To wonder what it’s like to have a quiet mind?

Here's a strange one i do...does anyone else do this...when im going through something, i inadvertently play a song in my mind with words relating to the event...i dont mean a song ive heard during the event, i just mean a random song with the same words playing over and over which relates to what im going through...

Its weird

Mine is not quiet. Dh however, can hold one thought in his head at a time. He has an internal monologue, but I think it's quite linear and focused. He can be quite slow to think though, which drives me mad. When he drives, he thinks about driving.

I tend to be:
Going to do x yz when I get to work.....ooh, names in songs,nah that's shit.... how cold is it? Must get the engine looked at...... wonder when that shop's going to open again....ah, poor little kid having to walk to the bus in the dark. He must live down one the side streets. Not sure I'd like that, although it would be convenient.... radio 4 for a bit.... need to start looking at mortgage rates again.... right, when I get to work, first thing I'm going to do is.....

And that's before I've done a mile down the road. Sometimes I can control it, but other times I need to go for a run or something physical to calm it down. It's like my thoughts are all working at once, but on different levels. I'm typing this, but also thinking about adhd and under that is the thought that I need to get ready for the gym in a minute and how nice the garden looks.

Hated silence until I had kids. Iwas a tv and music whilst doing school work kind of kid.Had to mediate in work once and it made me really angry. Since having kids, I have no trouble sleeping, but if I wake up and thr thoughts start, I need to put them back in their box.

I meditate every day and it doesn’t necessarily help to empty my mind the rest of the time, it still toddles off on all its little winding byways, but I do find that for the time I’m doing it (only 3 or 4 minutes) it’s a place to put my mind down, iyswim.
I use a free app called The Breathing App and it has a long note on a cello to time the breath. The sound is very helpful to guide the mind, it’s beautiful. I also go outside with it when I can and let myself absorb all the sounds around me, particularly birdsong. It helps me feel one with everything. While I’m doing that my mind is still chattering away but I keep trying to pull it back to the breath. Gradually I get a sense of serenity. Or some days I’m just thinking about breakfast.
I listen to podcasts a lot and as it happens there were three last week that all mentioned meditating (Rich Roll, Davina and Rangan Chattergee) and all the guests they interviewed said you don’t have to empty your mind, that’s the point, your mind will always chatter, the point is to keep pulling it back. That’s the practice. They described it like physically training a muscle over time. My muscle is still quite weak but I enjoy doing it!

Your gran sounds ace! There was a woman waiting for the internet to be invented so she could have all the world’s knowledge at her fingertips! It’s wonderful for curiosity. I know the internet has been terrible for many things but like all tools it’s how you use it and I do often marvel at how educational it is.

My mind is quiet, I've never known any different but other peoples descriptions of constant monologues and multiple thoughts at once sounds exhausting.

Mine is just me in my head choosing what to think and it's calm.

And I also recognise the phone (or book) plus TV scenario. Even subtitled programmes - in fact especially those, because foreign dramas tend to have more things I want to look up.

I never asked my grandmother about what her brain was up.to, but I suspect it was similar. She'd quite often listen to a radio programme while reading a book and knitting. Sometimes she'd also have the snooker on TV (muted) to follow a match at the same time.

And she had stacks of notebooks of interesting things she'd found out and wanted to look into further. Opera plots, quantum mechanics, medical discoveries, jam recipes, all jumbled in together.

I was just answering your question in that post, I'm not trying to convince you to meditate. That's your choice.

You cannot force meditation, that is impossible. The ability to meditate is not down to whether you have a busy or quiet mind, anyone can do it if they want, it requires practise, everyone and I mean everyone has issues with mind not complying at times.

You are unsure meditation has benefits, fine.

I have multiple.layers of thoughts of various types running at all times. Not anxious ones (unless I have something specific to be anxious about). Just stuff. Interesting lines of mental enquiry.

But unlike some PP it doesn't mean I have trouble with exterior quietness, or with being alone. Quite the contrary - it's absolutely impossible for me to be bored in my own company, because I have such a wide choice of options to tune into.

Easier if you have a naturally quiet mind. Presumably life is pretty calm anyway for someone who can just sit there forgetting about the time.

Not sure about the benefits of forcing a mind to 'meditate' when it would prefer to freewheel elsewhere. My mind will be like 'erm, am I meditating yet?' and 'when can I go?', 'wonder what my neighbour is doing', 'what's for lunch', 'should I close my eyes', 'dum dee dum <imagines fingers drumming>', 'how's my blood pressure doing'. Easier to go with the flow.

Really useful for lowering blood pressure, better sleep, reduces anxiety, can help with pain relief, asthma, depression, IBS, headaches and as K-Tel used to say and many more.

It's also useful skill when you're getting upset, it refocusses the mind, causes you to slow down and puts you in a frame of mind to consider what you say or do. It can help with patience, negative feelings, as well as creativity. If you are a sports player it can help empty the mind of any stray thought and sharpen focus so you are on your game.

Why is it a useful and healthy skill? Not sure I see the point.

This is called aphantasia

I cannot imagine what a quiet mind is like. Surely it is perfectly normal to always have background thoughts or dialogue?

I really have no reason to suspect I am ADHD or any other string of letters. Actually I think I am probably as NT as they come.

Does everybody these days want a diagnosis to make them different?

Ahh meditation is different.

Meditation takes quite a lot of practise as your mind can still wander (like I fancy a biscuit, did I leave the gas on) even if you are skilled. You need to practise at least once a day but preferably twice for shorter lengths of time.

It's a really useful and healthy skill to have and if you are in the right mood you eventually can slip in and out of meditation easily.

I'm just responding to the previous posters about meditation. I was initially like that, and sometimes I completely fail when I meditate! I can't quiet my mind for long either, I'm lucky to get a few minutes before having to restart again. However, I think that practise and consistency helps. I don't mean to sound patronising there, it's just what I've been told. Also, the Buddhist nun where I go said that people need ten minutes prior to meditating to prepare and tell themselves that they're going to meditate. It might sound woo but I've had a lot of trauma and it really has helped me!

Getting back into running has too but, more than anything, yoga has been amazing. I can't believe all the years I've been on anti-depressants yet yoga and meditation have been a life-changer for me!

I was on a chat on here a few weeks ago about beginning multiple hobbies and then getting obsessed with them! Others who experienced the same also felt that they were neurodivergent. Being aware that I do that has made me nervous about starting new things however, the above has stuck! It's just a few suggestions anyway ☺️

Is a busy mind a terrible thing? At least it's not a bored mind?
I love running different streams of thoughts, including odd things like imaging the view of me watching me from above, and that conversation I started midday and had a point I didn't follow up how I meant to and may have come across as unusual, so I'll run it with different outcomes. I have no idea if it's normal, but when I've tried mindfulness I've recalled old memories (places, people, smells), there's never nothing.
People seeing the surface view of me tell me I'm calm and organised 🤣
Are we all a bit like this?

I was in my early 20s when a friend raised the notion of having a constant inner monologue. I've not experienced that. I have occasional thoughts around food, bed, comfort and go for days without thinking a word beyond that.

But something must be going on in there because ask me for an idea on something I know about and a huge tsunami of ideas tumble out, or ask me a question and I'll pull some random facts from deep within the abyss like recesses of the mind surprising me let alone anyone else.

I've been called a dark horse but in truth I just have a brain filled with filing cabinets for all the brain fluff you pick up along the way. Nothing useful at all, like how to work the washing machine or where the remote is, but if you want a quote from Augustine of Hippo, or Roman military weapons and tactics, or the life cycle of aphids I'm there like a shot. But the one thing I am absolutely not doing the vast majority of the time is thinking about any of them.

I am anxious about things but have a quiet mind. Sometimes it feels too quiet and I tell myself stories to fill the gaps.

I'd say I have a quiet mind. I don't have running dialogue except on rare occasions when I'm imagining what I'd like to say to someone (like an imaginary argument with someone who has upset me). When I go to sleep I think of nothing or just let thoughts kind of drift in and out of my head.

I sometimes have songs stuck in my head but usually don't think about music. I rarely listen to music outside of the car, I really hate background noise in the house like the radio or TV unless I'm actively paying sole attention to it. It's like audible clutter and stresses me out.

I love reading. I don't know how to describe the experience though. I don't hear myself reading it in my head or see it like TV. But I could describe how I imagine the characters looking. It's more like imagining a series of still images seen out of the corner of my eye I suppose.

I have heard the same about meds if you have both autism and adhd…I suspect I might do 🥴 I’ve also heard they can dampen people’s creativity.

This is very real and that's why adhd medications are controlled. They're not an easy fix and can make people with ASD more anxious, rigid or inflexible.

I'm exactly like you but without the anxiety. Though like everyone I do get anxious at times. For me life is structured to be wired on. It's very rarely I can watch tv without also having my phone in my hand- like now.

I have a quiet mind. I also cant see anything in my '3rd eye' - I close my eyes to see a red apple - but I can't see a red apple. I see nothing.

Is this not all normal?

LOL. I'm now about to try and turn the music off and tell everyone in my head to shush, it's time for sleep. Looking forward to that moment of clarity which will snap in at 05.00 so that I'm wide awake at stupid o'clock. 🙄