Can we stop thinking?

We always feel our minds constantly think about one thing after another, without stopping.

We often find ourselves thinking about something all the time, and sometimes we want to pause such a long chain of thoughts by telling ourselves to stop thinking. But can we really stop or can we stop thinking?

It depends on how you define 'thinking' , said Michael Halassa, an assistant professor of the Department of Cognitive and Brain Science, Massachussets Institute of Technology. One thought is the result of chemical metabolism between brain cells, which can occur either consciously or unconsciously.

The type of thinking we know, for example, the successive thoughts that are constantly appearing when we are trying to sleep can theoretically be stopped, such as by meditation.

The brain never really stops thinking.

But even if we meditate to try to stop idle thoughts, no one has yet been sure how much to stop thinking. Julia Kam - a cognitive scientist at the Knight Laboratory, at the University of California, Berkeley, USA - said: 'I don't know whether in theory can I stop all thought, and If possible, this is also extremely difficult to check. ' However, she also said that meditators are better able to understand and master what they are thinking about.

There is a difference between 'thinking something' and 'knowing what you are thinking'. So if you ask a person what he's thinking about and they answer 'nothing' he probably doesn't realize what he's thinking about. For example, you're in the middle of thinking about an upcoming relationship or exam and you only realize you're thinking about it when someone bangs you on the shoulder pulling you out of that line of thought. People who are 'not thinking at all' may also be having unconscious thoughts, lines that don't form a coherent story.

But the brain never really stops thinking . Most thoughts actually take place on the basis of whether or not we are aware that we are thinking and 'there is no real way to stop the brain's thinking flow' - Professor Halassa said.

If you see a familiar face in the crowd and think you know the person, you may not immediately remember why you know the person. But maybe later, a few hours later, you suddenly remembered. It is the result of your brain being constantly thinking.

Even decision making is mostly unconscious. For example, some underlying thinking will lead to what we call a ' vague feeling'. There are many times our brains are counting so many numbers and eventually leading to a vague sense of something. We don't often have a conscious approach to the decision making process and sometimes we come up with a story to explain that decision, sometimes this decision is correct, sometimes not.

The cognitive scientist Julia Kam also agrees that the way you define 'thought' will change the answer to the question 'when does the brain stop thinking'. If you think that thinking is like a conversation with yourself, the answer is 'yes, we can stop thinking, stop that conversation' ; But if you think that thinking is not paying attention to anything in particular, it's difficult to say whether the brain stops thinking.

Even when you are reading these lines, your thinking or thinking is the activity of sending signals through a series of neurons in your brain. So if we deliberately stop thinking or try to reach 'empty state of mind' by meditation then the brain won't stop working. The brain continues to have thoughts, we just don't realize.