Inner Peace Seeker Series - Do I Need to Stop Thinking Ep.2

Hello,

Welcome to episode 2,

P2 of the Inner Peace Seeker Series.

I am Nicole Batiste,

Your host.

Don't ask.

Anyway.

Seriously,

In the first episode of the series,

We talked about three different categories of meditation and the types of meditations that fall in each category.

So today,

Now that you've decided what type or types of meditation you are going to practice,

You're like,

What do I do with all these thoughts that are running through my head,

Right?

The good thing is this will be simple.

Easy thing to learn.

However,

In practice,

It may be a bit challenging.

I always say something is hard until it's not,

Right?

Remember when you first started driving or riding a bike or anything that you can think of that when you first started doing it,

You're like,

This is so hard,

Especially if you ever drove a standard shift vehicle.

Not that I'm dating myself,

But.

.

.

Yeah,

At some point you just forgot about,

You just did it without even thinking about it.

This will be the same.

So the short answer is no,

You don't have to stop thinking.

So if you've chosen a practice and the focus meditation style.

You probably already have heard it over and over again.

Once you become aware that your mind is all over the place and you're thinking a lot of thoughts,

You gently bring it back to your object of meditation.

And it's it happens it and then the more you bring yourself back So whatever the object of meditation is,

It'll start to slowly.

Stop doing that to you.

If you have chosen to practice in the open monitoring category of meditation,

You probably already know.

So you're probably questioning like,

Is this how this goes?

But yeah.

You just notice your thoughts.

You notice them without engaging.

You don't think about where they're going.

You don't follow the trail that they're leading you down.

I like to use the analogy if you're one of those type of people who can have the TV on and you're just walking all over the house and you have the sound in the background.

That's pretty much the same thing.

You remember you are the one experiencing your thoughts.

You are not your thoughts.

So as you're experiencing them,

It doesn't mean you have to engage with them.

You don't,

You might engage with the TV,

But you know,

You know what I'm saying,

Right?

You just let it play.

You don't have to go over to it and talk to it or interact with it or anything like that.

So doing that with open monitoring,

That's what you're doing.

You're just letting it play in the background without judging or engaging.

So you still have the thoughts,

Right?

It's like,

Do I have to stop thinking?

No,

You don't.

With Transcendental Meditation,

The thoughts turn into a sound and then they just start to disappear altogether.

But again,

You don't have to stop thinking,

You just know how to redirect your thoughts either to the meditation of object,

Object of meditation,

Either by just objectively observing them or into your mantra as a TM practitioner.

Something that may be helpful to remember is that thoughts are energy and at some point energy runs out.

So there's also that.

A tool or a tip that can also be helpful is since thoughts are energy,

If you do something to kind of get some of your energy out before you sit,

That can be helpful.

I personally I've practiced,

I've tried.

Working out after meditation and before meditation.

I actually like working out.

Before meditation sometimes.

It just depends on the time of day.

Usually first thing in the morning,

I can meditate first and then work out in the afternoon.

It's preferable if I'm able to engage in some type of physical activity before I start meditating,

Just so I don't have so much floating around in my head,

But even if I don't get to,

I understand what I need to do,

But.

The key is just understanding that aspect of it may also be helpful and understanding that it's normal.

That's how the brain is wired.

It doesn't.

Mean that you're doing anything wrong.

So.

Just take pride and comfort and celebrate.

Becoming aware that you're not doing what you sat down and intended to do.

And that awareness alone.

Means that you've already started to shift.

And that will lead into.

Episode three of the Inner Peace Sikhi series to be actually.

I digress.

We'll get to that in the next episode.

In any case.

.

.

Celebrate the awareness.

Without judgment.

Judgment-free,

Criticism-free.

With excitement and love because you are creating a shift within and with consistency at some point it won't be hard.

Because it'll become second nature.

So you don't have to remember,

You just do.

Another nugget that may be helpful is a wise friend of mine.

He says,

Discipline is doing the things you don't want to do,

Doing it anyway.

And so when you sit down and you notice that you're going.

So if you've anything like how I used to be before I did all started my journey,

My healing journey,

Is if I would mess up,

I would beat myself up for messing up.

And then I would just stop with the discipline.

Keeps you back.

Like if you do go down that road.

Bring it into your awareness,

Forgive yourself and keep it moving.

Discipline will bring you back again and again.

And then at some point,

It won't even be discipline anymore.

It'll be who you become.

You are the meditator.

So I hope that was helpful.

In in helping you feel so not so much like a novice at this because it's it's where we start it's where we it's where we most of us are the thoughts are there It's just a matter of how.

You respond to them.

As always,

To your inner mastery which brings about success,

Inner peace,

And world peace.

Thank you for helping me create ripples of peace throughout the world.

And may you create the most amazing now moments.

Until I see you next time,

Ciao for now.