AIBU to think you cannot think of literally nothing?

[Frequency]

As in you do not see the word nothing in your mind, or there is not a blank sheet of nothing in your head, but someone has unplugged something important and you can still send a power signal to basic life functions, but your RAM is corrupt and you no longer compute.

IDK how else to explain it but my mind is blown that some people can have nothing, literally nothing, in their mind but not be brain dead.

It requires practicing (and peace from others).
But it's perfectly possible.

I can, when I am playing tennis. I focus on the ball and react. I suppose I might think on none level about space and shots but in general my mind is so focused on the ball I am clear of thought.

This is why I love playing so much!

@Tauranga I have the same experience of exercise; especially yoga. I discovered I’m not very good at sitting-still meditation (a LOT of people find this very challenging) but I can get my mind much quieter through exercise. It’s the simplicity of thought- all my mind is thinking about is how/where to move my body. So mindfulness rather than meditation I guess.

I do this when I feel mentally down. An hour or so can pass with me just sitting and staring without realising. There's a sort of gentle white noise in my mind when I become aware of it, but nothing else.

Out walking I try to practice mindfulness and focus on senses rather than thought. Such as, feeling sun (i wish at the moment) on my face, listening to the birds or sea. This helps deaden the thoughts in my head a lot.

I've never managed it. I have a permanent monologue in my mind which can be exhausting.

OH says he can empty his mind through meditation. I think it must take a lot of practice and I don't have the patience.

I can achieve it through mindfulness. I just need an unfocused gaze at the carpet - my inner voice switches off and I don’t think about anything. I don’t do the breathing as even thinking about that activates my inner voice again, telling me what to do. It’s very peaceful! To me, it’s half way between normal consciousness and hypnosis; the difference is I keep my free will, whereas in hypnosis, I’d do anything the hypnotist told me to do.

I'm unable to sit in meditation but I find running achieves a similar state of mind. I can stay lost in a state of flow for ages and it genuinely feels really restorative afterwards. I think it's due to the rhythmic nature of it.

I can’t see images in my head and am perfectly capable of zoning out while doing an activity such as swimming or sewing. It happens most days. XH1 used to bark “What are you thinking about?” and wouldn’t accept “nothing” as an answer, so I guess I’ve always done it.

I don’t think you can decide to think about nothing.

ETA: I can’t bear meditation, it totally freaks me out me out.

I completely understand where you’re coming from! I used to wonder this myself. I suppose it’s impossible, because even if you’re trying to make your mind blank you’re still thinking of that, which is something!
If your mind is truly blank, you wouldn’t know!

Why would you be thinking of a screen?

I can hear a ongoing monologue constantly along with being able to see moving images & pictures. I would rather have nothing going on, my brain is very cluttered.

I very much have a constant monologue. It's very relaxing to be able to switch it off, even for very short periods. It takes some practice, but not necessarily loads.

The only think that quiets my brain is doing a jigsaw while watching a TV show. Half of it is focused on the sound, half of it is focused on finding the right piece so it goes quiet for a while. On really bad days though, even that doesn’t help. Luckily, they’re not that often.

I learned to meditate about 10 years ago. Not Buddhist but a non religious practice called Acem. I can’t get my head around the Buddhist teachings and I find someone guiding me really distracting.

When I can get there, (about 80% if the time) the meditative state is glorious. So restorative and grounding.

Interesting that you should mention jigsaws. OH occasionally buys me one and I become completely focused on it. I suppose it is the distraction. The trouble is, nothing else gets done until it is complete, so I can't have one too often. I need to get back to running. Concentrating on my breathing and my form seemed to help quite a bit. Again, more of a distraction from my normal thoughts, rather than emptying my mind.

I have aphantasia so I don't see images in my mind, and I can quite easily "zone out".

When I need to sleep and my mind won't settle, I play the sound of thunderstorms. It feels like it literally fills my mind, I stop thinking of anything and drift off to sleep. In that moment of relaxation before sleep, I'm definitely not thinking anything. I'm hearing the sounds, but not actively thinking about them, or anything at all, if that makes sense.

It's interesting how different minds work. This reminds me of this video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YKkgBzK0t-U

Mine I can only describe as an inner council - it's not one inner monologue as many are describing, it's always been multiple voices or images or music, I often feel them in different parts of my head or body (as I write this, the voice for what I am writing is over my right shoulder, then it's moved over up my neck and head to sit on the top of my head with its feeling radiating back down to my shoulder). They can be entirely quiet/without presence, but it's not often for me.

Once I discussed with my husband that I thought part of inner peace was getting all those inner voices in agreement in contentment - and he had no idea what I was talking about. He has no inner voice or images unless he is actively thinking about something, his are entirely quiet / without presence most of the time. He is also the most content and peaceful guy I know, so I'm not entirely convinced my childish idea of how minds work was entirely wrong, but it wasn't complete either - I just didn't then grasp how very different other people's minds are.

My brain is a very busy place but I once had this great switch off where my mind was like a black abyss full of nothingness. I found it incredibly scary that "me" wasn't there anymore and it probably lasted 5 minutes and the beginning and end was literally as quick as flicking a light switch. Would love to know why that happened so I could stop it from happening again.

I went on a pilgrimage to Lough Derg and there was absolutely nothing left in my head, after the lack of sleep and food etc. for 3 days.
Its horrendously hard, but it’s the only time my head had no thoughts whatsoever or noise.
Its a very severe method but I felt absolutely amazing after it, and it lasts for a long time afterwards too.

so I will definitely do it again.

Nothing is just an absence of something. So it makes sense that with meditation, we can train in not focusing on the usual thoughts, sounds, distractions that crowd our mind. It’s not easy to stay with ‘nothing’ without training, but it’s definitely possible, I can do it for short periods and see progress whenever I am consistent in practicing. A lot of the time in meditation there is mental activity of deciding not to follow a particular thought, or contemplating specific topics, which isn’t nothing. But actually you learn in meditation that the natural state of the mind is peaceful and calm, we just have to learn how to access that.

That sounds really interesting- I just watched a video about it. I like the idea of meditation without the religious aspect, and I find guided meditation and focusing on the breath distracting. Do you mind if I ask - did do a course or just follow some instructions?

I have focal seizures with impaired consciousness (@Pixiedust1234 perhaps have a look as your experience sounds similar?) where my brain really becomes literally “unplugged”. It is absolutely terrifying. Sadly nothing like the pleasurable “standby mode” I used to get when running etc.

I sometimes get an aura which is indescribably horrifying. In the seizure I remember nothing, unless it progresses to tonic clonic I slowly become aware of my surroundings again but don’t know where I am or when as in I don’t even know the year. Imagine if youd been on a work night out, got horribly hammered and don’t remember anything when you wake up thr next morning. That awful fear of did I swear at my boss or dance on a table, what did I do type panic! It’s like that “beer fear” magnified x 100000.

the computer anology is a gooD one, for those of us old enough to remember I’d say I take a while to reboot, I don’t just switch back on immediately. So I can genuinely think of completely nothing frequently but it is a brain aberration and not “normal”. The state of relaxed half aware pleasure PPs have said about running/meditation etc is completely different (and lovely). it’s not thinking of nothing but it’s definitely something to strive for. Standby mode I think.

I actually went on a weekend course. It was about 12ish years ago but I’m sure they still run them. I found it quite easy to pick up and I’ve used it ever since. I think it’s a life skill and I’m so glad I did it. I use it by myself and also practice some of the techniques at a weekly sound bath.

@BrainInterestingButFuckedUp thank you, I've had a read and I don't think it was that. I was in a car and I could see the trees and hedges going by, could hear the radio but it was as though it was on TV in the background far away. There was no "me", no thoughts, no feelings, no sensations, just a black hole pulling me towards it. If that is what you have then you have my deepest sympathies as it was truly terrifying at the time. I was discombobulated for the rest of the day which was about four years ago now. For the first time ever I was grateful to hear my inner voices 😂