A Meditation On The Thoughts That Bother Me

What about thoughts that are infused with frustration or criticism or despair? For the life of me, I can’t see what use they have even though they can be troublingly sticky.

So what to do? How to let go of those thoughts, or reorganize them, or set the mind on a different path? We can have that power, that skillset, through our mindfulness practice in the legal field. It’s part of the secret sauce.

Transcript

Finding a comfortable posture,

Whatever is supportive of your practice today,

Letting the words go,

Locating the breath or sound,

Whichever will be your anchor,

Your home base,

Your refuge.

And it's perfect if what you want to do is simply follow the breath and settle for the next several minutes.

But there's also probably zero chance that you won't have an opportunity to notice thoughts arising and passing away.

Or I could say there will be zero chance I will have not have the opportunity to practice.

And so when that happens,

If that happens,

When that happens,

Just noticing,

Oh,

Thoughts arising and passing away.

And if one of them is not useful,

Then you can try the process of working with unuseful thoughts.

And be sure if you do that,

To do it with a sense of humor,

Right?

And if the mind gets lost in thought,

You can use the five steps or,

Since this is formal practice,

If it's possible to just come back to the breath and just be on step one and let them go.

Always coming back to the breath or to sound or whatever your anchor,

Your refuge is.