nervous strain and wear at the familiar picture of the world.
A natural solution is to remove habits from life where you can. Change the ordinary order and the way you do things. Start with the most automatic ones. Tie your laces with a different knot. Brush your teeth with the other hand, and differently. Rearrange the things on your desk. Find a new way to get to work.
In principle, if the hands or feet want to perform an action by themselves, that is a habit you can change. A consciousness occupied with the work leaves the internal dialogue without fuel. Gradually the habit of a constant mental background fades too. The main point of this practice: while dropping some "household rituals," do not create new ones.
There is another option. You do not have to abandon the familiar pattern. You can stay in the state of the “observer” and watch the habits from a distance as they are carried out. This way of stopping the internal dialogue is fairly difficult and needs a good skill of concentration.
What does the internal dialogue look like? In consciousness there is a constant spontaneous movement of thoughts, the so-called mental noise. Even a glance at an object starts associative chains, and thinking about nothing begins. A person thinks, sorts through options, reasons, runs through situations. The output is zero. Even the reason for the activity is lost within a second, and the thought goes nowhere. It resembles aimless chatter in a large room of near-strangers.
Try not to think about anything for at least twenty seconds. Without preparation, and without straining on the thought “I must not think.” After twenty seconds you will find that the thinking process never left. It ran the whole time you were “not thinking.” In most cases the internal dialogue is also duplicated by articulation. You can notice the involuntary voicing of thoughts, accompanied by tiny movements of the tongue and lips.
To begin, step a little aside from your consciousness and, from the position of an outside observer, try to catch the moments when new thoughts arise. It also helps to catch the points where one thought passes into another. Almost all techniques for stopping the dialogue rest on a clear sense of how it works, and on the ability to notice unwanted thoughts as they appear.
External conditions matter too. A separate room with as few irritants as possible — light, noise, voices — is useful. You will not be distracted, and the spontaneous work of the dialogue is easier to see when there is no obvious reason for a thought to start.
A horizontal position is preferable. Then relax, using whatever methods you have, and set the intention to practice. The easiest time is in the morning, right after waking. The most effective time is before sleep.
First method. Move into the state of the “observer” and perceive your consciousness from a distance, tracking the appearance of spontaneous thoughts. When they appear, extinguish them with a soft push of consciousness. Do not turn the act of noticing or extinguishing into a thought of its own.
Thoughts such as “a thought appeared — now I will stop it” are also internal dialogue. What should be working is intention and the setting you gave yourself beforehand. It is worth learning to stay in this inner silence for at least three or four minutes. After that, a shift into an altered state is possible, and the silence begins to hold itself.
After you have reached that silent state many times, it makes sense to treat it as a beacon and to develop a code phrase associated with it. Using the phrase, you will reach inner silence noticeably faster.
Second method. Focus consciousness on a monotonous mental task that occupies the whole field of attention. Create the thought-form of a blue cube. The cube rotates slowly. The main thing is never to let it leave attention, and not to lose the settings of the form: color, size, shape, smoothness of rotation. This way can also bring the needed state.
Third method. The simplest and the hardest at the same time. The internal dialogue is stopped by will. You simply make the inner voice be quiet. With a developed will, it can work.
Fourth method. In rhythm with the breath, count silently from 1 to 100. If even one outside thought appears during the count, start again. Continue until you get the result. Then you can raise the count to 200, and further. The outcome should be a silence that no longer needs effort to maintain.
Fifth method. You can use the Zen practice of illogical, paradoxical images — the koan. Many can be found online. By concentrating the mind on a koan, you drive it into a kind of stall. With enough concentration, there should be no outside thoughts.
All the previous techniques asked for specific conditions: silence, solitude, and so on. How do you stop the internal dialogue in the middle of a full day?
Almost all of our actions are done automatically, without the area of conscious thinking. Repeated day after day, they become habits, carried out by the subconscious. The freed energy of consciousness needs an outlet. The internal dialogue, besides locking us into the existing agreement about the world, is busy “using up” that energy. Otherwise, unrealized energy can feed nervous strain and wear at the familiar picture of the world.
A natural solution is to remove habits from life where you can. Change the ordinary order and the way you do things. Start with the most automatic ones. Tie your laces with a different knot. Brush your teeth with the other hand, and differently. Rearrange the things on your desk. Find a new way to get to work.
In principle, if the hands or feet want to perform an action by themselves, that is a habit you can change. A consciousness occupied with the work leaves the internal dialogue without fuel. Gradually the habit of a constant mental background fades too. The main point of this practice: while dropping some "household rituals," do not create new ones.
There is another option. You do not have to abandon the familiar pattern. You can stay in the state of the “observer” and watch the habits from a distance as they are carried out. This way of stopping the internal dialogue is fairly difficult and needs a good skill of concentration.