Gratitude For Thoughts

A guided meditation that teaches the student to appreciate the chattering mind. Suitable for all levels of meditation. Particularly useful for those who find that they are viewing the subconscious interruptions as a negative experience.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Dr.

Brett Wade,

And I will be your guide for this meditation,

Where we will practice being aware and grateful for the thoughts that naturally bubble up during meditation.

As a meditation guide for many years,

I am aware of the myriad ways in which we describe these thoughts.

Sometimes we use metaphors like calling the chattering mind a monkey mind or a dog on a leash.

Many people who might be new to meditation view this chattering mind as something negative that must be trained away.

This kind of thinking gives the impression that the subconscious mind is a negative entity that must be defeated or overcome or at best ignored.

During meditation when thoughts do bubble up,

It may reinforce the belief that you're doing it wrong.

This results in putting a much bigger spotlight on the natural process of subconscious chatter than is necessary.

By continually viewing thoughts as a negative experience rather than it being a natural state of the mind,

You're adding more and more energy to the least important part of the practice.

So know this,

The thoughts will always happen and if in the past you have viewed them as something negative,

This meditation will practice noticing and celebrating them so that they eventually fade to the same or even less intensity as sensations of breathing.

Most people including very experienced meditators will have their conscious focus shifted to unconscious chatter or thoughts every five or six seconds.

This never changes.

The practice of meditation then is to just keep coming back to the conscious activity,

Whether that conscious activity is focusing on breathing or some other present moment activity.

What should happen with regular meditation practice is that the length of time it takes from conscious awareness interruption to return to conscious mindedness takes less and less time.

By practicing not only noticing the chatter but being grateful for it,

We can slowly become to begin to be aware of the time it takes to come back to present moment.

This is the practice of meditation.

Concentrating,

Noticing the concentration has been interrupted,

Not being offended or bothered by it,

And then returning to concentration.

This meditation is approximately 20 minutes long and has the opportunity for periods of silence to practice gratitude for thoughts mixed in with some gentle reminders.

If you're ready,

Let's begin.

Start by finding physical balance and symmetry in your body.

I recommend sitting but if that's not available to you,

Standing or lying down can work as well.

Begin to match your left and right hands.

This might mean interlacing your fingers on your lap or having them resting on your belly or taking some preferred mudra or hand position.

Now do the same with your legs and your feet.

This might be sitting cross legged or your feet resting on the floor.

Just find some symmetry in both your upper and lower body so that your left and right sides are just matched.

If you're sitting or standing,

Try to align the natural curves of your spine so that you have a natural inward curve in your low back and a similar matching curve in your neck.

If you've done this,

It should feel as if your head is floating on top of your neck.

Now begin to close your eyes or have a defocused downward gaze.

Start to bring awareness and attention to the sensations of breathing right at your nostrils.

You may notice as you breathe in through your nostrils that the air in which you inhale is a different temperature than the air which you exhale or breathe out.

You might also notice that one of your nostrils seems just a little bit more open and easier to move air in and out compared to the other side.

This is normal and it may switch back and forth throughout the day.

Now return your focus to the opening of your nostrils,

Paying attention right there as breath moves in and out just at a natural pace for you.

I'm going to leave you now to pay attention to your breathing.

Focus right at your nostrils for 30 seconds.

Let's begin.

Now during that time of focusing your breath at your nostrils,

You likely notice that your practice included at least one or two episodes of your subconscious mind chattering to you.

It might have been saying things like,

This is the longest 30 seconds.

Or perhaps it was saying to you,

After this meditation,

There are all these things that you have to do.

This is your gotta mind.

I've got to do this.

I've got to do that.

And if you've noticed that chatter,

Great.

Many people are unaware of the chatter.

They just have lost their conscious activity focus and they're not sure why or what it was that caused them to lose this focus.

In this case,

Breathing at the nostrils is where we're going to come back to.

So when you lose the focus,

We just come back to that sensation of breath.

We're going to try another 30 seconds and we're going to see how that goes for you.

See if again,

You can notice your thoughts bubbling up.

Let's begin.

Did you notice the chattering?

If you did or did not,

Or you lost focus for a second or two,

That's totally fine.

We're now going to move into the main set of this meditation.

We're going to focus on breath work at the nostrils,

Just like we've been doing.

But this time when the thought comes up,

I want you to acknowledge the thought with a little smile and say,

Thank you.

No matter what.

You might have a thought that says,

This is so silly.

You smile and say,

Thank you.

Your chattering mind might be saying,

I'm just a little bit uncomfortable right now.

And I have some stiffness,

Maybe in a shoulder.

You smile and say,

Thank you.

You get the idea.

Every time,

No matter what,

Smile and say,

Thank you.

Remember you might be doing this every five to 10 seconds,

And that's normal.

This time I'm going to leave you a little bit longer than 30 seconds.

I'm going to leave you for about three minutes.

I'll have some background music.

But every few minutes,

I'm going to join in with you and just remind you to come back to that awareness of breath and also to remind you to smile and give thanks to the endless stream of thoughts.

So if you're ready,

Let's begin.

Continue to focus your breath right at the opening of your nostrils.

And just remember,

When the thoughts come up,

Smile and say thank you,

No matter what the thought is.

Let's practice this for a few more minutes.

Give me thanks.

Breathe.

Continue to focus your breath right at your nostrils.

And once again,

For every subconscious thought that bubbles up,

Just smile and just say thank you.

We're going to do one more three minute set.

Breathe.

Once again,

You might have noticed that there were several times when your conscious focus of breathing at the nostrils was interrupted by whatever thoughts and hopefully you had a chance to practice smiling and saying thank you.

These thoughts are important because they let you know that you're alive as much as breathing is the chattering of your mind is your default mode network of your brain and again it lets you know that you're here so we shouldn't be upset with it.

You can begin to wiggle your fingers and your toes this just signifies to your body that you're coming back to your time and space.

If your eyes have been closed you can just gently allow your eyes to flutter open and if your gaze has been downwards go ahead and begin to lift and refocus your gaze.

You might notice that your eyes feel quite refreshed.

Over the next few hours and days perhaps consider your relationship with all aspects of yourself including your subconscious as a positive relationship that should be appreciated.

Over time you may notice as you continue your practice of meditation that the time it takes you from noticing the chatter to refocusing your attention does indeed shorten.

You might also notice that since you're not treating your thoughts as a negative interruption that they indeed become more positive and perhaps even informative for you.

I hope you've enjoyed this meditation and I hope you take some time to return to this meditation continuing to practice gratitude for your thoughts.

You might also be interested in some of the other meditations that I have recorded here.

I leave you for now.

Peacefully,

Brett