Q. How Can I Block Out My Thoughts During Meditation?
I’d love to be able to meditate, but how can I block out my thoughts during meditation? This is something I hear all the time from people that want to know how to meditate but have found it too tricky, and so in todays post I’m here to share a new way of understanding the relationship between meditation and your thoughts.
First things first. If you find it hard to stop thinking or if you listen to guided meditations and find you can’t follow them along continuously because you keep thinking about other things – don’t worry, you aren’t alone.
It’s really common to get distracted. After all that’s probably one of the reasons you’re practicing. The good news is if you keep practicing a little at a time it will get easier. Concentration is the first step in meditation and it’s a handy skill to build for other parts of life too – so it’s worth the time investment.
If you do notice thoughts popping into your mind when you meditate, my advice is this: don’t block them – watch them.
Thoughts come into the mind just as clouds float through a sky. They come and they go, that’s just what thoughts do. Trying to block them all will keep you very busy indeed…You’ll be so busy blocking out thoughts that you won’t have any time left for meditation and relaxation. And that sounds like very hard work indeed.
Instead, watch the thoughts come and go, and as you do you’ll learn more about the habits and tendencies of your mind which can be helpful insight to have.
That’s my tip for today friends.
Don’t block – but watch.
You can read more on this topic in a blog post I wrote called ‘Slow Happiness’
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