So in this short practice we will be letting go of the thinking mind and our incessant thinking and the way we're going to do that is through an interesting experiment where we treat each thought,
Every single thought,
Doesn't matter how interesting or important it seems,
As equally irrelevant,
As equally unimportant.
Now of course if there is something really important that pops up,
If it's important you'll remember it later after a few minutes when we finish this practice,
So don't worry.
But for this practice we're just going to allow any incoming thoughts to come in and then simply label the thoughts and then come back to the breath.
So when you're ready go ahead and get a comfortable position,
Whether you're on a chair,
Cushion,
Or standing perhaps,
Allowing yourself a couple of nice big deep breaths,
Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth,
In through the nose,
And out through the mouth,
Letting your shoulders soften,
Letting the muscles in your face start to relax as much as they can,
And just noticing for a moment your your body sitting here,
Perhaps your feet connected to the ground,
Your back against the chair,
A sense of weight,
Heaviness,
Or lightness,
And just connecting with the breath for a moment,
Noticing the inhale,
Chest rising,
Air coming in through nostrils,
And the exhale,
Relaxing and releasing.
And I want to invite you to just stay connected to the breath here,
And whenever you have a thought that starts to pull you away,
Or any thought at all,
Just passing through or pulling you or really trying to get your attention,
I want you to just very gently label that thought,
Saying the word thinking in your mind quietly.
So here comes the thought,
And thinking,
Thinking,
And then come back to the breath.
And of course your thoughts won't all just disappear,
In fact you probably have lots of thoughts running through,
Coming and going,
A stream of thoughts.
So as long as you can focus on the breath and notice the breath,
You don't need to say thinking a million times.
You just notice the breath,
Notice the feeling of air going in and out,
Your chest rising and falling.
But whenever you do get pulled away now,
And you notice that you've been pulled away,
Then you can just label thinking,
Thinking,
And naming your experience of thinking,
No matter what the thought is.
It's all the same,
It's all part of thinking,
Thinking,
And coming back to the felt sense of your body,
Your physical experience here of the breath.
The breath is not thinking,
The breath is feeling.
So you're being aware of the body,
Being aware of feeling your physical sensations,
And then when some mental thinking or imagery comes in,
You just label it thinking.
Treating each thought as equally irrelevant,
Not your problem right now.
Noticing the tendency to get pulled away,
And just realizing that this is the nature of your mind.
Even if you have an intention to be present,
You're gonna think you're gonna get sucked into the past or the future.
It's just how the mind is.
So maybe taking a moment to just let go of any judgment around that,
Because that's also just thinking.
It just is what it is.
Thinking,
Thinking,
Thinking.
I'm here,
And my thought is over there.
I'm not my thoughts.
I am aware of my thoughts.
I am aware of my thoughts.
It's just thinking.
Allowing your breath now to expand a little bit.
Noticing your belly and your torso rising and falling.
Noticing the shoulders rising as you breathe in,
Falling as you breathe out.
Noticing any tingling in the fingers and toes as you bring in oxygen,
Release CO2.
Noticing the whole body moving,
Rising,
Shifting.
And now just letting go of any focus,
Any attention on the breath as we finish up here in the next minute.
Just sitting here without any goal,
Without any focus.
And thanking yourself for taking this time out.
As we come to an end,
You might just notice if there's been any shift in the mind,
And the busyness or the state or the quality of your mind.
Without judging,
Just noticing what's it like right now to be in the mind,
To be in the body,
To be witness to these experiences.
You might reflect on this noting practice of just noticing thinking without getting caught up in the content of the thoughts.
And see perhaps if this resonates with you,
Then you can take this practice into your day when you find the mind is really busy.
You might just label,
Let go,
Come back to whatever you're doing.
So when you're ready,
I'm bringing a little movement into the wrists and the ankles,
Taking a nice deep breath in and out.
And whenever you're ready,
You can gently open the eyes.
