Label To Liberate: Practicing With A Busy Mind

If you feel like your mind is too busy—you have too many thoughts—to properly sit and meditate, then try out this labeling technique. After a brief settling in and bringing awareness to the breath, you'll learn how to practice this and be given time to try it out yourself. You'll be guided back to the focus of this meditation several times, in case your mind is particularly busy today.

Often by acknowledging thoughts' existence we can free ourselves from them.

Transcript

My mind is like a hamster wheel and the thoughts are the hamster running around and around and around and around and I just want to get off.

Well if you want to get off that hamster wheel,

Join me for this short meditation on mindfulness of thoughts.

Get into a comfortable position.

Settling in.

Take a deep inhale through your nose.

Sigh or exhale out of the mouth.

And take two more breaths just like that in your own time.

Bringing your attention in.

And relaxing.

Anything that feels tight or tense.

And just breathing in and out your nose.

Softly and gently focusing your attention on the breath as it comes in and out.

Following the breath in and out.

Trying to just stay with following the breath.

And maybe already in this very short time you've already had some thoughts come up.

That is fine.

The mind is made to think.

So when it has thoughts,

Don't beat yourself up about that.

Instead what we'll do today is label the thoughts.

So when you notice you're thinking,

Just really quietly in the back your mind.

Whisper.

Thinking.

Thinking.

Thinking.

And then go right back to following the breath in and following the breath out.

Let's give it a try.

Just following the breath as it comes in and leaves.

And when thoughts come,

Just label thinking.

Thinking.

Thinking.

And be light.

Be gentle.

Be kind about it.

And turn back to the breath.

Keeping it relaxed and easy.

Being kind to yourself.

Either labeling the thoughts or just following the feeling of the breath in and the feeling of the breath out.

If thoughts feel urgent or important,

You can kindly say to them,

Thank you for being here and I'll have time to do that.

Thank you for being here and I'll have time to deal with that later.

And then go right back to following the breath.

Just keeping it really simple.

Really gentle.

Following the breath.

It can be really helpful to remember that when you sit down to meditate,

There will be thoughts.

Thoughts are probably going to show up.

There's nothing wrong with having them arrive.

But you don't always have to pay attention to them.

So I'll close with this quote by the Indian sage Nisargadatta.

If you believe your thoughts,

You will be disappointed.

Be the witness of the thoughts.

Remain as the seer.