If you try use a powerful microphone to hear, say, a mouse walking in the forest, the challenge isn't in hearing a sound that slight, but in deciphering that kind of sound despite competing background noise. Any number of sounds may inhibit the recognition of those tiny steps: wind in the trees, cars in the distance, even your own breath. Although there can be value and interest in any of those sounds, when you're listening for mice, the rest is just noise.
In our brains, our minds if you will, there is also a tremendous amount of noise. It doesn't take a meditation retreat to see that we are very busy, mentally. Or that we can't stop this activity. Or that we didn't start it. If we aren't in control of what happens in our own mind, what then? The way out of this dilemma is two-fold: recognition and right (in)action.
The first thing to recognize, is that most of that stuff that is going on in there, is just noise. It is not who we are. How could it be, if it starts on its own, if we can't effectively stop it? Those things we want to pursue are the mice, and the extraneous thought process that distracts us, is the noise. This noise is a product of the mechanics of the system. One that was not designed to process so much information, or to sustain almost continual danger signals. Unresolved need fuels the “noise” activity. That is, when something registers as “not okay”, the gears start rolling, until “not okay” turns to “okay”. Often, “not okay” persists, barely recognized, and the gears don't stop. Simply, we see too much, move too fast, and work too hard to allow our human software to conclude each thing begun.
Taking stock of the true essence of this “noise”, the second aspect is revealed: It is important not to try to shut down all that activity. “Trying” to shut it down is another kind of activity. That effort then becomes another program overlaid on all the others. This effort- the “something is NOT okay” driven effort- fans rather than douses the flames. Often referred to as mental chatter, I like to think of this noise as reruns, broadcast on a television in another room. I'm not really watching the shows, but I can still hear them. If I happen to tune in for a second, I note, “How many times have I seen that tired script?”
So the antidote is simple. You activate the dialogue box in your head, “If you didn't start this action, click here to cancel.” Canceling is easy – don't try to turn off the TV, and don't get caught up in the shows. If no one is engaging a show, it will wear itself out. Contentment – it(this, here, now) is okay how it is, or, more to the point, I am okay, how I am – severs the fuel supply to this unwanted activity. To be clear, if something is wrong, we should absolutely engage our intent and intellect to try to fix it. However, the figure it, fix it, discuss it activity is not helpful if it is not conscious and self-directed.
The first line of Patanjali's seminal Yoga Sutras translates as, “Wholeness comes from releasing the ripples within our awareness.” This is a practice which can have stark, immediate benefits. We can't pat down the ripples. We let them roll away, without attending to them or pushing them. However, if one is literally overwhelmed and vulnerable then disengaging from the subconscious drive of our most important survival tool (our intellect) is very difficult. This is where neurofeedback shines. If we can't or won't consciously let go of a frenetic level of activity which is intended to ease our situation, but actually does the opposite, the feedback impulse does it for us. It interrupts this non-helpful activity on conscious and unconscious levels. We then relax, and know the experience of deepening the parts of us that we choose, and disengaging the unwanted program, the ripples carrying on from the kerplunk of things gone by.
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