Three Ways to Turn Negative Chatter Around — No Meditation Required

How to harness the voice in your head for good and end self-sabotage.

Photo by Samson Katt from Pexels

Zen Buddhists refer to the constant chatter of the mind as the monkey mind. Ethan Kross, a professor from the University of Michigan, in his new book Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It, calls the negative voice in your head simply chatter.

We all have it. But what can we do to stop it, or at least put it to good use?

My mind chatters incessantly, with both positive and negative thoughts. It doesn’t help I’m a writer, which requires spending a lot of time in my brain — chattering. Thinking of something to write about, drilling down on ideas, and trying to get into deep thought — all things that only exacerbate inner dialogue.

What we do:

• Chatter about all that we have to get done in a day.
• Chatter filled with judgment of the present moment.
• Chatter creating catastrophic “what-if” scenarios of the future, or for me, every time I get onto a plane, I see it falling from the sky. I drive to more places because of this.
• Chatter rattling off fears, both real and imaginary. If you have children, you’re probably very familiar with this.