Changing the Radio Dial

Minding our Thoughts

We are such ridiculous and splendid creatures of habit, in body and in mind. Our habits surely serve a purpose, cultivating efficiency and ease in our lives. And yet these stubborn habits often get us into trouble.

We have a tendency to take the same route to the grocery store every week and we mostly buy the same items every time we go. We eat the same lunches, week after week. We reach for the same clothes, head toward the same section at the bookstore, and sit in the same chair for dinner every night.

Slightly less obvious are the habits ingrained in our minds. We think the same thoughts every time we walk into the office, we mutter the same sentiment when that one person walks into the room, and we offer the same litany of either praise or complaint whenever we are asked how we are. We tend toward a default response of grumbling or praising or blaming or rejoicing in an almost comically predictable fashion.

Over time, these habits of the mind carve deep ruts into our bodies and brains. And then we get even more set in our ways, settling into ever more reactive and not always productive ways of being in the world. The mind dulls, the spirit weakens, our life force sputters to a slog.

The ancient yogis offered a potent practice to help us find our way out of unproductive ruts of thought and feeling. They counseled us to incline our minds toward clarity and well-being by substituting negative thoughts with positive ones. In Sanskrit this practice is called prakti paksha bhavana, and the instruction is that whenever we notice unproductive negativity in the mind, we replace that sentiment with its opposite, or at the very least with something a little more positive and wholesome.

Writer Anne Lamott calls this process changing the channels in our minds. She reminds us that like a radio dial that is never changed, most of our minds are replaying the same tired thoughts day in and day out. Mostly, we don't notice how unproductive this radio frequency can be. Lamott calls her unproductive radio station KFKD, and here's how she describes it in her book Bird by Bird.

“If you are not careful, station KFKD will play in your head twenty-four hours a day, nonstop, in stereo. Out of the right speaker in your inner ear will come the endless stream of self-aggrandizement, the recitation of one’s specialness, of how much more open, and gifted and brilliant and knowing and misunderstood and humble one is. Out of the left speaker will be the rap songs of self-loathing, the lists of all the things one doesn’t do well, of all the mistakes one has made today and over an entire lifetime, the doubt, the assertion that everything one touches turns to shit, that one doesn’t do relationships well, that one is in every way a fraud, incapable of selfless love, that one has no talent or insight, and on and on and on.”

Sound at least a little familiar? If you are brave enough, you might spend a little time tuning in to the radio station of your own mind, noticing just what thoughts repeat themselves over and over. Do you tend toward defeat or despair? Anxiety or hostility? Self-doubt or self-righteousness? Are you always scanning the horizon for an opportunity to practice fear, intolerance, or righteous indignation?

If you aren't thrilled with the default channel of your inner radio dial, then practice prakti paksha bhavana. Make a choice to change the channel. Spin the radio dial until you find a frequency that feels more wholesome and loving. Look for a station that sounds like your best friend offering words of affirmation and support. Or maybe you already have another focus that works - a poem or a prayer or a song or a chant. If so, tune the radio dial there.

With a little practice we can find our own personalized radio station that plays our favorite songs - not too sappy, not too sweet, and just jazzy enough to jolt us out of mental stupor. Each time we consciously change our inner radio dial, we become more skilled at re-tuning our inner thoughts and attitudes. We carve out steadier and wiser pathways in the brain and body. And this allows us to broadcast more helpful thoughts and words both within and without, restoring a healthy dose of wisdom and wellbeing to our lives.