by KATHY WILSON
Apparently, the average person has somewhere between 50,000 and 70,000 thoughts each day. And it has been estimated that between 50 and 60% of those thoughts are negative and on a repeated loop – coming back over and over and over again.
Mental chatter that does nothing and helps no one.
To make the whole thing more exhausting, those statistics aren’t even seasonally adjusted to deal with Christmas. Imagine the spike of thoughts as people deal with kids home from school for 6 weeks, buying presents, breakup parties, unwritten Christmas cards and what you buy your mother-in-law this year.
If we happened to tune into the mess of mental noise that will be whirling around in people’s heads over the next 6 weeks, the volume would be catastrophic.
I’m guessing those statistics won’t much surprise anyone who has ever sat down and tried to concentrate. The notorious, “monkey mind” leaps like a sugared up toddler from one thought to the next, barely stopping for breath.
But what about if it didn’t have to be like that? What about if there was tool that everyone could use to quiet the mindless chatter and leave a calm mental space from which to operate.
Something like….. oh I don’t know… meditation.
Meditation is no longer the province of monks and hippies. The rest of the world is starting to figure out the incredible benefits that can come from as little as 10 minutes each day. Hugh Jackman swears by it. So does our dear friend Zoe Foster (and Mamamia’s own Bec Sparrow).