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Heal Yourself Podcast
A podcast diving into all aspects of healing; from nurturing your relationship with yourself, to functional medicine insights, to transforming your money story, we're here to empower you with the knowledge and tools to create lasting change.
Heal Yourself Podcast
Episode 48: Silencing the Mental Chaos
Have you ever noticed that your best insights come not when you're thinking harder, but when you finally stop thinking altogether? That seemingly paradoxical truth sits at the heart of this transformative conversation between hosts Denise and Kira as they tackle one of modern life's most pervasive challenges: our addiction to thinking.
The mind processes a staggering 60,000-70,000 thoughts daily, yet most of these thoughts are negatively biased reflections of our conditioning rather than helpful insights. When we're constantly overthinking, analyzing symptoms, researching solutions, and creating mental pros-and-cons lists, we're actually drowning out something far more valuable: our intuition and bodily wisdom.
"Your body doesn't speak English, it speaks in symptoms," Kira explains, highlighting the fundamental disconnect between our analytical minds and the more subtle language of intuition. This disconnect keeps many people stuck in chronic health issues and emotional suffering.
Whether you're navigating health challenges, making important life decisions, or simply seeking more peace in your daily experience, this episode provides both the understanding and practical tools to break free from the prison of overthinking. Start with just two minutes of presence each day and discover what wisdom awaits in the quiet spaces between your thoughts.
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Welcome to the Heal Yourself Podcast, where we dive deep into all things healing. I'm Denise, a speech-language pathologist and a self-love coach for adults and teens.
Speaker 2:And I'm Kira, a traditional naturopath and functional nutritionist, and we're here to guide you through the transformative process of healing your body, mind and soul, from the latest in functional medicine of healing your body mind and soul, from the latest in functional medicine to nurturing your relationship with yourself, healing trauma and even transforming your money story.
Speaker 1:we're here to empower you with the knowledge and tools to create lasting change.
Speaker 2:So, whether you're looking to heal physically, emotionally or spiritually, join us as we explore the many paths to wholeness and wellness. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Heal Yourself Podcast. Today, denise and I are talking about how to stop thinking.
Speaker 1:She told me about this topic. I'm like, uh, it's hard. Okay, bye, we're done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's it. Episode over.
Speaker 1:Um, let us know if you're liking the video situation, because we're doing videos and now we're posting them on YouTube. I know, isn't this fancy?
Speaker 2:We'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:I'm not here at the, at the beach, so don't be jelly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it, well, I mean. So this is a funny topic because, honestly, the first time I heard it from one of my spiritual mentors, I'm like what do you mean to stop thinking? Like we're supposed to be thinking all the time, like I was always taught, like keep thinking, keep questioning. And I'm I'm not saying we don't want to think, we don't want to question, but I feel like we are thinking too much, right, like we try to think our way out of everything, like, oh, I've got this symptom, what are the things I can do? Oh, let me think about this.
Speaker 2:Okay, maybe there's another protocol, there's another supplement, or oh my gosh, okay, I'm going to Google it. Or, you know, you like to journal. I'm feeling stuck, I'm just going to keep journaling and journaling and journaling. It's still all thinking and sometimes the peace, the inner peace that we're always after, and the answers come through fewer thoughts and silence and just feeling. And I'm just going to share this, because one of the things that you sent it to me a while back but Wayne Dyer has a meditation and it's called the G or something like that, you know, and it's it's everything lies in the space between those thoughts are in the gap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that meditation. I think it's called Joppa or something.
Speaker 1:I think your book is getting in the in the gap, but it's a Joppa meditation and I feel like um I I'm not I'm sure he talks about like who taught him that, cause he wasn't the one who created. Obviously it's like an ancient type of meditation, but I love how he does it very simply. So it's really cool. Like, if you ever want to try it, it is um on YouTube, just look up Wayne Dyer Japa meditation and he goes through the our father one, the first 10 words of the our father. Um, Just also as a reminder. I mean we have, I mean as humans, we have at least 60 to 70,000 thoughts per day. That's basically one thought per second. And if you're literally going to entertain every single one of them, that's why we are so occupied in our mind. That's why sometimes, like don't you feel? Sometimes you see people like you're too much in your head because they're too much into these thoughts and and then not all the thought, like some, some thoughts are are sometimes. And also another thing, because we're gonna, we talk about spiritually, we are a collective right, so sometimes not every thought is yours and not every thought is is true and most aren't, most aren't. Most. Actually, most of our thoughts are negatively biased based on our conditioning. So what I have, um and I mean I cartola talks about it is getting into the present moment.
Speaker 1:So what I have been doing, because you know, remember in the past like we, we would listen to these things and some people would say, you know, observe them like clouds or whatever. But that's truly the work that you need to do, right? So you have 60, 70, 000 thoughts. You can't really control all of them, you can't even so, it's kind of like you know, like you truly want to view them. Okay. So I mean, this thought came in, wait a minute, that's negative bias or that's like that's where did that come from? Kind of like talk to yourself through the, through it and then just observe it going like a cloud.
Speaker 1:Because what, what happens I feel with most people, kira, and correct me if I'm wrong what we do is we take this thought and it's like ooh, it triggers the ego and it's like ha, and I keep going down with it, and this thought triggers another and another, and then you're triggering emotions and then those emotions triggering actions, and now we're all, like you know, having anxiety and you know stuff like that. You know having anxiety and you know stuff like that. So I, what I have been doing is, I mean, getting into the breath is really important, but just kind of not even questioning the thought, just immediately like, wait, you're a cloud, just go. I don't have to entertain you, let's keep going and let's think of the present moment. I know it's not easy, I get it, but everything we tell you it requires you putting in the effort and putting in the work.
Speaker 2:Well, and I view thoughts as twofold too. There's thoughts, like you said, of like the ones that go through our mind constantly, right, like there's that mental chatter, and there's also you wanting to make a decision or do something and you have to think through it. There's a time and a place. But think about this, right. What's the irony of that? Ponder this chew on this, whatever we want to say right now. But just imagine that you're in a room and it's chaotic and there's like hundreds of people in there and it's just noise everywhere. How are you going to think through what you want to do next with all of that noise?
Speaker 2:It's hard, it's the same thing, when you're always in your mind and you have all of these thoughts going back and forth and you're like do I do this? Do I do that? Do I write out a list of notes to figure out? We can't even trust our intuition, and this is one of the things that I tell my clients when it comes to healing think less, like truly, you cannot feel into your body and tap into the intuition and hear what your body is asking for. If you're like well, I don't know what to do next. What do you think I should do no, no, no, no, no. What does your body feel?
Speaker 1:and also the heart, right? So I feel, because the mind is, the analytical brain will find, I mean, we are very smart, right, and our analytical brain will definitely find the excuses and the reasons why we're thinking this thought, no, no, no, it's true, this, whatever. But when you go truly into your heart, into your body and I feel that I'm so glad you mentioned that because our body is more like, the messages we get from the body and the messages we get from the heart are way more important than the messages we get from here, right? So, yes, of course, if you have a decision, but even sometimes, like, even if you have a decision to think through, sometimes just stepping away from the analytical thinking and then taking 10 minutes of getting in the gap or taking 10 minutes of just breathing and being in silence might bring you some clarity, or you know, but I mean truly, truly, truly, you like everything we're saying.
Speaker 1:It's a practice, like even the intuition. If you haven't been listening to your body, if you haven't been, um, listening to intuition, or you don't even know what that is, that's something that requires practice as well. So I mean also tapping, like why does my body feel this way? You know, just kind of like, take a moment. And sometimes people just say I don't have the moment, but really like, but you have time for, but wait a minute, but you have time for all the thoughts that are coming right. So it's really important to just also understand that your body's messages and your intuitions, they come from the body and from the heart, not from here.
Speaker 2:I actually, I made a post yesterday on Facebook and I just said the body doesn't speak English, it speaks in symptoms. And that's the thing is, people you're trying to have two different languages when you're making decisions, when you're talking to your body, whatever, right, like you've got the mind chatter that's going on and all these thoughts of can I analyze this situation? And sometimes you can, but that's the problem. People that are overly analytical get into trouble because they're not tapping into their intuition, which is the higher self, and those are always going to be the better answers than, oh my gosh. I'm just going to write all this out. I've got a pros and cons list and where's this going to take me, and that doesn't serve you. On top of that, a lot of people that are dealing with I'm just going to go back to like chronic health issues.
Speaker 2:Right, this is what puts the body in fight or flight when you can't shut the mind off, like it's nervous system overdrive, because you've got all of these thoughts, like you said, an insane amount every day. We already know from research most of those are negative thoughts. They're not positive thoughts, and then you're already in that negative spiral. You're trying to analyze well, what's my next best step. And oh, why am I not feeling good? Should I do this lab or this lab or take the supplement? Let me get on Google, let me hire another practitioner, and you've got this false sense of control of like, no, I'm doing something. I'm really doing something for my health. Let's be real. We have no control. That should be a whole episode. We have no control over anything in our lives. I'm sorry to tell you guys that, but we don't.
Speaker 1:And you got to start practicing all this right? I am going to give an example about something that happened with me recently and I totally ignored my body, totally ignored my body. I'm not going to go into the details, but anyway. So I was in a situation where my body was telling me get out of the situation, get out of the situation several times. And what did I do? I betrayed myself and I used my analytical brain oh, no, no, no, it could happen.
Speaker 1:This, this, this, and big shit happened that I had to deal with for a good few weeks. Mean, thank god it was resolved. Hopefully I haven't heard about it anymore, but I mean it was a big shit, something that has I would never have imagined going through after all these years, uh, you know, being 46, and I mean it was, it was, um, but that's because I and after that incident it showed me that don't you, don't you dare, don't you dare. And I even like, was like, once your body, like, is going out of that situation, and I try to teach that to my child, to my children Like, don't get in the car. If your body's going like, don't get in the car, don't go to that party, because you know your body remembers your body.
Speaker 1:Your body has way more wisdom than your analytical mind. Right, the analytical mind is the brain is there to help you survive. Right, however, we're not running after you know tigers or tigers running after us nowadays. Right, so it is it's, and the mind doesn't understand, it doesn't differentiate between you know, like you running for your life from an animal or whatever and a, you know, a stressful event. So that's why it's really important to, in order to stop the thinking or be more peaceful, it's really important to start training your body.
Speaker 1:Right, understanding, like even spending a few minutes training your body, right, understanding, like even spending a few minutes. You know, kind of like, where do I feel this Like? Why is this happening? Sometimes, when I get like a little bit in my like anxiety or something, and I start taking deep breaths like where this is coming from, or I just kind of like calm myself down and say I am safe or whatever, because that could be a thought that was just triggered and I didn't realize what it is. But now I'm trying to feel it more into my body versus analyzing it here, because you are going to find the reasons, you are going to find the excuses. You are going to find everything in the book to betray your body.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which goes back to last episode by the guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, truly, truly. So. It's all a practice and we're not going to stop the thinking, but we're going to not engage with it, kind of like, you know, like a conversation with a friend, right, like someone you're talking to and they drain your energy. You don't want to talk to them, right, but you want to. You know like don't, so don't engage in that conversation in here. That's really not serving you, because all it's doing sometimes it's fueling the ego. But if you come into the heart, you come into your body, you're gonna let go of that ego because the heart holds the. You know the true soul that we are, the love, because deep down we are love and unconditional love. It's just the facade and the mask that we put on the outside, and everything that we're saying, everything that we're saying, requires practice. Nothing comes without practice, practice, practice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the other thing I want to say is sometimes making those hard decisions right, because I know there's probably people listening who are like okay, but what, I have a decision to make or I need to decide on something, whatever, I need to think it through. Okay, that's what we always hear people. Let me think on it, let me think on it overnight, or let me talk to so-and-so, let me write out a pros and cons list. Sometimes the best answers come in that silence, when we'd stopped thinking about it. And I know you gave an example of something else, of not engaging with thoughts, but I want to give an example. I don't think I've shared this on the podcast.
Speaker 2:So we lived in Las Vegas and my husband woke up one night and was like I think we're supposed to move, and I trusted his intuition on that and we really thought we were going to go to Boise. We loved Boise, we went, we flew there, we visited, we fell in love and we're like, yes, this feels amazing, but our house wasn't selling. Now, logically, I could have gone down a whole host of things. I could have written stuff down Like we have a decision to make. What do we do about this?
Speaker 2:I did not get into my head. I said whatever is going to happen is going to happen. I trust. Like I let go, I'm freeing the thoughts, because I could go into so many different spirals about the house not selling. Maybe we're not supposed to go there, what about this? And same thing. I woke up one morning after not thinking about it and said to my husband what if we're supposed to go to Austin and not Boise? And again, instead of sitting and making pros, cons lists or really talking it through, we kind of trusted each other on this. But it was also again getting out of the thinking mind and tapping into the intuition and saying it's going to come, it's going to come to us. And so that's when I said you know what, if our house sells in the next 24 hours, like if we get an offer on the house, we're going to Austin.
Speaker 2:And guess what we had three offers come in in 24 hours, no joke, After sitting and not nothing. And then again I could have gotten into that thinking mind of oh my gosh, what are we going to do? What are we going to do for work? Where are we going to live? We just trusted. So this is multiple lessons for you guys in one. It's a lesson in turning off the thoughts. It's a lesson in refocusing the mind if the thoughts aren't serving you. It's a lesson in trusting. It's a lesson of letting go. There's a lot in here to dissect, but it all goes back to the thoughts, the thinking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean you said it like you know silence.
Speaker 1:And another thing if you're starting with this and you're starting to practice this, I get it, it could be difficult at the beginning, so I cannot reiterate the walking.
Speaker 1:So, from just last week's episode, everything is walking and I'm not saying, you know, I mean, even if you're just literally walking, like let's not make this hard, you know, just walking around your neighborhood or walking around, you know, outside at work, um, automatically the walking will like lower your thinking.
Speaker 1:I feel like the thoughts you know go away, and but I don't know, I like, cause I love the walk and talk, cause I call it my, my walking meditation. So that could be your also, your meditation while you're walking, and it just kind of like calms down the analytical mind because you know it's really important to just tap into the body, like I cannot say that enough especially, especially especially, if you're someone who has had their nervous system dysregulated for a lot of years right, or someone who's had trauma or who's someone who's been through a lot. You know your brain and your mind will definitely, definitely find all of the excuses in the world, but your body is has way more wisdom than you, than you give it. So just and I'm not just saying like you know, like okay, I, you know, I I going to talk about the symptoms and everything, and you mentioned the symptoms, but it's just like those, just this whisper.
Speaker 1:It's sometimes coming from the body you know and just kind of like, and then just follow it and you know, get that inspired action.
Speaker 2:And that's one thing I want to say too is sometimes, when people are like I don't know how to listen, your body's not literally going to say something to you. No one came down from the heavens and said, move to Austin to me, just like I don't think anyone came down and told you what to do. It doesn't work like that. Like my body didn't suddenly say, like you have a headache because you're dehydrated, you're just shutting down some of those thoughts. You know what I mean that the more you can do that and the more you can get into this practice and Like denise said, I love walking, I love being in nature.
Speaker 2:I don't care what you guys pick. Find something that works for you, that calms that mind, chatter down, but the more you can do that, the more your intuition will strengthen. So if you're someone right now who's like I don't know I don't hear any signs from anything Like I don't, my body is not talking to me, nothing. Give it time, keep following this practice and eventually you're going to start to hear some of those whispers come back that you've, you know, just kind of tuned out. You got to tune into the right radio station.
Speaker 1:Exactly Tune into the right radio station, and it's just also the breath. The breath, the breathing, you know, know anything. Or the slowing, the slowing down, the no rushing. Yesterday I saw a quick little video about, um, you know, some old italian men like saying about, like the no hurrying, the no rushing. You know everybody's rushing and hurrying and we want to get here and get there, but, um, it's really important to. I mean, we're giving you the tools, but at the the end of the day, like you said, you are it, you are the miracle, you are your own savior. No one is going to come and tell you okay, this, this, whatever. And then also there are there's the acceptance of I am where I am at this right place at the divine time, and whatever you want to call it collapsing time. We're going to talk about that later, some other time, but you know what I'm trying to say. Like everything does require practice. So let's did we talk about why we're addicted to thinking, though?
Speaker 2:Because like the nervous system that's a big piece and the sense of control that we don't have control.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I feel like it's just exactly one that we want to, um, just grab that control and we just want to keep going, and going and going, and one thought justifies the other, and the other, and the other, and the next thing. You know it, we're addicted to that loop. I don't know if you, if you have people in your life that constantly say I'm constantly thinking, my brain doesn't shut down. Well, that's not a good quality, my friend it's not that is not a good quality, my friend, it's not.
Speaker 1:That is not a good quality, like when someone tells me like oh, my brain doesn't shut down.
Speaker 1:I'm constantly thinking, I'm like, gotta work on that Especially also remember. That's why sometimes people, a lot of people, wake up with anxiety, wake up with negativity and wake up with like depression. Why? Because you are waking up with the thoughts you're having the previous day. So if you're not taking also time at night to, you know, have this quick night time routine. Where you are, you know, speaking positively to yourself or you are doing some breath work and getting into the present moment, you are going to wake up with the thoughts you slept with right or, for example, someone you know falling asleep on the couch watching you know whether crime shows or like the news or something, I mean guess what. You are going to wake up, um, you know, with all with, with, with the anxiety, because you slept with the news from the day before and then it ain't good. Yeah, yeah, I know we're nearing the end. What is some action steps that we want to talk about?
Speaker 2:I mean again, it's the same thing. I always tell my clients find something that works for you, right? I love walking, you love walking. I've been walking now for a while. Maybe you're not a walker, or maybe it's hot as hell and you don't want to go outside. That's okay. But find something that allows you to quiet the mind and find something, like Denise said, that brings you into the present moment, and the easiest thing you have for that are your senses. That brings you into the present moment and the easiest thing you have for that are your senses. Meaning even if you say two minutes, I can commit to two minutes every single day to be present. You can sit and stare at the wall that's being present, look at the colors, feel the wall get the texture, what do you smell, what do you hear around you?
Speaker 1:That's it Two minutes for for presence. Or it can be doing when you're doing your tour, like if you're like if you're washing the dishes. So if you don't want to sit like, I get it, like you know, maybe you some, you're very busy. It could be through washing the dishes, feeling the feeling, brushing your teeth, exactly. It could be through all of the daily activities committing to like, instead of while you're brushing your teeth, instead of thinking of the 500 things you have to do, just slow yourself down and you know like, exactly, feel the motions. You know like, oh, I'm brushing my teeth now. I feel the water, the water, great, that's you know it sounds cheesy, but it works.
Speaker 2:It does work.
Speaker 1:It's one of the calm things, but that's not another thing. Yes, cheesy, but that's not another thing. Yes, cheesy, but that's that's practice, right. Or it could be the breath right. If someone's like, oh, I don't want to do this, you know, I don't want to enjoy my mashing the dishes and doing laundry, you can also commit to two minutes or three minutes of deep breathing, you know, getting into your heart, holding, like you know, kira and I, always, always, always, before we start the podcast, we put our hand on our heart and we do an hand on our belly and we do a few deep breaths. Because what are we teaching our body? What do we tell our body? You are safe, we're here for you, right? So, because that's that's our body is the most, it's our vehicle, it's what's carrying us throughout our lifetime. So it's really important to also remind it that yo, I'm here for you, I'm gonna slow you down so just discover what works for you.
Speaker 1:But we're giving you the easiest tools because, guess what? You and I are super busy.
Speaker 2:Yeah as well, got to be simple stuff. Yes, ma'am. Okay guys, now go, shut your mind up.
Speaker 1:I know, shut it, don't collapse that.
Speaker 2:Go quiet the mind. But yeah, thank you guys. As always, we appreciate feedback and comments on our Instagram and reviews and sharing it with a friend and all the things.
Speaker 1:Yes, please share this episode at least with a friend who might need it. If someone tells you all the time I'm thinking all the time, maybe they can benefit from this so for sure.
Speaker 2:Thank you, we'll see you on the next episode.
