Nah, they are right. I’m probably solidly on the neurotypical scale by most counts, but the best I can do is accepting those thoughts or not allowing them to derail me–typical mindfulness stuff. But I’ve never heard of anyone being able to just turn off thinking on command (drugs don’t count).
The better analogy would be like being able to read the notification and put the phone back down.
Am I the odd one out? When I was young, my mother recognised that my mind was often “noisy”, and she taught me to quieten those thoughts so I could focus. I assumed this was a normal sort of thing to be able to do, and I just had to learn because I didn’t have the knack naturally.
It’s not that the thoughts are like notifications, more like they fade out, a bit like traffic noise, so I suppose it’s not quite silence, but it becomes just background that no longer impinges on you awareness. I won’t pretend it’s like that all the time, but it feels pretty natural.
Nah, they are right. I’m probably solidly on the neurotypical scale by most counts, but the best I can do is accepting those thoughts or not allowing them to derail me–typical mindfulness stuff. But I’ve never heard of anyone being able to just turn off thinking on command (drugs don’t count).
The better analogy would be like being able to read the notification and put the phone back down.
Am I the odd one out? When I was young, my mother recognised that my mind was often “noisy”, and she taught me to quieten those thoughts so I could focus. I assumed this was a normal sort of thing to be able to do, and I just had to learn because I didn’t have the knack naturally.
It’s not that the thoughts are like notifications, more like they fade out, a bit like traffic noise, so I suppose it’s not quite silence, but it becomes just background that no longer impinges on you awareness. I won’t pretend it’s like that all the time, but it feels pretty natural.