Welcome.
This meditation is for those moments when your mind has gotten hold of something and does not seem particularly interested in giving it back.
Maybe there's a decision you need to make.
A conversation you keep replaying.
Something that might happen.
Something that already happened and that your mind has apparently decided deserves another 47 reviews before it can safely file it away.
Whatever's brought you here,
You don't need to stop thinking before we begin.
In fact,
For the next few minutes,
We're not going to try to stop thinking at all.
You might start by finding a position that feels comfortable enough.
Sitting,
Lying down,
Whatever works for you.
And perhaps just notice that you're here.
Not here in some grand spiritual sense,
Here in a room.
In a body.
Listening to my voice.
You might notice where your body is making contact with whatever's supporting you.
The chair beneath you.
The floor beneath your feet.
The bed beneath your back.
And if none of those sensations are particularly obvious,
That's okay too.
There's nothing you're supposed to feel.
Just allow your attention to become a little wider than whatever your mind has been working on.
You may notice sounds around you.
Maybe something close.
That might be something farther away.
You don't need to identify every sound,
Just let sound arrive.
And perhaps notice the breath.
Not changing it.
Not taking the kind of enormous meditation breath that announces to your nervous system that something serious is happening.
Just take the breath you are already taking.
If your mind is busy,
You may already be thinking about the thing.
That's not an interruption to the meditation.
That is the meditation.
The mind thinks.
It plans.
It predicts.
It reviews.
It tries to connect what happened yesterday with what might happen tomorrow,
And then,
Ideally,
Produce a plan that prevents anything painful or embarrassing from ever occurring again.
It is an ambitious little system.
And most of the time.
That's really helpful.
Thinking has probably solved a lot of problems for you.
It might be one of the reasons you're good at what you do.
So we are not going to make thinking the enemy here.
Instead,
See if you can become interested in the experience of thinking itself.
Not just what you're thinking about.
What is it like when the mind starts working the problem?
And perhaps you notice words.
Images,
Fragments of conversation.
Maybe you rehearse what you're going to say.
Maybe you imagine several possible futures and then attempt to prepare for all of them.
Or maybe thinking happens so quickly that you mostly notice the sense of being carried away by it.
Whatever is here is fine.
And if it feels possible,
Let the content of the thought move slightly into the background and start to become curious about what happens in the rest of you when the thinking starts.
Maybe there's something obvious in the body.
Tightness in the jaw,
Pulling forward,
Energy in the chest,
A knot in the stomach,
Maybe the breath becomes shallow.
Maybe you feel restless.
Maybe you don't notice anything at all.
That's useful information too.
We are not searching for the correct semantic experience of overthinking.
For just noticing what's actually here.
You might also notice an impulse.
An urge to do something.
To check.
To send the text.
To look something up to replay the conversation one more time to arrive at the answer.
There can be something almost magnetic about that urge.
The sense that if you just think about this for another minute,
Or another ten minutes,
Perhaps you'll finally reach the place where everything makes sense and you know exactly what to do.
And sometimes you will.
Perhaps you've also had the experience of thinking about something for a really long time without becoming any more certain.
See if you can notice the difference between having a thought and needing to follow it.
Just for a moment.
A thought appears.
Maybe,
What if I made the wrong decision?
And rather than answering it,
Perhaps you can notice,
Hmm.
There's the mind asking a question.
Another thought,
I should have said something different.
Oh,
There's the mind reviewing.
But what if this happens?
Oh,
There's the mind trying to predict.
You don't need to use those exact words.
The point is not to label everything perfectly.
It's simply to begin noticing that a thought can be present without immediately becoming an assignment.
This is something contemplative practices have been interested in for a very long time.
Thoughts arise.
They stay for a while.
The change.
Another thought comes.
We usually experience the interesting ones as very personal.
My fear.
My problem.
My plan.
But at the level of attention,
Thinking is just another thing that happens.
A sound happens.
A sensation happens.
A thought happens.
And then something else happens.
Now you don't need to believe every thought is meaningless.
Some thoughts matter a lot.
Some require action.
Some are trying to tell us something important.
We are simply practicing not having to decide what to do with every thought at the exact moment it appears.
Perhaps bring your attention back to the support beneath you.
The weight of the body.
The contact of your feet,
Or your back,
Or your hands.
Or simply the fact that you're sitting here breathing while the mind continues doing whatever the mind is doing.
And now,
If there's something you've been worrying about,
You might gently allow it to come to mind.
Not the biggest thing in your life.
We don't need to use the hardest possible material to prove that we're good at meditating.
Just something that's been taking up more space than you'd like.
Notice what happens when you bring it to mind.
Maybe the thinking immediately speeds up.
Maybe the body responds.
Maybe you feel nothing.
Again,
No correct response.
That in this moment,
See if you can ask yourself.
.
.
Very quietly.
Is there actually something for me to do about this right now?
Not eventually.
Not in theory.
Right now.
If there is,
You don't need to pretend there isn't.
You can make the call.
Write the email,
Have the conversation,
Make the decision.
Meditation is not just a complicated way to avoid your life.
But if there is nothing to do right now,
Or if you've already done what you can.
.
.
Notice what it's like to let the question remain unanswered for a few breaths.
You don't have to become comfortable with uncertainty.
That might be asking a lot.
Just notice whether uncertainty can be here without immediately requiring more thought.
Breathing in.
.
.
Not knowing.
Breathing out.
Still here.
Maybe the mind offers another solution.
Thank you,
Mind.
Maybe another prediction.
Thank you.
Another rehearsal noted.
And you can come back to the body,
Or the sounds around you,
Or the feeling of breath.
Not because these things are more spiritual than thinking.
They are simply happening now.
Overthinking can give us the feeling that we're doing something about uncertainty.
And sometimes we are.
Sometimes thinking is exactly what's needed.
But there may also be moments when thought keeps moving long after it's stopped taking us anywhere.
And perhaps the practice is not figuring out how to make the mind stop.
Perhaps it's learning that we don't have to go everywhere it goes.
For the final few breaths,
See if you can allow the mind to be exactly as busy or quiet as it is.
No final clearing.
No perfect state to achieve before the meditation ends.
Just this.
Thinking perhaps.
Feeling perhaps.
Listening.
And maybe noticing that for these few minutes,
The problem didn't have to disappear for you to put it down for a moment.
It will still be there if it needs your attention.
You're allowed to come back to it.
Just maybe not every single time it asks.
When you're ready.
Let your attention return more fully to the space around you.
Maybe move your hands or feet.
Open your eyes if they've been closed,
And continue on with your day.
Not necessarily with an answer.
Maybe just with a little more room around the question.
