How to Notice Thoughts

This is an audio of Scott Kiloby, mindfulness teacher and author and co-owner of the Kiloby Center for Recovery. In this audio, Scott Kiloby guides listeners through a meditation that helps us learn how to notice our thoughts and reduce addictive cravings.

Transcript

Okay,

So this skills training is about how to notice thoughts.

You can't do inquiry all day,

And we're not asking that.

Ninety percent of your thoughts that aren't functional,

Like functional thoughts are like I have to go to the bathroom,

Or knowing how to put together something or install software,

Those are functional thoughts.

Those usually don't create a lot of suffering.

What I'm talking about are the self thoughts,

The selfing thoughts.

For those thoughts,

How you notice those are really important.

So I've got in my hand,

For those listening to the audio,

You can't see it,

But it's like an image of words that says this won't work.

So if this were the thought that was occurring,

As soon as you become aware of the thought,

Just observing it from a still,

Quiet presence,

As if you're not adding anything to it,

Or subtracting anything,

Or understanding it.

You're just noticing it from a quiet spaciousness.

So there is space between you and the thought.

There's also space or quietness within the mind as you're watching it.

And usually what that means is that the thought can't sustain itself,

So it falls away.

So try that with me.

Just whatever thoughts are coming up right now,

As soon as you notice them,

Rest as the still quiet,

Watching.

And watch each one of them come and go.

You're not trying to interrupt the natural flow of the thoughts.

You just let them flow through.

As soon as you see or hear them,

You notice being aware from that still quiet place.

You're not trying to interrupt the natural flow of the thoughts.

Every now and then when you're watching and a thought falls away,

You can rest without thoughts.

Just resting,

As being aware presently.

Just a short moment of rest right there.

And then new thoughts arise.

You just watch them from that still quiet noticing.

As soon as they come out,

Sit right there.

Hey.

If it helps but it's not necessary,

You can even begin to notice the space around the words and the pictures as you see them so that opens up your attention a bit so that you're not narrowly focused on thoughts.

But the main thing is just to notice as soon as you hear or see a thought,

Rest.

Just notice that it's still quiet,

Noticing.

Right,

So for this part just keep your eyes closed.

When you see a secondary thought that tries to make sense of the one you're looking at,

Simply become aware of the secondary thought from that still quiet place.

And again,

Every now and then when a thought dissolves,

Just rest without adding any thoughts into your experience.

Rest as if you are the space,

That thought free space.

Just for a brief moment to get a sense of what it's like to be without having to think for just a bit,

The felt sense of that.

Just notice if you get focused on anything in particular,

It's one of two things happening.

One is the Velcro effect,

There's some sensation that you probably just want to bring your attention down to and begin to feel without thoughts on it if you can.

That sometimes relieves the intense focus and the thought.

And the second thing is that you're still trying to think about something that you're seeing in your thoughts.

That's the secondary thought.

Just turn your attention towards that,

Rest as the still quiet noticing.

May that be.

And this way,

Also,

You're not interested in the content.

All content is equal.

You're simply interested in noticing from the still quiet place,

Letting all thoughts flow freely,

And then taking brief moments every now and then,

And resting as presence without thought.

As soon as you see any new thought,

In terms of,

There are always going to be words or pictures,

Immediately rest as this still quiet noticing.

That's your natural,

That starts to become your natural response to every thought is to rest as that still quiet presence that sees it.

Even if your thoughts are racing,

That's only a big deal to another thought that says that's a problem.

If you hear that thought,

You know,

That my mind is racing,

Or that a lot of thoughts notice that that's another thought,

Your natural response can be to rest as a still quiet noticing to that thought.

As you're noticing this,

These thoughts,

Get a sense of that still quiet presence,

Or awareness and how that's more like what you are than any of the thoughts.

As soon as you notice a thought,

And you rest from that still quiet place,

There's something closer,

If you will,

That's at rest,

And simply aware,

And know yourself as that,

Stand as that,

And just let the thoughts be as they are.

And now if you would open your eyes and notice that the same thing can happen even with your eyes open,

You're still aware there's a thought field of words and pictures,

You can still notice them among the colors and shapes,

And see if you can,

As soon as you hear or see a word or picture,

Just rest as that still quiet noticing,

Even with eyes open.

And then as you're doing that,

Just notice the presence is sort of closer to what you are,

Your own presence is what you're experiencing as you're not gauging in the thoughts,

You're just noticing them from a still quiet place.

Your own presence feels more closer,

That's the only thing I'm asking you to investigate right now.

And so with your eyes open,

Notice again the same thing,

You're either going to get words or pictures,

And your natural response can be simply to rest as that still quiet presence.

But also,

The only thing that gets you sort of hung up is one of two things with your eyes open.

The Velcro effect,

Which is like there's a sensation or emotion that's stuck to a thought,

And so it makes the thought seem really important,

But if you just shift your attention down directly to the sensation or emotion,

And then do nothing with it,

Just rest with it without the words or picture on it,

Being present to that directly,

And letting it be there for as long as it needs to.

It has the tendency to unhook the thought from your experience,

If you're with it fully.

And the other reason you might feel stuck is that you're having a thought and then you're trying to think about that thought,

Like you're having a picture of what happened at some point,

And then you can hear your mind computing about what it means or who you are,

But you can turn your attention towards those secondary thoughts,

And rest as the still quiet noticing of those too.

As you're noticing thoughts from the still quiet presence,

Also notice all of the other things that are not thoughts,

There are colors and shapes everywhere,

Sensations,

Different perceptions,

And that opens up your experience a little wider so that you don't have to be completely focused on the thought stream.

Still when you hear thoughts or see them,

Words or pictures,

Rest as that still quiet presence,

But also notice all the other things in presence.

You know,

The feeling of sitting,

The sensation of sitting,

Fingers,

Colors,

Sounds,

Breathing.

Space.

And then again,

Even with your eyes open,

You can take those moments,

Those brief moments,

Like after a particular thought dissolves,

Where you're just sort of resting here,

You're here,

But you're fully alert to the vivid reality of the moment,

Like without thought,

Exploring it,

What is it like to be here without thinking,

And when it seems like your mind wants to label things,

Just notice that things aren't labeling themselves,

That everything is quiet,

And that your eyes aren't thinking,

Your eyes are just seeing color and shape.

The labeling of what you see is just another series of thoughts that you can rest and experience from the still quiet noticing.

And then if you have those moments of mindfulness where you're here,

Not so much with any thoughts,

Just experience what it's like to be here,

You know,

Outside of your story for a bit,

Just to kind of be here in exactly what it is that you see in front of you,

And all the tactile sensations involved in that,

In the colors,

In the space,

The perceptions,

Sensations.

And that's what we call,

One thing that we call rest,

Because you're resting without your story for just a few moments,

And being here it's like,

Oh,

This is where life is.

The story doesn't seem to,

It seems to be about something other than this.

It seems to be talking about the past and the future,

But here,

You know,

Resting in the presence and just exploring simple mindfulness,

Like watching your hand reach for a cup,

Or listening to your breathing,

Feeling it,

Or still hearing a thought come through,

A sound.

The more that you,

You know,

Come to rest in the moment without thinking just for these brief moments,

The more it starts to feel automatic,

But you have to kind of,

You have to kind of come here to experience it,

Because the mind is so conditioned to take over.

So you have to come here and visit this place,

This presence,

More and more.

And then when the thoughts come back up,

You just,

Again,

See them from the still quiet noticing,

And just notice that they are also happening here within the space.

They're part of the tapestry of the moment,

And as you're just noticing from the still quiet place,

They don't pull you in as much.

They start to seem like arisings that are coming and going,

Just like sounds,

And colors,

And sensations.

They're all happening within the present experience.

That's hard to do if you're jumping on the bandwagon of every thought.

That's hard to experience.

But if you're noticing from the still quiet place,

It's easier to notice that.

And it's worth repeating that there's only two reasons,

Basically,

You're going to feel like you're back in some trance.

And one is the Velcro.

There's some anxiousness.

Even boredom is a Velcro for people.

That's been a big thing for me.

But boredom,

If you notice,

Is like it's a thought about the future or something that I need to do.

It's an image.

And then there's usually a sensation with it of feeling restless.

So you just notice the picture from that still quiet place,

That picture of future.

Just let it flow right through.

And then bring attention down to the Velcro sensation and just let it be here in the space without the picture on it.

And it kind of undoes that entanglement of boredom.

And then you're back aware and present to the moment.

And again,

The other reason people feel stuck is because they're trying to understand something that they're thinking.

So they have a thought and they're trying to add something to it or subtract something from it or indulge it or analyze it.

The other thing you can do is simply rest and notice it from that still quiet place.

And notice that as the question or whatever passes,

You're still present and aware.

It doesn't affect anything.

You didn't need to answer the question in order to be,

Or you didn't need to understand what you were thinking in order to continue knowing the experience of just being here.

And really that's all we're all seeking is just to be here.

Even if we don't know it.

One thing I want to do before we end is just close your eyes again and notice again,

Nothing really changes.

There's still words and pictures and your automatic response can be to rest from the still quiet presence,

Letting them flow right through that spacious presence is still there.

That's like the space in which everything is happening.

With your eyes closed,

There's still those moments where thought relaxes and you can rest as if you are that space,

That presence,

That you're not those thoughts,

The space in which they're happening.

Taking a brief moment without thought is the way into that recognition.

So you want to take many moments throughout the day,

Just taking a few seconds without thought and knowing yourself as that presence.

And then open your eyes again,

Notice the only thing that happens is color and shape gets added.

That presence is still there.

The words and pictures can be seen from the still quiet noticing.

So as you come to the end of the audio,

I'm not going to say spend the next 20 or 30 minutes investigating because my thing is you would want to spend your whole day investigating this.

It's an ongoing mindfulness exercise.

So you would do it no matter where you are,

You would just notice waking up in the morning and the thoughts start to get you.

That's the only thing it seems like and you can just rest as that still quiet noticing and noticing where you seem to get hung up either on the Velcro or trying to understand the thoughts.

And then throughout the day,

I mean before and after breakfast,

In the morning while you're at the center,

When you're at home,

At lunch,

At night when you're falling asleep.

And then you would really only inquire when there's a really strong story there,

Usually a self story or something that feels really sticky.

It feels like it requires you to sort of take a deeper look into your experience and that's when you would add inquiry.

Reviews

Very helpful, clear

I have found this to be a really useful exercise and for me, it gets easier to do with practice. Thanks.

Used this in a meditation meeting! So great I actually went away!

Outstanding. Antidote for boredom.

Thanks Scott, this is so helpful in witnessing the thoughts and resting as the awareness rather than being pulled into thoughts automatically. 🙏

Exceptional guided pointing, meditation. Thank you Scott Kiloby, it is a breath of fresh air.

Excellent. I felt like I was traveling and had just arrived at my destination being able to observe from the perspective of an outsider of my own reality.

I highly recommend that you listen and ruminate on these very intelligent and thoughtful observations. I thank the author for his guidance.

Wonderful. Thank you. Will repeat this one. ☺

Amazing session

Interesting. With my eyes open I notice another layer.

This is a thoughtful and mighty useful meditation on the nuts and bolts of finding the space to be present, detached from processing and judging.
How to use the process of identifying thoughts and then simply resting with them, rather than reacting to them.
The space opens up to chill and be present.
Thank you.