Wait, You Said NOT to Clear Your Mind?
How many times have you heard someone say, “As you meditate, breathe, and clear your mind”?
Is your hand raised?
What if I told you that you’re supposed to think when you meditate? Would you believe me?
What’s funny about “clear your mind” is that, honestly, every time I hear it, my mind does the opposite. I hear, “clear your mind” and instantly all the things I worry about, think about, feel, smell, touch – ALL the things – seem to force their way into my consciousness.
It’s kind of like when someone says, “whatever you do, don’t look up.” What do you do? You look up. Or at least I do. I also love to worry when someone says, “don’t worry about it.”
So Many Thoughts
During the course of the day, a typical person has between 10,000 and 60,000 thoughts – per day. Your mind evolved to think. It’s what you do to further yourself. To survive. It’s part of your DNA and there’s no getting around it.
The Biggest Misconception in Meditation
This brings me to my point. One of the biggest misconceptions in meditation is that you’re supposed to clear the mind.
Maybe a Zen Master with over 10,000 hours of meditation can do that, but pretty much everyone else, including you and me, is on a thought train. Even then, that Master still has thoughts. And plenty of them.
Thoughts are a part of meditation, and they always will be.
“Focus” in Meditation
What are you supposed to do then, when someone says, “clear your mind”? This is an opportunity to treat it as an invitation to breathe. To settle in. And begin to observe. More on that in a minute.
When you begin to meditate, you should always have a focus. It can be the breath, the body, a mantra, a candle, or something similar.
Then as you progress with your meditation session(s), you bring your attention back to whatever it is that you’re focusing on. Throughout your meditations, you will have thoughts. They are part of the brain’s processing system, and help with stress release.
Become an observer
Depending on the type of meditation you’re doing, what you actually observe will be a little different.
If you’re doing a breath awareness meditation, you observe the breath. When you notice you’ve gotten on the train of your thoughts, you get off and return to the breath.
In a body scan meditation, you’re observing and relaxing the body. These observations will entail looking at body sensations. Again, the thought train will pull you away. When you become aware that you’ve left the station, you “return” by focusing back on relaxing parts of the body and the sensations that arise.
In a mantra meditation, you can “observe” the mantra in your mind – the words, the symbol if there is one, or a scene. You can also observe the sound of the mantra, or the silence between the sounds. Still you can observe the body as it reacts to the mantra.
You can also observe your thoughts themselves. This is a little more difficult than the more tangible items-to-observe above, but this is still a good practice.
 
You Are Not Your Thoughts
You are essence. A soul.
Think about that. You’re not the same person you were when you were 10 years old. And yet you are the same.
You are not your name. That is a label.
You are not your hair color or eye color. These are labels.
You are the stillness beneath.
Observing your thoughts creates the space that allows you to observe yourself and the things you think and do. It actually elevates your level of consciousness.
And by giving attention to your thoughts, it helps them to go away.
Observing Your Thoughts
You can observe your thoughts in a few different ways.
Content
You can label them for their content. As a thought comes to mind, say about a meeting you have, you can say, “that’s a thought about work,” and then watch the thought as it goes.
The next thought might be, “I need to do all these things today, and I want to remember them.” That’s a thought about the future. Then you can watch these thoughts go.
Those same thoughts might return again and again, too. That’s okay!
Emotion Labels
You can observe the thoughts that come and label them for the emotion they evoke.
For example, if you’re worried about a project, you can say, “that is a thought about worry,” and then let it go.
If something big is happening in your life, and you can’t stop thinking about it, you can say, “this thought about anticipation,” “this is a thought about happiness” or “this is a thought about anxiousness.” Then let it go.
Labeling thoughts about the meditation
Let me begin this part by saying, all meditations are good meditations. Your brain state changes as soon as you try your first meditation.
It’s tempting to label your meditation. “This is a good meditation,” or “this feels challenging today.”
You can put these labels to rest, however. Some days you will feel like you go deeper with your practice, and other days it will feel like you can hardly focus. You still had a good meditation.
If you find yourself comparing one meditation session to another, acknowledge the thought, but then let it go, knowing you’re doing fine.
You’re Teaching Your Brain to Focus
When you redirect your thoughts again and again to the focus of your meditation, you’re teaching the brain to hyper-focus. It is this process that improves your efficiency, and your focus in your waking life. This constant re-focus also teaches your brain to let go of those thoughts that do stress you out, or cause you to overthink everything.
And this is the practice. The practice of meditation isn’t the you, perfectly at peace, with your thumb and index fingers in the jnana position. Though meditation can look like that, meditation is coming back to your focus over and over and over and over again.
No matter how many times it takes.And, it works. This is how I’ve been able to overcome my own anxiety and stress. I still get anxious thoughts. I still get stressed. But the practice of always coming back to my focus means that I can redirect those thoughts into more peaceful pastures. I can let them go.
If you want some guidance on learning meditation, let me help you. Manage your anger, reduce stress, curb your anxiety.
Dfinitely great food for thought here today as meditating is all about focusing and not necessarily clearning one’s mind. that said, I love how this has indeed helped with your own anxieties and so much more. Thanks for sharing and now wishing you a wonderful Monday and week ahead xoxo <3
Sweet Janine – Hehe, yes, focus. 🙂 It really has helped keep me calm, and chill. Hehe. I hope you’ve had a wonderful week! Sending you big hugs!
thank god the word ‘practice’ is there!
Good Post.*
*that’s my opinion and a label.
Clark – yes, get to practicin’! Haha. 😉
Lil Sis, I have to run. We have some weather problems here, and I’ll be spending most of the day shoveling. Have a wonderful day, and hugs from chilly, white Olympia
Big Bro – I hope your week has calmed a bit. Hehe. The snow looked great! Have a wonderful week, dear friend!
Great tips Cynthia. I wish I had these when I started meditation 20 years ago. Now, I just need to get more consistent. Thanks for the nudges to meditate more. 🙂
Brad – ha. You’ve been meditating 20 years!? That’s awesome – no WONDER you exude calmness and zen when I go to your site. Hehe. Sending you hugs and wishes for a wonderful week!
Thank you for the kind reflections Cynthia. Yes, I’ve been meditating about 30 years actually, but very casual and sporadic in my practice. 🙂 May we carry love and peace in our hearts to share with the world.
This is a great description of the mediation process. I particularly like the ways you described for observing thoughts. A good reminder.
It’s interesting to me that meditation alone could have such a strong effect for you. I needed the addition of a more active process of welcoming and letting go to get a deeper experience of releasing stuck emotions – and the feeling that I was controlled by them. I guess it varies depending on our life experiences and how our minds work.
Yvonne! Hey, hey, sweet friend! Great to see you over in these parts. 🙂 Meditation really has had this effect, but I do practice a lot, and have been to retreats, as well. I also do active meditations, as well, to help dispel any negative, nervous energy. And you’re right: Life experience and temperament all play a role. I hope you’ve been well!
Dear Cynthia,
You are so motivating with your accepting and nonjudgmental way of regarding / teaching meditation.
Wishing you a loving, peaceful and joyful Valentine’s Day.
Love and hugs, Maria
Sweet Mar, thank you for your comment here. I love helping others and inspiring them on their own journey. I hope you’ve had a peaceful, loving week, as well, and that you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day. 🙂 Sending you big hugs! xoxo
I really enjoyed your video explaining how we can not empty our minds..
Our minds will always be thinking, and often we can be distracted.. At first many years ago I thought I was failing in my meditation practice as I couldn’t empty my mind, until a dear friend who taught me so much about meditation and spirit taught me about breathing, And bringing our attention back into breath.
I love meditation exercises that take you through a series of relaxation exercises, talking you to concentrate on relaxing muscles throughout your body. And its as you say, if you lose focus, bring your awareness back to that place and carry on..
Like yesterday I sat in an armchair by the sunny patio window ( thankful for the warmth of a Sun streaming through the window the first time in a week lol ) and began my breathing taking myself down from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, visiting organs and heart and other muscles along the way..
So relaxed I became, I fell asleep..
My husband said I would make a good fly catcher lol, at least I didn’t dribble hehe…
The point being I relaxed so much my body took that next stage it needed sleep.. Now once upon a time I would consider this a failure, As I would want my meditations to be memorable, a story, meeting a guide or something really good happening within them..
. They do happen, and have, But I also knew my body was doing exactly what it needed to do, Sleep..
I loved what you had to say here Cynthia.. your commitment to your meditation teachings is wonderful and you are in my opinion flying much faster in every word of wisdom I read.
So your topic on labelling spot on. when you said ” You can put these labels to rest, however. Some days you will feel like you go deeper with your practice, and other days it will feel like you can hardly focus. You still had a good meditation.”,,,
Love to you my friend.. I hope you had a wonderful week, a beautiful Valentines, and wishing you a peaceful weekend.. <3 <3 <3
Oh, I love talking to you about this stuff, Sue! You walk and practice this Tao. 🙂 Bringing that attention back to the breath…over and over and over again. Those meditations where you relax different muscles and such? Oh yes, they are part of my repertoire, too. And falling asleep is always okay: meditation allows the body to do whatever it needs at that moment in time. In that moment, you needed sleep. 🙂 I’m glad you don’t consider it a failure – there’s no such thing as “failing” at meditation, hehe. Now, granted, there are ways to improve the practice, but well, I know you know this, too. I am in love teaching all this. I am working on it with the course and figuring out the “business” end of things, which is not intuitive to me but I am finding that money and mindset are great teachers. Ah, well…
Sending you big hugs, lots of love, wishing you a wonderful week. I hope your Valentine let you know that you’re special on this last Valentine’s Day. xoxo
Thank you dear Cynthia.. yes no failure.. I am much more chilled these days than I was. I used to chastise myself often for lack of concentration..
good to read you are going to take some CHILL out Time my friend and perhaps some tech free time.. My knitting is coming along nicely I posted on my garden blog.. https://dreamwalkergarden.wordpress.com/2019/02/16/february-update-whats-going-on-in-the-plot/ what I have been up to..
Valentines, I got flowers and I cooked a special meal and lit some candles.. very romantic 🙂
Hope Hubby enjoys his Ski trip.. and hope you chill out and enjoy my friend.. Life is supposed to be fun.. <3 <3 <3
Sweet Sue – you know, I’m getting more “chill” these days, too. Hehe. The other week, a good friend and I were talking about the idea of stress around high school and college applications. I told her that I know how stressful the process can be, etc., etc. She was surprised because she told me she thought I had a “type B” personality.
I told her, in fact, that I was probably type A, but that I’ve really tempered it with meditation. But, hehe, I am also more chill with my interpretation of a good meditation, too. Hehe. Just this morning, my thoughts were all over the place. Come back to the breath, my mind would say. And then I’d follow another story. Ah well…sometimes it’s fun to follow those stories, hehe.
Thank you for the link. I will go over and take a look. I hope you’ve had a great February. I am sorry it took awhile to respond. I…have had some interesting things coming up…including today where I’m going to a TEDx event. Hehe. sending you big hugs!
Sounds like you are going to be busy dear Cynthia.. A TEDx event.. I follow TEDx on YouTube, some interesting talks I enjoy that are posted.. Are you in the audience? or are you the Speaker?? Because that is where I see you..
Much love and now to catch up with last weeks post, 🙂 always a week behind everyone… 🙂 But I am sending tons of love in your direction my friend.. <3
Sweet Sue, it was a busy weekend. But it was lovely. I was not the speaker, thank goodness. At least for now, I do enjoy listening to others’ speeches. I do aspire to be a TED speaker sometime. But I was content to listen to the inspirational talks on Saturday. I got so many ideas of things to write about, also. And I realize I need to get out more. Ha ha. Thank you so much for coming back and commenting. Never worry about when you come to comment. I’m always glad to see you and your beautiful spirit no matter what. I wish you a wonderful week, as well. May you always walk in the light, dear friend. Sending you hugs.