Activities that stop the voice in your head

[Whowantstogotothepark]

I suffer from constant babble in my head. When things are going well, it is actually nice to hear a story or a discussion in my head. But when things are going not so great, the voice turns everything to shit. I am sure there is no need to explain what it is like to those of you who know.

Anyway, I have been trying to dampen it, if not be able to turn the fucking thing off like the tv.

I have try AD (made me so tired I couldn't move) and mindfulness which only works if I am in a good place, otherwise the voice is able to go full blast.

Over the past couple of months, when the AD failed I have really being paying attention to activities that stop the voice. I'd love if others could suggest activities that we could try (I appreciate that for some activities you have to be in a more upbeat place to even contemplate trying):

ice-skating - for beginners only, the constant trepidation of falling over means that the voice was forgotten about...wow!!! And circulating round an ice rink listening to the spice girls while trying to stay upright has a very meditative feeling.

listening to podcasts - I do this when I can't be alone with my thoughts and it helps to keep me constant

driving in a new place (better with no sat nav) - limited opportunities and maybe not best for the environment, but coupled with a podcast means no shit voice

exerting exercise classes - this is the absolute best!!! I am in pain, counting, the teacher is speaking, I am falling over into another poor exercisee. I can't think or inner narrate.

Like getting a baby to sleep, nothing works all of the time. So I would love some new suggestions or to hear your experiences.

Have a read of "the power of now" by Eckart Tolle.

The message in the book is quite profound.

If the voice in your head is you, who is the one listening to it.

Find out OP. Be an observer of the voice without believing in the content.

I have a well entrenched critical little voice in my head too (legacy of my upbringing) and had counselling for PTSD following terrible events at work but which took root easily because of my upbringing.

To combat intrusive thoughts when trying to sleep or get back to sleep, I was advised to imagine a calm quiet favourite place and concentrate on one particular aspect of that place that was non-visual (such as the warmth of the sun or the rustling of the leaves on the trees). That helped.

To keep the intrusive thoughts at bay during the daytime, the counsellor advised taking up any busy repetitive activity that required absolute concentration (similar to the type of things you are already trying) while listening to something.

The ones that work for me include chopping and mincing a mountain of veg for batch cooking while singing along to loud cheerful music; doing sudoku or word puzzles or colouring in while humming along to calm music; reading aloud children's stories and adopting different accents for all of the characters. Harry Potter is particularly good for this.

The key seems to be doing something and listening to something at the same time.

Hope you find more things that work for you.

Climbing walls. Your whole mind clears because all you can think about is where you'll put your hand or foot next. It's really refreshing.

Acting classes? It's genuinely quite nice being someone else for a change.

One thing I like to do is Active Noticing. You can do it anywhere. Go for a walk or sit in a cafe and do a running commentary in your head of detailed description of what you can see: the leaves on that tree are really furry and silvery, the paint flaking on that letter box looks like the map of an island. Etc. It's still babble but it's neutral babble that takes youout of your internal monologue and into what's going on in the wider world.

I agree that sudoku helps, and so does Candy Crush. It's actually really good at relieving anxiety, as long as you don't care if you get through a level or not.