1) I like this one. 2) At this point, hugging a pillow in bed somehow just ain't gonna do it for me. Nope. 3) I've heard of this... 4) Ah, speaking of changing the tape (or at least screwing with its "mechanism"):
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now, A New Earth, etc.) has a good one (has many, actually). Like most seekers, spiritual leaders, religions, he believes that Being is our true birthright, true state and ultimate goal.
Every religion/belief system has a name for what Tolle describes as "a voice in your head that never stops thinking, the stream of incessant and compulsive thinking." He says it is NOT normal but we don't know this because we all have it. *But I digress and ramble: one of his many - and simplest - strategies against this is to challenge it by promoting it. i.e., when your thinking becomes compulsively incessant, ask yourself (your mind), "I wonder what my next thought will be?" And you will detect, experience, a momentary feeling of pure consciousness (being without thinking). And it works! I think of it as a way to stump your own mind. Tolle says it grows in length beyond just momentary with repetition. I haven't incorporated it enough to say I repeat it often, but when the incessant thinking becomes overwhelming, I do employ that challenging little question. Stops that sucker dead in its tracks. Every time. Even if only for a nano-second.
Gardener
"My soul, be satisfied with flowers, With fruit, with weeds even; but gather them In the one garden you may call your own." Cyrano deBergerac
