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#36: Mindfulness of Thoughts
#36 | September 20, 2021 Mindfulness of Thoughts
Just as it’s possible to direct attention to the breath, to body sensations, or to sounds, the same mindful loving awareness can be directed to observe thought.
To experiment and understand this, try a one-minute practice of counting your thoughts.
You will notice picture thoughts and words thoughts. Some people think primarily in images, others in words, and some have the audio and visual thoughts coming together. Just notice. There might also be very soft thoughts that come in the background saying things like “there haven’t been many thoughts yet." Your job for this mindfulness meditation is to sit for one minute, and simply number the thoughts when they appear.
As soon as you notice this thought, name it gently according to its predominant quality. You can use simple notes like planning, remembering, judging, worrying, imagining, or fearful thought, happy thought, interesting thought, creative thought, painful thought, and so forth.
Simply naming and acknowledging the thought is supportive of the witnessing quality of mindful loving awareness.
Once you have noted a thought gently for some time, you will notice that it dissolves like a cloud under sunlight. Thoughts are ephemeral, they are empty, they have no substance except what we invest in them.
After the thought has diminished, simply return again to mindfulness of breath and body for a time until another strong experience—whether a thought or emotion or sound—pulls your attention from the breath.
Stepping out of the stories the thought tells, you can see the common patterns of thought without being so caught in them. And more importantly, you begin to rest in the field of mindful loving awareness rather than being repeatedly carried away by thought.
Now you can alternate mindfulness of breathing with mindfulness of other strong experiences when they arise. You become a steady, loving witness of all that arises and passes. You become a peaceful one sitting still amidst the rising and falling waves of experience.
Here are some further ways to investigate and learn about thought as you are growing in mindfulness.
Press play to tune in to learn this Mindfulness Strategy!
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By Henri Hébert
5
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#36 | September 20, 2021 Mindfulness of Thoughts
Just as it’s possible to direct attention to the breath, to body sensations, or to sounds, the same mindful loving awareness can be directed to observe thought.
To experiment and understand this, try a one-minute practice of counting your thoughts.
You will notice picture thoughts and words thoughts. Some people think primarily in images, others in words, and some have the audio and visual thoughts coming together. Just notice. There might also be very soft thoughts that come in the background saying things like “there haven’t been many thoughts yet." Your job for this mindfulness meditation is to sit for one minute, and simply number the thoughts when they appear.
As soon as you notice this thought, name it gently according to its predominant quality. You can use simple notes like planning, remembering, judging, worrying, imagining, or fearful thought, happy thought, interesting thought, creative thought, painful thought, and so forth.
Simply naming and acknowledging the thought is supportive of the witnessing quality of mindful loving awareness.
Once you have noted a thought gently for some time, you will notice that it dissolves like a cloud under sunlight. Thoughts are ephemeral, they are empty, they have no substance except what we invest in them.
After the thought has diminished, simply return again to mindfulness of breath and body for a time until another strong experience—whether a thought or emotion or sound—pulls your attention from the breath.
Stepping out of the stories the thought tells, you can see the common patterns of thought without being so caught in them. And more importantly, you begin to rest in the field of mindful loving awareness rather than being repeatedly carried away by thought.
Now you can alternate mindfulness of breathing with mindfulness of other strong experiences when they arise. You become a steady, loving witness of all that arises and passes. You become a peaceful one sitting still amidst the rising and falling waves of experience.
Here are some further ways to investigate and learn about thought as you are growing in mindfulness.
Press play to tune in to learn this Mindfulness Strategy!