Welcome.
Find a place to sit or lie down.
Somewhere you won't need to be anywhere else for the next little while.
Let your eyes close whenever that feels right.
Or let your gaze soften and draw,
If closing your eyes isn't what you want right now.
There is no correct way to begin this meditation.
Just arriving is enough.
Notice the surface beneath you,
The chair,
The floor,
Or maybe your bed.
Whatever is holding you right now.
You don't have to do anything with this awareness.
Just notice it.
Let your next breath be a little slower than the one before it.
You don't need to force anything.
Just a slower breath.
Notice the air moving in.
And notice it moving back out.
You do not need to change your breathing.
And already knows what to do.
You are simply here with it for a while.
There's nowhere else you need to be right now.
Nothing you need to figure out immediately.
For these next few minutes.
The only task is to be here.
Breathing present.
If your mind is already busy planning,
Replaying,
Worrying,
That's alright.
We are going to talk about that mind of yours gently.
For now.
Just let it be busy if it is busy.
You don't have to fix it.
Let your shoulders drop.
Let your jaw loosen.
And stay with your breath.
A little longer.
Your mind has been busy your whole life.
Thinking,
Predicting,
Remembering,
Rehearsing,
Imagining.
This is simply what a mind does.
It's not broken.
It's not failing you.
It's doing exactly what minds are built to do.
Somewhere along the way.
Thinking can turn into something else.
It can turn into a loop.
You know the loop.
What if something goes wrong?
What if this person doesn't like me?
What if I fail again?
What if I say the wrong thing?
What if I regret this?
What if?
What if?
What if?
Notice.
You don't have to change anything right now.
You don't have to stop your racing mind.
Just notice that you know this pattern.
You have lived inside it before.
There is a difference between thinking and being caught inside thinking.
Thinking is a thought passing through.
Being caught is climbing inside that thought and living there for a while.
Turning it over,
Adding to it,
Defending it,
Following it down one hallway after another.
You don't need to judge yourself for this.
Almost every mind does this.
It isn't a personal flaw.
It's simply what happens when a thought feels urgent enough to follow.
For a moment,
Without trying to change anything,
Just notice.
Is there a loop your mind has been walking through lately?
A worry it keeps returning to.
You don't need to solve it.
Just notice it's there.
The way you would notice a familiar room.
Good.
You are just noticing.
That's all this part asks of you.
Here's something quiet and a little strange about the mind.
Sometimes,
Part of us becomes oddly comfortable with negative thinking.
Not because we want to suffer,
Almost nobody wants that,
But because familiar thoughts can feel safer than unfamiliar ones.
Think about it this way.
If you imagine something going wrong again and again,
And then one day it actually does go wrong,
There can be a strange,
Quiet feeling underneath that disappointment.
See,
I knew it.
I thought about it and it happened.
This is your shadow.
There's a kind of relief hidden in being right,
Even when it hurts.
This doesn't mean your thoughts caused that outcome.
It's not that simple and it's not that magical.
What it does mean is this,
That familiar thought patterns shape what we notice,
What we expect,
How we interpret an ambiguous look or a slow reply or a hard conversation.
A mind that expects rejection will find evidence of rejection more easily than evidence of welcome.
Not because the evidence isn't there,
But because that's where the mind has learned to look.
And this is sometimes called shadow work.
Getting curious about the parts of ourselves that operate quietly underneath our conscious choices.
Not to shame them or tag them as good or bad,
Just to see them.
So,
Here,
Gently,
Without judgment,
Ask yourself.
Is there a story my mind has told so many times?
That it started to feel like the truth.
Good.
You're noticing.
Here's the center of what we are exploring right now.
Freedom from overthinking does not mean having no thoughts.
It means remembering that you don't have to follow every thought that arrives.
A thought can arrive,
You can notice it,
You can breathe.
And then you can choose whether you want to keep walking with it or let it pass by.
Thought is not a command.
It's not a prediction.
It's not even necessarily true.
It is just a thought,
A visitor passing through a very busy day.
Some visitors you will want to sit with for a while.
Others you can simply let walk on through without inviting them to stay with you.
This is the freedom we are talking about.
This is not silence or an empty mind.
Just a little space.
Enough space to remember that you get to choose.
The mind that can rehearse fear.
Can also rehearse possibility.
This isn't about forcing positivity.
It isn't about pretending you feel fine when you don't.
It isn't about denying anything that's real.
It's about giving your mind another option to practice.
Let's try a few gently.
See which ones your mind is willing to consider.
Even a little.
When the mind says,
I cannot do this,
You simply don't.
Have to argue.
You could simply offer.
Maybe I can.
When the mind says,
I always mess things up,
You might offer,
I can learn from this.
When the mind says,
They're probably going to reject me.
You might offer,
I don't actually know what they're going to choose.
When the mind says this is going really badly,
You might offer.
There is also a possibility it goes differently.
And now one more,
A little bolder.
When the mind says,
I can't do this,
See if there is room just this once for,
If anyone can do this,
It's me.
Let that sentence sit there for a moment.
Notice the change in your energy.
Notice what happens in your body.
Maybe it feels unfamiliar.
Maybe it feels uncomfortable.
Maybe some part of you wants to argue with positivity immediately.
And that's all right.
All of that is welcome.
The sentence doesn't need to feel completely true yet for it to be worth saying.
It's not a fact you're forcing yourself to believe.
It's a possibility you're giving your mind permission to practice.
The body knows the difference.
Let your attention drop out of your thoughts now and into your body.
Notice your shoulders.
Are they lifted?
Breathed.
Held tightly or are they resting?
Notice your jaw,
Your forehead,
Your hands.
Now,
Without any pressure to feel a certain way,
Bring the supportive thought back.
Kindly.
If anyone can do this,
It is me.
Notice.
Not think about,
Just notice anything that shifts in your body.
Perhaps the shoulders soften even slightly.
Or the breath goes a little deeper.
The belly loosens just a touch.
Or perhaps there's a small,
Quiet sense of relief.
Or maybe nothing happens at all.
That's welcome too.
Here's something worth knowing.
The body can sometimes feel a moment of safety before the mind fully believes the new story.
That relief doesn't have to be fake just because the thought is new.
Your nervous system doesn't require full conviction before it's willing to soften even a little.
This isn't a promise that a single thought will fix everything.
Life is still life,
Full of real difficulty,
Real uncertainty.
With this small shift.
A slightly easier breath,
A slightly looser jaw.
That's not nothing.
That is information,
That is your body showing you a different possibility is available.
Let's walk through a few common overthinking moments together.
For each one,
Just notice what arises.
There's nothing to force.
When your mind says,
I'm not ready.
What else could be true?
When your mind says,
I always get things wrong.
What if this time you simply learn?
When your mind says,
They're probably thinking badly of me.
What if you don't actually know what they think at all?
When your mind says,
I cannot do this.
If anyone can do this,
It is me.
Notice this isn't about winning an argument with your mind.
It's not about defending the fearful thought.
It's about remembering that you have a choice in which Todd,
You keep walking with.
Freedom isn't about.
Finding everything comfortable.
Freedom isn't found.
In never having the difficult thought again.
And freedom is found in the small,
Kind act of choosing again and again as many times as you need to.
Thank your body for showing you what is important.
And bring your attention back to your breath.
Nice and natural.
Nothing to adjust.
Notice that thoughts may still be there and that is alright.
They don't need to disappear for you to feel free.
They don't need to be defeated,
They simply become a little less powerful,
A little less able to pull you all the way in.
This freedom we've been exploring in this meditation.
It's not freedom from having a mind.
It's not freedom from fear or doubt or difficult feelings.
Those will likely visit again.
That's part of being human.
What you are building is something deeper than that.
The freedom to notice a thought.
The freedom to pause before following it.
The freedom to choose.
Again,
Which one deserves your attention?
Before we close today's meditation.
Let these words settle.
Without needing to hold on to them tightly.
I don't need to control every thought to feel free.
I can notice the thought.
I can pause.
I can choose again.
Choose a softer and a kinder thought.
And softly if it feels true enough to borrow for now.
If anyone can do this,
It is me.
You you whenever you're ready.
No rush.
Just begin to notice the sounds nearby.
The weight of your body against whatever is holding you.
Let your fingers move if they want to.
Let your breath deepen naturally.
And when you are ready,
Gently and with all the love,
Open your eyes.
And carry this message with you as much or as little as you like.
Your mind may keep thinking.
That's simply what it does.
You are only becoming more aware of what you choose to believe,
Follow and feed.
I'm really grateful you sat in this meditation with me.
My name is Como.
And hope you have a wonderful rest of the day.
Thank you.
