4/25/2023 0 Comments Thought train for iphonePick a focal pointįinding the right focal point is a personal experience. Now let’s dive into each step in more detail. Identify them, and return to your focal point. These are just more trains of thought inviting you to get on board. Or, you may find that your thoughts turn negative when you forego distraction and sit quietly with yourself. You may think or feel a variety of things when you’re meditating– boredom, frustration, impatience. Mindfulness meditation is as simple as it gets, but hat’s not to confuse ‘simple’ with ‘easy.’ Mindfulness meditation can be very challenging, and can elicit surprising emotions. Return your attention to your focal point.When you notice your mind wander, identify the thought with filter words.Breathe through your diaphragm, and begin to pay attention to your mind and body - your thoughts, emotions, and the physical sensations you are experiencing.Pick a focal point - your breath, a spot on the wall in front of you, or maybe your stomach as you inhale and exhale (I use this one).Here is a very simple mindfulness meditation practice that you can do anytime, anywhere: Mindfulness meditation is about accepting your experience as it is, imperfections and all. But worrying about ‘rightness’ is counterproductive to the exercise itself. With so many forms and variations, it’s hard to know if you’re doing it right. A guide to mindfulness meditation in four stepsĪt first, meditation is daunting to a lot of Westerners (myself included). With time and practice, this will allow you to navigate your own mind like a pro. You’re not boarding any of them - you’re making a conscious decision to let them pass. Mindfulness meditation is the practice of sitting in that train station of your mind and watching the trains of thought come and go. So how do we break this habit, and start navigating our minds more deliberately? For some reason, it’s so hard to do this with our thoughts. This is exactly the same approach you can take with your own mind: seek out the train of thought you want to be on, and ignore the noise and distraction. You can learn to navigate your mind like you would a train station From the second you walk into the terminal, you’re probably diligent and focused in seeking out the specific train you want to get on, ignoring as much of the noise and distraction as you possibly can. You walk into a train station knowing it will be a chaotic place. We have all gotten on trains of thought without questioning their direction, but would you do this at an actual train station? Would you just show up, and walk onto the first train you happen to see? Of course not! But would you do this in an actual train station? And then we ride this train as far as it wants to take us. When a emotionally-provocative thought arrives, it’s almost like we can’t resist getting on board. How many would-be relaxing nights have you had spoiled by an anxious or depressing thought that entered your mind and derailed you? I know it’s happened to me. We just get on board whichever train is front and center, without asking where the train is going, or whether we even want to go that way. We are often in the habit of simply taking whichever train seems to pull into our mental train station first. It’s tempting to take the first train of thought that arrives It’s easy to get overwhelmed, lost, or both. But it’s also a chaotic place with blinking lights, flashing signs, loud noises, pushy crowds, and plenty of irrelevant information. Your mind is a wide-open place with the potential to take you anywhere you want to go. To flesh out the metaphor a bit: if your thoughts are trains, then your mind is a train station though which all of these trains pass. So where do these trains of thought come from, and where do they end up? Your mind is a train station They are forever chugging along, emitting white noise in your mind. If you counted every distinct thought you had in any given day, it’d surely be in the thousands. And then some thoughts have huge emotion attached to them (like dreading a sit-down with the boss). Some of these thoughts are so mundane we may not even notice them (like picking out socks in the morning). Think of the phrase “train of thought.” It’s a vivid metaphor that describes thought in motion. Here a metaphor for the way the mind works. Your mind is a hectic place - how do you find your way? Navigating your mind
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