As humans,
We spend a great deal of time lost in thought,
Running on autopilot,
Doing one thing while our minds are someplace else.
When that happens,
We're missing out on the opportunity to experience life and all it has to offer because we can't truly experience life if our minds are in one place while our bodies are in another.
Getting lost in our thoughts can also create or amplify suffering because we often ruminate or dwell in the past or worry and obsess about the future in ways that perpetuate depression and anxiety.
Learning to be mindful of our thoughts helps free us from thinking that is not serving us.
Welcome to my mindfulness of thoughts meditation where we will learn how to bring awareness to our thoughts without judgment.
How to accept our thoughts with kindness and care.
In this way,
We can step out of our storytelling mind.
We can learn that we don't need to believe our thoughts.
We don't need to push them away.
We can begin to free ourselves from unnecessary suffering.
So now,
I invite you to take a comfortable position sitting in a way that allows you to be relaxed yet alert.
If it feels comfortable for you,
Closing your eyes,
Or you can even keep them open,
Maintaining a soft,
Unfocused gaze in front of you.
Let's just start by getting a sense of your body as a whole,
Just sitting here,
Being held by the surface you're sitting on and feeling the weight of your body on the earth,
Steady and stable.
Maybe even seeing if you can feel your body rising up tall and dignified,
A sense of uplift.
Let's now take some time to invite relaxation into the body with a brief body scan to allow any parts of the body that may be holding tension to soften and let go.
Starting with the head,
Relaxing the forehead,
The eyes,
The cheek and jaws,
The mouth,
Maybe loosening your tongue inside the mouth,
And then bringing your awareness down through the neck and shoulders,
Maybe bringing the shoulders down and back away from your ears,
Allowing any tension to release.
And now relaxing the arms,
Bringing awareness to the torso,
And so releasing tension in the chest,
Softening the belly,
And see if there's anything that wants to let go in the hips,
In the pelvic area,
Down through the legs,
Relaxing the front and back of the thighs,
The knees,
The calves,
The ankles and feet,
All the way down through the toes.
And now allow your attention to rest here for a moment,
Bringing awareness to your feet and where they are making contact with the surface beneath you.
And now,
Letting go of our awareness of the body,
Shifting that awareness to the breath.
Allow yourself to take a deep breath in and then breathe out deeply,
Letting go of this breath,
Letting your body settle more into a state of relaxation.
Continue to breathe deeply and noticing that you're being held by the surface beneath you,
By the earth itself.
Knowing that there is nothing you need to do,
There is nowhere that you need to be,
Just sitting with an awareness of your body as a whole.
Now,
Finding the natural rhythm of your breath,
Letting your breath breathe itself,
Letting go with each inhale and exhale,
Breathing in calm,
Breathing out relaxation,
Observing how each breath simply comes and goes on its own,
Allowing this to happen naturally without a need to change or fix anything.
Letting life be just as it is in this moment,
And each time your mind wanders off,
Gently returning the attention to the breath without judgment or resistance.
As we meditate,
It can be useful to go a little deeper into what's going on for us at any given time,
To expand our awareness beyond the breath or the body,
Bringing our attention to other experiences creates space for us to become more curious,
So that we can develop more awareness,
More understanding,
And ultimately,
More acceptance.
Most of us may find in life that we have internal battles of what's going on with us in a particular moment,
A particular resistance to what we are thinking or feeling.
By cultivating acceptance,
And then allowing and letting go of our internal experiences,
We can liberate ourselves from unnecessary suffering in the present moment.
And then this acceptance can flow out into our daily lives and our interactions with the external world.
So now,
Allowing the awareness to open to other experiences that may occur.
If sensations arise,
Be aware of them with the same non judging attitude.
If sounds call your attention,
Become aware of hearing without necessarily evaluating or judging what you are hearing.
When emotions become strong,
Notice them with kindness and compassion,
And see if you can create space for them.
We can expand this awareness even more by noticing the thoughts in the mind.
First observe in this moment,
Is the mind busy with thoughts,
Ideas,
Images,
Or maybe it's quiet and settled?
Are your thoughts vivid?
Are they not very clear at all?
What do you notice?
Just start by bringing acceptance without judgment.
Thoughts are not good or bad,
Positive or negative.
They just are what they are.
The thought that you happen to be having at this particular moment.
If you notice that the mind is really busy,
Can you accept that that's the way it is right now?
One way to bring acceptance to our experience is to maybe use a word or phrase that denotes acceptance.
For example,
Some people find it helpful to softly name the experience of thinking with a very gentle non judging tone,
Such as thinking,
Thinking,
Simply knowing the process of thinking is happening.
Or perhaps something that applies an invitation to accept this experience,
Such as this too,
Or allow,
Allow.
From there,
See if you can create space for your thoughts to be there.
Allow your mind to be the way that it is in this moment.
You might bring to mind the image of you watching your thoughts float right by you,
As you would watch leaves floating on a stream.
Or maybe it's more helpful to imagine your thoughts floating on clouds in the sky.
Noticing each passing thought cloud,
And then the one that comes after it,
And then the next one.
You may notice that just at the moment you become aware of a thought,
It passes and is replaced by another thought.
That's what happens.
Thoughts come and they go.
Just continue to accept and allow your thoughts as they arise,
Then let them go in a way that makes sense for you.
No need to get lost in the content of our thoughts.
By noticing,
Thinking without getting lost in the stories.
You're not feeding your thoughts,
And they often dissolve on their own.
No sense in trying to get rid of them.
Your very effort will just make them stronger.
No need to figure out why a thought came to be or be concerned with how long it's here.
As soon as you become aware of the thought,
You're back in the present again.
And then you can return to the breath or some other actual experience in the moment.
If you notice different themes or repetitive patterns of thought,
Like planning,
Remembering,
Worrying,
Or wanting,
Try noticing and naming them in a very kind non judgmental way.
Such as planning,
Planning,
Or this is worrying.
This is remembering,
Naming whatever is here for you.
Perhaps your thoughts are fuzzy and unclear.
That's okay,
Too.
Simply noticing and labeling thoughts as thinking is enough.
Repetitive thoughts are sometimes fueled by emotions underneath them.
If a thought pattern keeps arising,
Keeps coming up,
You might ask yourself,
What am I feeling now?
If it's clear,
There's an emotion underneath,
And it's very strong,
You might practice recognizing,
Naming and allowing that emotion to be present.
Asking yourself,
Where do I feel this emotion in my body?
How does it feel?
What sensations are present?
Is there some sort of compassion or kindness you can bring to the emotion,
Such as a soothing touch or a kind word or phrase?
Maybe there's no strong emotions pulling for your attention.
And that's fine,
Too.
And so simply continuing to notice your thoughts arising and falling in and out of your field of awareness.
There aren't any strong emotions pulling for your attention.
Each time you become aware of thinking,
Acknowledge it and appreciate that you've become aware and are back in the present moment.
It doesn't matter how many times you wander.
Each time you become aware of thinking and can return to the present moment with patience and kindness is a liberating moment of mindfulness,
A freedom,
A gift.
Just as we practice letting go of each breath before taking the next one,
We can also learn to let go of our thoughts so we don't get hooked and caught in the stories of our mind.
Let's start by taking a deep breath in,
Noticing the thoughts that are here and letting our thoughts go as we let our breath go.
Breathing in acceptance and allowing what's here.
Breathing out and just letting go.
Breathing in acceptance and allowing and breathing out just letting go.
And just continuing to do this for the next minute or two.
As humans,
We spend a great deal of time getting lost in thought,
Running on autopilot,
Doing one thing while our minds are someplace else.
When that happens,
We miss out on the opportunity to experience life and all it has to offer as it's happening.
Getting lost in our thoughts can also create or amplify suffering.
