Stop the Brain (Second Edition)

In Stop the Brain: Enjoy Freedom from Intrusive Thoughts , author Jim Smart, PhD, PE, investigates questions critical to spiritual wellness: what is the mind, and where do thoughts come from? Most people think they have no control over their thoughts, but they can learn to control the release of thoughts for hours at a time. Stop the Brain shows readers how in a short, easy text (as opposed to years of therapy). Using powerful new tools and mindfulness techniques, the mind can be stabilized and rendered free of uninvited, intrusive thoughts. Enjoy profound spiritual results such as a calmer mind, less anxiety, a sense of peace, greater tolerance, radical forgiveness, deep sleep, increased focus, and less bodily pain.

What is the mind and where do thoughts come from? Thoughts are things. They are energetic balloons released from the depths of the mind. Most people think they have no control over them. But from information revealed in this book, they can learn to control the release of thoughts for hours at a time. Using powerful new tools and mindful techniques as described here, the mind can be stabilized and rendered free of uninvited thoughts. That is essentially stopping the brain, stopping the mind.

Using exercises such as the "lock box" and Melt&Poof, the reader is shown how to dispel annoying and intrusive thoughts.

Thoughts come in two flavors: there are invited thoughts which we use to run our lives, manage our careers, and raise our families. And then there are uninvited thoughts which can be a nuisance, preventing us from establishing a meditation practice, or even keeping us from going or returning to sleep at night.

Many people would like to establish a meditative practice, but these uninvited thoughts get in their way and keep them from settling down into a calm, peaceful state. Once the mind is liberated from these undesirable uninvited thoughts, the reader is invited to establish a deep meditative practice to focus the mind and achieve true inner peace.

This 2nd edition is an expansion of ideas presented in the original text. It is now Stop the Brain, Stop the Mind, and Stop the Ego. The final chapter explores techniques presented by the Zen monk, Huang Po. to carry the reader into deep meditation.