A Simple Cure for Obsessive Thinking & A Simple Method for Being Aware of God’s Presence

By Mesha Oh

Do you feel that your mind causes you to often think about things that are trivial, irrelevant, unnecessary or not useful or uplifting, even against your will? Does your mind constantly trouble you with thoughts you find distressing? Is your mind often busy churning out negative thoughts even though you don’t like to think them—thoughts characterized by such emotions as fear, anxiety, resentment, envy, anger and hate? Does your mind regularly bombard you with hurtful thoughts—thoughts characterized by pain in relation to something that happened with you in the past or by worry regarding something you fear might happen to you in the future?

If you do, and if you feel that your life would be much happier and peaceful if you didn’t, there is a simple yet very effective method to help substantially reduce, if not completely eliminate, obsessive negative thinking—and that is, constant repetition of the Name of God.

*

Chanting or constantly repeating the Name of God has been practiced down the centuries in several different spiritual traditions, in different ways, in different parts of the world. The Lord God of the universe is known by many different names, and to engage in this practice of chanting, you could choose that name of God that resonates best with you. Constantly repeat this name (silently, with the tongue and lips, if you like, or mentally, if you can) as often as is possible as you go about your routine, everyday activities. You could also use a title that is commonly used for God and repeat it. You could add some words to the name/ title to make a short phrase which you can repeat like an invocation or a prayer. For instance, if you like to think of God as “Lord”, you could repeat the phrase “Lord, please help me”, or “Loving Lord”, or “Thank You, Lord”, or something similar.

Keep up the silent repetition of the name or title or related phrase that you have chosen as you go through your day, whenever you do not need focussed use of your mind for engaging in a specific task. Continue repeating the name/title/phrase as you go about doing your everyday tasks, like having a bath, brushing your teeth, ironing your clothes, cooking your meal, washing the dishes, walking down the street, waiting in a queue, travelling in a vehicle, and so on. While earlier at such times your mind might likely have been busy at work churning out negative thoughts, one after another, now your mind is, hopefully, occupied with something else, something positive and uplifting—i.e., being engaged with the silent chanting of the name/title/phrase that you are repeating. Because of this, the frequency of the painful thoughts that you just didn’t want to think but earlier didn’t know how not to will likely considerably decline. The more moments of the day that your mind is occupied with the silent chanting of God’s name, obviously the less moments it will have to be occupied with bombarding you with negative thoughts.

In addition to chanting while going about one’s daily tasks, one can set apart some bits of time every day to sit in one place and engage in the practice. At such times, one might like to use a set of prayer-beads for this purpose.

*

Silent constant chanting God’s name as one goes about one’s day is one of the easiest methods for calming the mind, for curing obsessive thinking and for reducing the frequency of negative thoughts. At the same time, it is also an effective means to be stabilized in awareness of the presence of God on a moment-to-moment basis.