Allowing Thinking To Be As It Is

In this guided practice, the listener is invited to simply allow the process of thinking to be as it is. Rather than trying to quiet or corral the thinking process, or attempting to train the mind to be more focused and less distracted. In this practice, thought is simply left as it is, with no effort applied to make it be any way in particular. Letting thinking be as it is can be a powerful way to experience a greater sense of freedom from the movements of the mind.

Transcript

In this meditation,

I will be guiding you in a very simple approach in which we will simply be allowing the process of thinking to be as it is.

Many of us can find ourselves from time to time struggling with thought,

Wishing the thoughts that we're experiencing could be different than they are.

In my own life,

I tried for many years to control the process of my own thinking,

Attempting in one way or another to get my mind to settle down.

However,

I found that trying to control thinking often backfired,

Making my thoughts feel as if they were a bigger problem than they actually were.

So in this meditation,

I'm going to invite you to take a different approach to thinking.

For the next few minutes,

Just allow your thoughts to be exactly as they are.

For now,

There's nothing you need to do about thinking.

Absolutely nothing.

As you do this practice,

You might imagine the process of thinking to be like a river that's moving very dynamically,

Flowing maybe gently or with a great deal of force.

But no matter how the river of thought might be moving,

Simply allow it to move however it does.

Make no effort to stop the flow of thinking,

No effort to dam up the waters of thought.

Just let them be.

Let the river of thought move however it wishes to move.

You can't really stop its movement anyway.

For now,

Just notice that thought is present and that it is moving and flowing.

There's no need to make your thinking different.

Just allow it to be exactly as it is.

And as you engage in this practice,

Just appreciate the fact that your thoughts can't be any other way than the way that they are,

Until they are.

If your eyes have been closed,

You can go ahead and open them now.

Thanks for practicing this simple meditation of allowing thinking to be as it is.

And remember,

You can engage in this practice at any moment of life,

Not merely when you're sitting and doing this thing we call meditation.

Thank you.

Reviews

This approach has changed my view on meditation. Thanks for the insight about trying to control the thoughts vs. Allowing them to be.

Very clear, very simple and very true... Just what I like.. so I'll be trying more of your work here on IT.. thanks for today