Once a man asked a monk “HOW TO STOP THINKING?” the monk without thinking much with a smile says “Just stop throwing the pebbles in the pond” I heard these words when I was in Sita Ram temple in Naigaon, Near Mumbai. Pebbles are your thoughts, the pond is your mind which means just stop putting (pebbles)thoughts in your mind(pond).

Now, this is certainly not the solution
it’s like saying an alcoholic to stop drinking alcohol or if someone asks you “How to stop smoking? You say “Just Stop smoking”
Well to develop, stop or alter anything for that matter we need to understand its concept thoroughly.

Bhagavad Gita – Chapter 2, Verse 63
Anger leads to the clouding of judgment, which results in the bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, the intellect gets destroyed; and when the intellect is destroyed, one is ruined.

With the above words of Shri Krishna, we understand that a thought unconsciously evolves into something else like anger into judgement, then memory into confusion, in confusion one is loss of Intellect which makes us a disintegrated personality.

Now if you will see all these ingredients generated through a single thought like for example the thought of anger or the thought of judgement, you see it all started through a tiny little thought.

now, what if we cut the tree of its root?

Hindi Phrase:
Na rahegi baans, na bajegi bansuri
(if there is) no bamboo in the first place, there won’t be any noise of the flute (to deal with).

When the monk asked them to stop throwing the pebbles in the pond, he meant to get rid of this concept of thinking or overthinking in the first place, if we understand that thought will lead me to another and then another we will try to stay aware and before it gets too late we will remind ourself to somehow stop thinking, for the time being. This will de-link us from thoughts that mutate into anger, judgement, confusion, disintegration.

But easier said than done, you might ask me “how to bring that level of awareness or practice this?”

Here is What you can do (I follow this personally) :
Thinking is not a problem, to complete any intellectual, mental, or physical task you have to think about it, but too much thinking leads us to problems. So Anytime if you feel or seem to be thinking or overthinking about something Ask yourself “What are you doing right now?” Gradually come back to the present moment without judging what you were thinking or why you were thinking but practice this as much as possible because without the right efforts there cannot be any significant results.

Also, one more niche technique that works for me:

1. Put on a timer on your device for 5min

2. Take some deep breaths then sit still

3. Do alternate nostril breathing for 2min

4. Start experiencing breath & present moment simultaneously for the next few minutes

And remember to STOP THROWING THE PEBBLES IN THE POND.

Go Strong, Go Beyond,

Shiv