How to quiet my mind

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I was hoping for some feedback/advice. BEAR WITH ME! As this is a somewhat scrupulous problem that’s a little convoluted. I am a pretty peaceful individual and I have pretty good focus generally. I am not an anxious individual. However, in the few days after a fall, my mind is overwhelmed with thoughts and it makes me not be able to focus in the present moment. It isn’t guilt. Matter of fact, it’s almost quite the opposite. After a fall, I do some self reflecting and realize I was probably not focusing on God enough and that led to the fall (I’m talking about falls in purity, I’m a 28 yr old man and I know that purity is a struggle for most guys). So I’m not feeling guilty because I know Confession wipes away the guilt. But in my attempts to re-focus myself towards God, I just overwhelmed with thoughts. It’s like I want to please God so much that my mind just runs rampant. I’m reading the Bible and listening to Jesus’ commands and it’s almost like I am trying to do all of them at once (i.e. He commands us to be the light of the world, to love God and love our neighbor, to have the mind of Christ, to spread love throughout the world, etc.). All are commands we should do, yet the thinking of them all at once gives me a headache and it’'s impossible to do all commands at one time. Has anyone had the same experience or even know what I’m talking about lol? This is probably a question for a spiritual director, but I do not have one at this time and need to find one. Thanks for your help!

I guess the root of this problem is perfectionism?
 
It sounds like you are trying to use thoughts to overpower other thoughts. But thoughts are like perpetual motion machines; the more you fight them the more energy they attain.

The key is to learn how to “let go” of thoughts. Yes, find a spiritual director, but also look for a group that does “Lectio Divina” (Divine Reading) because that is all about experiencing all the different levels of the Word, down to the contemplative level. And that’s where you get true union with God. You open yourself up as much as you can with silent mind, and those running the group should be able to help you learn how to do that.

Also I’m thinking, try letting a machine do so of the work. So if your mind is too active that it wants to focus on the Word, then try biblegateway.com/ for example, go to a chapter, and let the machine read. That’s the NIV, but there may be similar things for Catholic Bible. I believe any of the translations are good, though there are those academics who like to disagree. The reason I like this one, is the machine doesn’t really inject any human emotion into the reading, so it’s kind of “sterile,” or more like a “framework” that I can experience my own feelings rather than follow the sing-songy voice of some other human reading it.

You can even let the Scripture play as background to doing other activities, like I played the New Testament on repeat, 24/7, for several months – that was a wonderful thing. I could either listen to it or not at any given moment because every 17 hours it would start over at Matt 1.

Alan
 
Very good suggestion, Alan. Thank you. I do agree that you are right in that it is a thought disorder. It’s an odd one though because it’s really only the few days after a fall and then my mind gets very quiet after like a week of this problem. But until I get to a peaceful state, I am trying to control thoughts with other positive thoughts but if I am injecting more positive thoughts in my brain, my brain does get overloaded with all that goes on. And when I do read the Bible I do feel very much at peace in these times.
 
Life can get pretty busy and you have to be very self-disciplined about finding some quiet time to gather your thoughts, sort things out, and calm your mind.

A Psalm comes to mind for these moments:

“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

When you think about it, most of the things running through your mind are self-made worries: replying to emails, checking Facebook, where you are your career, your house, your car, etc. In a pinch, you could probably just walk away from most of your concerns, and stop thinking about most of the things running through your mind.

Like the Psalm indicates, stop fretting about too much. Just live a proper life, and love God. Everything else is just an invention of our ambitions.
 
When I have trouble quieting my mind, I wonder if the problem is that I’m trying to do it. I think I need to invite Jesus into that chaos. He’s the one I need to be my Savior in the battle for my mind.

Someone else mentioned the Psalms. The Psalms say things about not relying on the strength of man or of the horse in battle, but to rely on God. How much more do we need to rely on the strength of God in the battles within us?

Peace be with you.
 
Thank you so much Anthony for your post. I am really experiencing the same problem now.sometimes my mind is in such a state of confusion that i find my self thinking something and saying another. I find all the replies helpfull and totally grateful to CAF.
 
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