when i think about chanting den i start thinking when to chant.
while thinking,i start thinking other things.and hence i have to deal with with two thinks 1)to chant or 2)not to chant.
but still i feel to chant as i want to progress in spiritualism and get serious in chanting.so what i do,i have a sip of water and get my chanting bag and start chanting.
while chanting seriously for few rounds again i get to think some other things besides chanting eg abt college,studies,sports,cartoons many others.and hence i get frustrated abt these thinking problem.den i started chanting loudly,but that distracted my mom's chanting so i stoped it.finally i prayed to lord to mercy me and stop me from thinking others things while chanting.
hence i started practising many things to stop my thinking habit while chanting eg meditation,yoga,pranayam and still it didnt work.finnaly lord came to my mind and he said think abt me while chanting.and it wont harm to ur chanting.
so now what i do i keep lord krishna's pic in front of me and start chanting.in these way when ever my mind whats to think some other things krishna's pic dosent allow me to do so.
hence i was sucessfull to solve the problem of thinking while chanting with help of lord krishna.
Mental chatter
Hello abhay,
before you start chanting stop everything for a few minutes and have a period of silence. While you do this don't think of anything and just allow your self to relax, and make your breathing slow and deep. When a thought comes - don't engage it or entertain it, this is all 'mental chatter' and it has no meaning, its just stored mental tension. As thoughts come up don't fight them or contemplate them, just be silent like if you are hiding in a shadow and the thought is trying to find you, and you are silent so it cant find where you are, and you just let it go away.
This allows mental chatter and stored mental tension to release its self and makes it easier to focus when you chant.
When you start chanting, chant out loud slowly and really focus your attention on the sound of every word and pronounce every word with feeling like if you were an artist and creating a painting with the sound of the mantra, if you do this with this level of concentration, its unlikely your mind will be able to over ride it!
If it still does, then spend a little extra time with the preparation in releasing mental tensions.
Harbol
dandavat pranam mahavishnu prabhu
hare krishna prabhu....very much thankfull for ur advise..actualy these was also advised to me by 1 brahmachari from our near by iskcon temple.but that time i didnt follow it.but i have started chanting the way u told me.
haribol!