Thinking is much slower than movements and way slower than emotions. Consider the time required to take a step, catch a thrown ball, feel if a person attracts or frightens you, all very fast. But to reach a conclusion after weighing out the possibilities, to make comparisons, to deduce, or to calculate takes way more time.

Unfortunately a lot has gone awry with thinking in most people. Out of balance thoughts exert themselves in an endless, repetitive, and completely unneeded Inner Monologue. The primary reason people give for insomnia is runaway thoughts.

Another way thinking has gone off course is by almost exclusively using associations. What is Associative Thought? It can be demonstrated thus: State to yourself the first word that comes into your mind when you read a word. So with dog, you say cat, with blue, you say sky; with white, cloud; with orange, fruit. The mechanical inner monologue runs this way without ceasing all of a person’s waking hours.

An example of an inner monologue one might have in the morning: Oh there went the alarm clock. I’d like to smash that thing. What was I dreaming? Something about work. The job is getting to me. There should be a way to live without money. My brother got more than his share of the inheritance. That bastard. No telling what kind of poisonous chemicals are in this toothpaste. When is that dentist appointment? I need to keep all my teeth. I need all the help I can get in the looks department. It’s cold in here. When will spring come? I used to get a new pair of patent leather shoes every Easter. Best part was the candy. Chocolate rabbits. Biting their ears off. Haven’t seen a rabbit in the yard yet this year. They’ll eat the Hostas. Want to plant more irises. They cost a fortune though. I hate that job. Should have gone to law school.”

This meandering mess without intention or goal can end up anywhere, dragging emotions with it and ramping up tension in the body. Logic certainly has no place in it. As Allen Watts wrote, “The stars of the universe have no destination. The train of your thoughts will arrive at no station.”

Internal noise and chattering begins at a person’s first waking moment and runs on to the end of the day up to sleep. Its commentary and images are an unwilled string of reactions. Sometimes it repeats the same phrases over and over and over. Repetitive bits of songs, films, or television shows might play. At times it slips into replaying parts of the past repeating nostalgic, idealized, or regretful words and images. Sometimes thoughts project into the future with desires or worries of possible conversations and actions. This can all go on while a person is doing any sort of activity, not aware his attention has wandered from the task at hand or conversation with another person.

Another form of thoughts gone awry is imagination, not the creative kind to come up with new ideas, but mulling over things that have absolutely no substance in reality. Most people are shocked when they discover how much of their thinking is wrapped up in the non-existent, imagining circumstances and events that never come to pass.

If you attempt self observation for a short time, you’ll become increasingly aware of this pointless endless chatter. The better you become at self observing, the worse this messy meandering monologue seems. Going up against it directly leads nowhere. Prove this to yourself by trying to stop thought for three minutes. You’ll find it’s impossible.

This is another reason why sit-still close-eyed meditation is so fruitless and hellish. It won’t stop this yackety yack. It’s like the little girl with the magic soup pot. All she had to do was say “Cook little pot, cook,” and the pot would fill with delicious soup. Unfortunately she forgot the magic words to make it quit cooking, and soon her house and the entire town were flooded and drowning with soup and anyone who wanted to go in or out of the town had to eat their way through it.

All of the inner monologue, every last bit of it, can be dispensed with forever without any loss to your well being and quality of life. When a person is entirely free from mechanical thinking, she willfully thinks for a purpose when she needs or wants to, otherwise the mind is clear and empty, not in a weakened state, but much more powerful and focused, its energy reserved for a genuine purpose. The clear mind is way more perceptive than one with the mechanical noise going on, and allows euphoria to flow freely through the mind and body.

If the idea of not thinking seems far-fetched to you, get in a relaxed place and review memories of when you were immersed in a physical or emotional experience, like running, having sex, listening to music, or looking at a beautiful painting or scene in nature. Were you thinking then? Or was your mind empty of thought?

Although it is impossible to stop the inner monologue by going up against it directly, you can eventually learn to see it as “other” and gain freedom from it, causing it to eventually disappear. The more you practice finding times when you are identified with the inner monologue, the more you will be able to Transcend it. The more you transcend it, the quieter the mind becomes.

A fun exercise is to catch yourself not observing and then trace back the thread of your thoughts to the first thought that started the chain of associations. You might count even twenty tangents if you get good at this sort of recollection. You can do this with conversations also, yours and those of others. Trace a conversation backwards through each of its tangents, finding the originating statement. Observe how the conversation went on accidentally and mechanically wandered from its beginning. It demonstrates people usually have absolutely no control over the direction of a conversation. No wonder arguments come so easily.

One way of escaping the chatter is to switch to a different field of activity, such as listening to music that induces pleasant emotion or making purposeful movements like walking or dancing.

Another effective method is to replace the meandering monologue with intentional thinking toward a desired goal, like working on the solution to a problem, writing, or analyzing.

The more you become aware of associative, mechanical thought, the worse it seems, and that awareness can be quite discouraging. Mechanical manifestations will always seem worse before they get better simply because you are more aware of them than you ever were previously.

The ultimate goal is to never get identified with the inner monologue and to be entirely free of it with a clear mind. This takes time and work.

The tiny part of you that is observing, that can hear the monologue but is not lost in it, that tiny part is empty, clear, and eventually with work will grow big enough to get completely free of the mechanical, associative chatter and experience bliss.

Inner Monologue Main Points

The inner monologue is a stream of mechanical associations that prevents a clear, free awareness.

Genuine thinking is willed and toward a desired outcome.

Thinking is much more efficient when it is only used when needed.

The observing I transcends thought.

Inner Monologue Exercises

Try to stop thought for three minutes.

After a conversation, trace back each tangent or branch in subject matter with their associations until you find the original thread of the conversation.

Catch yourself lost in associations and trace them back by each step to the original thought that began them.

Find three examples of times in your life you have been aware completely without thought.

Inner Monologue Glossary

Associative Thought – Thoughts that move mechanically by one reacting to another with the most obvious or frequently used connection

Clear Mind – Mind completely free of inner monologue or associations. Thinking only occurs when needed or by willed intention.

Inner Monologue – Unending internal associative thoughts that run mechanically

Other – Mechanical manifestation

Switching – Moving attention from one field of activity to another to get free of mechanical manifestations

Tangent – Accidental direction of actions or conversation caused by automatic association

Transcendence – Being aware of a manifestation without being lost in it or identified with it

VI. Emotional Center