Meditation For Overthinking | 15 Minute Guided Meditation

This is a 15-minute guided meditation aimed at quietening an overthinking/overactive mind. There will be a bell to start and end the practice. This technique can be used as a formal meditation or informally when you find your mind being overactive as you go about your day.

Transcript

Meditation for an overactive thinking mind. So each one of us has a thinking mind that tends to work a lot and often if we're not very careful your mind may work overtime. So in today's meditation rather than fighting our thinking mind and creating resistance we will offer kindness to our mind, Helping to bring a sense of peace and gratitude. So begin by finding a comfortable seated position ready to be relaxed but at the same time upright and steady. Either close your eyes or keep a soft open gaze as is done in the Zen tradition and start to take a few grounding breaths and continue to follow your breaths keeping your exhales slightly longer than your inhales promoting a feeling of relaxation in the body. Your breath is like an anchor point which helps you orient to the present moment. Anytime you're getting distracted or overwhelmed the breath is your refuge that you can always come back to. Now take a step back and simply watch your breath naturally. So without consciously controlling your breath and you observe the breath the way it is being mindful of tension of when your inhale starts and when your exhale begins. Now direct your attention to your head without going into the content of your thoughts. See if you can simply notice how your head feels on a sensation basis. You may observe that if you've particularly been focusing a lot that there may be a feeling of tightness or tension in the forehead area or you might observe a feeling of tightness by the temples. Start to observe any kind of sensations that you observe in the head area and start to notice its qualities. Do these sensations in your head feel heavy or do they feel light? Do they feel warm or do they feel cool? If you observe any kind of tension or contraction in your muscles whether it be in the forehead or the jaw or anywhere else see if you can soften this tension and simply by softening observe how these sensations morph and change. Now with your attention still rested in the head area can you simply allow your thoughts to be without changing them or suppressing them. We allow our thoughts to be without creating any unnecessary or added tension by suppressing them or pushing them away. Simply watch your thoughts unfold and if a particularly heavy or charged thought begins to occur there is no need to judge it. Simply offer your thought compassion and kindness as you would a friend and come back to a place of simply being and observing thoughts come and go. If you find that your mind is still overactive and is overpowering your sense of attention and awareness notice where you can relax and ease into any tension. So if you've started to clench any muscles begin to relax that and if a certain thought pattern is a bit too strong then briefly switch your focus to the physical sensations in your head or you may redirect your focus back to the breath. Once you've cleared away any added tension once again simply allow your thinking mind to be as it is allowing any thoughts that may arise to simply rest and be as they are. As we meet our thoughts head-on without any resistance we start to create space for them to arise and pass away and as we do this process we create more space and peace to simply be as we are. Our thinking mind does so much for us. Can you offer your thinking mind gratitude for helping you in your journey and thank it for what it does to support you. Before closing this practice today take a couple more moments silence to let your thinking mind be as it is. Let any added tension simply melt away. To close this practice bring your hands to heart center or simply bow in gratitude. We're taking the time today to treat yourself and your thinking mind with compassion and kindness. Thank you.