Turning off your chattering mind is an essential for physical and mental relaxation as well as necessary for all major spiritual practices (doing this before any spiritual practice will enhance your results). In this article I will teach you several methods, all backed by science, for pressing the off-button on your mental chatter.

Is it really like an off-button?

Yes. The reason why I say it's like an off-button is because you will be consciously activating specific parts of your brain through these techniques. And when you activate those parts of your brain, it forces the part of your brain responsible for mind-chatter to shut-off. And when you shut-off the part of your brain responsible for mind-chatter (called the Default Mode Network or DMN), you also turn-off the mind-chatter.

What is the off-button?

It's very simple. You attune to your sensory awareness in a specific way then your mind will relax and your mind-chatter will subside.

You do this by expanding your spatial awareness by the methods I am about to tell you. But first, I will go over the evidence procedure so you know when have done this correctly.

Evidence Procedure

The following are signs that you are accessing the 'anti-mind-chatter' parts of your brain.

feel a mental shift and see a shift in the quality of the mental image you are making of the thing you are looking at. head feel lighter, atmosphere feel lighterr See in 3D instead of 2D physiologically more relaxed less mind chatter larynx relaxed and open pharynx relaxed and open

You may or may not experience some or all of the following:

• Physiological shifts
  • may feel a physiological shift in your head or clicking noise.
  • Physiologically more relaxed
  • Larynx relaxed and still
  • Pharynx relaxed and open (see diagram below)
  • Light pulsing in your head (your heart is sending signals to your brain through its pulse rhythm)
• Kinesthetic
  • head feel lighter and more expansive
  • the atmosphere you are in may feel lighter and brighter
• Visual
  • see a shift in the visual quality of what you are looking at.
  • See objects in 3D instead of 2D
• Auditory
  • perceive more of the existing sound that your mind may have filtered out before.
• Mental
  • Less mind chatter
  • Thoughts about things will shift
  • Have less critical thoughts about yourself and others
• Overall heighten sensory acuity of all 5 senses

512px-2411_Pharynx.jpg Source: Commons.wikimedia.org. (n.d.). File:2411 Pharynx.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. [online] Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2411_Pharynx.jpg [Accessed 21 Mar. 2019].

One way you can test the effects this state has on your thoughts is:

1. before you do your first exercise, on a scale of 1 to 10, one being the lowest, think of a specific moment that you would consider a 3 or a 5 in annoyance. Then on a sheet of paper, write a short phrase to represent that moment, circle it, and take 1 minute to mind map your thoughts and feelings about that moment. Only spend 1 minute.
2. Then set that paper aside for now so you can focus on the exercise.
3. Now go through each method for activating your spatial awareness mentioned below.
4. When you have gone through each one, get another sheet of paper and make a mind map of how you feel now about that same moment you wrote about earlier.
5. Compare the two different mind maps and notice how you feel different about that past event.

Expanding Spatial Awareness Protocol

Go through each one of these methods to notice which one works best for you. And by going through all these methods you will develop more flexibility and ease in accessing this state to turn-off mind-chatter.

Activating Spatial Awareness

Narrow then broad awareness

This is the first technique learned for shutting off mind-chatter. I learned it from iNLPCenter.org in their 'Tame the DMN' audio course. (this is my rendition of this process).

Strengths over the other methods:

• great for calming a very agitated mind (which is why I'm teaching this first). Because you are first narrowing your focus on one specific sensory stimulus which centers the mind, making it easier to relax into spatial awareness.

The basic formula for this process is as follows:

1. Grounding - Focus on a specific feeling, sound, or visual spot with a narrowing focus on that one thing until you feel a shift in your mind and body.
2. activate spatial awareness - Expand your awareness either physically, auditory or visual to either feel, hear, or see all the empty space around you.

Here is an example walk through to get you started:

1. Slowly rub your index finger on the surface of your desk, keyboard, chair, or some other object outside of you. Noticing how the surface of your skin moves across the surface of the object. Does is slide smoothly, or slightly cling to it? Notice the textures of the object. Does it feel smooth, or rough, or are some parts more smooth or more rough than others? Spend about a minute doing this and really focusing on all the sensations you are feeling with the tip of your index finger.
2. Keep doing this for a minute or so until you begin to feel a shift in your mind and feel more relaxed.
3. Then at a comfortable pace, expand your awareness to feel your entire body.
4. Then expand your visual awareness and peripheral vision and view all the space around you.

NLP Trainer/Learning State

This technique is often used in NLP for delivering presentations and learning. It is also a similar state taught by Paul Scheele in his PhotoReading course.

1. Pick a spot on the wall 30 degrees above eye level.
2. focus on that spot for about 30 seconds, your mind will be calmer than it was before you started.
3. Then slowly expand your gaze outwards towards your peripherals until you reach borderline of your entire visual field.
4. Hold your perception at the limits of your visual field for a moment until it becomes more comfortable,
5. Slowly lower your eyes to normal eye level.

Immediate Peripheral Awareness

This is a method I invented by accident.

Strengths:

• It's quick and simple yet may take some practice.

1. Focus on something in front of you
2. view the space between you and the thing you are looking at.
3. then immediately see with your peripherals as if there's a pole on each side at the limits of your peripherals and hold it there.

Enhancing Your Spatial Awareness

The follow are techniques to help enhance the quality of your spatial awareness.

Seeing in 3D

Strengths:

• Improve concentration for physical activities or sports.

Another way of thinking about it is seeing in 3D instead of 2D. Look at a 3D object (not an image of a 3D object, a real 3D object), and imagine feeling its shape all around, imagine feeling the back of the object. Now imagine feeling the empty space in your entire room or area you're in.

The key here is paying attention to the space around objects instead of the objects themselves. And feeling the objects instead of seeing them.

Perceiving the space around objects is a technique taught by the art instructor Betty Edwards in her book 'Drawing on the right side of the brain'.

Feeling the shape of the object is a technique I discovered when practicing my aim in pocket billiards.

Spatial Awareness Synethesia

This is something I stumbled upon by accident while playing with spatial awareness. You basically add your other five senses (touch, taste, smell, sound, and sight) to your spatial awareness. As if your spatial awareness has all five sensory built into it.

Strengths:

• Grounds you more in the moment.
• Excellent for enhancing sensory memory in that moment.

One modification I add to these spatial awareness techniques is adding synethesia. For example, look up at the corner of a wall, feel what the textures would feel like, imagine using your imaginary hand to feel it, now imagine what it tastes like. Yes it may shock your senses and that's fine. You can also imagine what sounds the atoms which make up that object sounds like, the vibration it makes, give the object a good sniff while you're at it.

Spatial Locationing

The follow techniques further hones your sense of spatial awareness by tracking objects and yourself in space.

Locating Objects in Space

I learned this technique from Ryan Cropper in his astral projection course several years back. It teaches you how to locate objects in space with your eyes closed. This is my version of what he taught.

Strengths:

• Ryan Cropper called this a 'memory template' and uses this brain state to recover more details in a memory.

1. Stand in the middle of your room, close your eyes, and sense each corner of your room.
2. Physically point to each corner of your room, holding your hand still pointing at that location, slowly turn your head to align with where you're pointing, then slowly open your eyes to give your senses feedback on how accurate they are.

You can also, with your eyes closed, point to the location of different objects in your room (or where ever you are at) to test your spatial locationing ability.

Tracking Your Location Through Space

This is an exercise I thought up of while experiment with different ways to integrate spatial awareness into everyday activities. You will be tracking your location in space while you walk.

Strengths:

• This is a small-chunk exercise for integrating spatial awareness into everyday activities. Because you will be activating other parts of your neurology while at the same time keeping your spatial awareness active. That way your brain can start getting use to accessing spatial awareness while performing physical movements.
• You will become more comfortable perceiving the world from this state and appreciate the advantages you experience from this state.
• You will condition your synapses for firing both spatial awareness and movement at the same time.

1. Stand up, activate your spatial awareness and spatial location in the room, almost as if you are viewing yourself from above.
2. While holding this spatial awareness, track your spatial location as you slowly walk a short distance like around a table or down the hall and back, keeping your spatial awareness active and tracking your movement through space.
3. Walk back to your original starting position, facing the same way you were facing with same posture and everything.

Your environment may influence your results

I recently noticed that the environment you practice in may affect performance. If the environment is "heavy" or a place where you do a lot of mental thinking then it might be more difficult to expand your spatial awareness. Which may give clues to why people describe negative places as feeling heavy and closed in. Outdoors or in nature is always a good place. You can try different rooms in your house to see if any of them is easier than another.

If you're still having difficulty not being able to open up your spatial awareness, I recommend buying a sage smudge, light it up and use it on yourself and the environment you're working in. Burning sage for some reason really opens up the senses to experience spatial awareness.

The thing to also remember is the more you practice in a specific area, the more that area will reflect the mental state you are practicing.

What I do if I'm having trouble expanding my spatial awareness

I would first do the narrow then broad technique. If that doesn't work I burn a sage smudge then I can more easily expand my spatial awareness.

You can always try practicing in a different room, go outside, in your car, at a park, in nature, in a church or temple, etc. Some environments might be easier to practice than others.

Next Step

After doing each technique taught in this article, you should have a good grasp on activating your spatial awareness. The next step is to integrate this state into other areas in your life where this state is appropriate. That will be covered in another article.

What about permanently shutting of mental-chatter?

I think there are some secondary gains that need to be addressed first before one can expect to completely silence their mental-chatter. In other words, some of what you call mind-chatter might serve a positive function that you are not aware of yet. And that is something I will be exploring more in future articles.

Resources

By other people (not endorsements)

[Because I list these people here does not mean I endorse their views or perspective on the subject. I'm simply giving credit to some of the ideas I learned from them.]

iNLPCenter.org - Tame the DMN audio course: teaches the narrow then broad awareness technique I mentioned in this article and is where I first learned about it.

Ryan Cropper - Astral Projection course: Teaches spatial locationing to enhance memory.

Paul Scheele - Photoreading: teaches how to use the Training/Learning State for rapid uptake of written materials such as books.

Betty Edwards - Drawing on the right side of the brain: teaches how to see empty space around an object to improve your drawing ability.

Dr. Andrew Huberman - science-based information: he has several podcasts where he mentions the Default Mode Network (In one of his podcasts he mentions using spatial awareness to shut-off DMN and mind-chatter. I don't remember which episode he mentions that but he does talk about DMN in the one listed below) ADHD & How Anyone Can Improve Their Focus | Huberman Lab Podcast #37 - YouTube

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