To think it's impossible to have no thoughts or internal dialogue?

[IAteAllTheTomatoes]

Is it true that some people have nothing going on in their head? No thoughts, ideas, or internal dialogue?

I'm not being bitchy or talking about intelligence but I just always assumed your brain is thinking or you are silently talking to yourself? Like, will my parcel arrive today? What will I make for dinner later? Something anything? Future plans? Pondering on something in the news etc?

Someone told me yesterday there is nothing in their thoughts, except maybe music, until they are asked a question?

I would love to have no thoughts? It is possible?

I'm explaining this poorly but I suppose what I'm wondering is can people shut down their thinking and if so, how?

Me too, it's called Aphantasia. I find it very peaceful, although not being able to put names to faces is a big frustration.

I have a sort of infinity loop carousel of thoughts that i use to pop things on that I want to consider. Some thoughts are on there for years and some are resolved very quickly and taken off the loop. Sometimes the carousel is going quite fast most of the time it’s just wiring in the background, I’m aware of it but not actively tending to the thoughts. I very rarely overthink things, they just go on the carousel loop until they are resolved.
my thought carousel is very repetitive when I dream, it just returns again and again to the same thought/ image.
I do have a constant dialogue as well but I don’t find it tiring. It’s just there all the time.

Can I ask the posters who say the find it easy to clear their mind or that they can be on stand by etc, do you have a way of doing this or does it just happen naturally?

I am fascinated by it and until yesterday just assumed (clearly incorrectly) that it was the same for everyone else?

My thoughts/inner dialogue doesn't distress me or bother me and doesn't cause me any problems but I do think that switching off sometimes might be nice.

The only times I can thing of that I am totally focused is on occasions like an emergency or if someone is talking to me about something important yo them, stress, worry, grief etc, where I really am listening and wanting to help, at a music concert, during sex or actually on a flight.

I find flying so therapeutic - no work, no phone, no real timelines that matter, zero distraction and I am completely chilled, almost blissfully zombie like - friends have said it's like I get holiday brain. My decision making which is usually instant becomes more relaxed, I literally just chill but I'm not stressed ordinarily, just more rapid thinking

I'm an introvert with a strong internal monologue. I found transcendental meditation quiets it to non existent. Mantra based meditations seem to do this for many people. The 20 minutes of TM is an oasis of quiet and almost blissful.

Initially I was affronted by this 😂 but on reflection, I think you’re right. I have autism and a big worry of mine is offending people / hurting someone’s feelings by saying the wrong thing. So that’s probably why I do it.

Sometimes it’s pictures , sometimes it’s an internal monologue , but I am always thinking something surely everyone is as the brain is conscious ?

Omg I heard this too and I can’t wrap my head around it

I usually don't have an inner dialogue, sometimes I do, but most of the time I'm observing and taking things in without any inner verbalisation.

When I was in primary school I often remember pretending to be a cat while walking along, (I was an odd child), and trying experience what it was like to see things but not have language to put them into. Maybe it stuck, because now that's my normal way of being.

I have a very good visual imagination, (I paint), but my memory is TERRIBLE (perhaps because I don't internally verbalise what I experience). I'm quite intelligent I think, but possible mildly autistic, and I have real problems recognising faces and remembering names.

I sometimes suffer from insomnia, and when I wake up in the night I do lie there with voices in my head talking and expressing worries etc. And I hate that, it just feels so noisy and anxious and not calm.

Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. I find it more restful when I don’t, honestly. Thinking of what I’m making for dinner and how annoying my work project is isn’t exactly riveting.

Can I ask the posters who say the find it easy to clear their mind or that they can be on stand by etc, do you have a way of doing this or does it just happen naturally?

I am either focusing intently on something else which is taking all of my attention (like work, or playing tennis, or finding my way somewhere new). Or I am deliberately relaxing by staring at the sky, or something in nature, or focusing on my breathing if I am exercising.

I use audiobooks to help me sleep, because I don’t have any active thoughts in my head if I’m listening to somebody else talking.

Years ago I went on a 3 day silent meditation retreat. It was hard at the time, but afterwards I had some blissful hours of a clear mind. Unfortunately a few hours of London stress and my mind was chattering away as normal!

Another constant monologuer here, I also visualise numbers of I'm adding something up, or words on a list. I can picture what a person was wearing the last 3 or 4 times seen them but do not remember faces 😂 the brain is a weird thing I try not to think t lo much about how it works.

@IAteAllTheTomatoes Standby mode when not doing anything in particular comes naturallly to me.
I dont know if you can relate to driving somewhere and you just sort of arrive because it's almost an autopilot? It's like that but when I need to think, I do.

The only time I’ve been able to do this for more than a few minutes was as a young child and once when I did a type of chakra meditation. It was absolutely blissful and I would only have a thought with deliberate effort. I’ve not been able to repeat it

My mind is a constant internal monologue whilst awake.
It's all words though. I can't picture things, as in an actual image when I close my eyes.

The monologue is there all the time whether my eyes are open or closed.

I've tried meditation briefly but no,idea how you get your mind to go blank. I then just end up,with an internal monologue of me telling myself to think of nothing, on loop!

I don't know how much I dream however, so maybe it stops then.

Meditation does this for me, it’s like finding the key to mindfulness.
My default setting is chronic overthinking, like constant worried thoughts muddling around all the time.
When I get in the swing of meditating it’s like it switches that part of my brain off, so that unless I’m actively thinking of something I’m just taking in my surroundings, usually appreciatively.

@Qilin try listening to a sound (not music, it can be too varied and distracting) on YouTube (can get white noise type things, or a single frequency) and focus on that.
Your thoughts will butt in, but when you notice it let them go and focus on the noise again, and keep doing that.
I found it took a week before I started to get to grips with it, but it’s definitely worth it.

Wow, I’m amazed at the variation. Sometimes when I’m away my internal dialogue will change to the accent of the place I am eg welsh. It’s weird because the dialogue doesn’t exactly have any accent, until it suddenly does.