Do you know how many thoughts your mind thinks each hour of the day?
Experts estimate that the mind thinks between 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day. That’s an average of 2500 – 3,300 thoughts per hour. That’s incredible.
Other experts estimate a smaller number of 50,000 thoughts per day, which means about 2100 thoughts per hour. This, too, is a great number of thoughts.
If you were able to sell each thought, you would be rich in no time.
The Many Thoughts You Think Every Day
Did you notice the kind of thoughts you think?
If you pay attention to your thoughts, you will be amazed to discover that most of them are useless, unimportant thoughts that pass through the mind at a huge speed.
These are words you repeat in your mind, comments the mind makes, repeating what you heard said, questions, answers, and a lot of senseless wandering thoughts that you might not even be aware of.
You might not believe that you think these huge quantities of thoughts, but if you have experience with meditation, you would have proof of the great number of thoughts passing through your mind.
It’s just like being a very busy train station or airport terminal, where a great number of people come and go.
You also get proof of the endless stream of thoughts when you try to study, solve and problem, or make a plan. Suddenly, you become aware of the many irrelevant thoughts claiming for your attention.
The Mind Is Restless Like a Butterfly
The mind is like a butterfly that flies from one flower to another, never standing still.
In normal, daily life, you might not always be aware of this endless thinking. Most of this thinking is an automatic process, a mental habit. It is only when you need to focus on some particular thing that you become aware of the many thoughts that keep distracting your focus and attracting your attention.
This stream of thoughts goes on when you dress up, eat, walk, work, drive, talk, shower, or have a bath. It goes on when you are alone and when you are in company. It goes on until you fall asleep.
This is like a constant mental noise that goes on and on. I have written about the mental noise, as well as how to calm this mental noise.
Sometimes, this endless flow of thoughts is tiring and exhausting, especially when you are anxious or worried.
Sometimes, in order to draw attention away from these thoughts, people drink, take drugs, or engage themselves in hobbies or in various activities, but this isn’t the right solution.
- Just think how much energy and time you could have saved if you could reduce the number of your thoughts.
- Just think how much better focus you could possess, if thoughts did not bother you.
- Think about how much inner peace, calmness and happiness you would have enjoyed, if there was a way to stop all these thoughts, which add nothing to your life.
Let me ask you, do you keep the engine of your car running after arriving at your destination? You certainly switch the engine off. So why not do so with your mind?
You might say that this is an automatic process, which cannot be stopped. Wrong! It is an automatic process, but it can be stopped, or at least slowed down.
How to Stop the Mental Noise
I have written about this constant stream of thoughts in my article, How to Stop the Mental Noise.
There are several techniques to reduce the number of thoughts that your mind thinks per day.
In my opinion, and experience, the best methods that provide a real solution, and also many benefits, are concentration and meditation.
Yes, they require some effort on your part, but all the good things of life require a certain degree of effort to gain.
People, who meditate regularly, will agree that meditation slows the stream of thoughts. When this stream slows down, your mind becomes calm and peaceful, and this happens not only during meditation, but also at other times of the day.
When the stream of thoughts slows down, you will be able to focus your mind on what you are doing, without being distracted, and your mind can work better at studying, solving problems, making plans, doing your work, etc. The mind becomes a much more efficient and useful tool.
Going down from 80,000 thoughts to 30,000, 20,000, or less, will save you a lot of strain, worry, time, and wasted energy. You will also begin to enjoy the sweet taste of inner peace.
