Meditation For Dealing With Difficult Thoughts

We all have difficult thoughts that disrupt our sense of calm. How you get out of this cycle of thought is really kind of simple. At its most basic what you need to do is get your brain thinking about something else. Join me for this meditation where I provide techniques for dealing with the pesky thoughts that plague us all.

Music by Chris Collins. #68

Transcript

Welcome,

And I hope that each one of you will come to find peace within yourself.

Today I want to talk a little bit about dealing with difficult thoughts.

We all have thoughts like this.

We all have thoughts that invade our mind and we can't get rid of them.

And each person will determine what thoughts they find difficult or annoying or pesky.

And how you get out of this cycle of thought is really kind of simple.

At its most basic,

What you need to do is get your brain thinking about something else.

I recently did a live session on this very topic and I'll include some of what I said in that session in this meditation.

First I want to give you a couple interesting quotes.

Henry Ford said,

Whether you think you can or you think you can't,

Either way you're right.

And then author Esther Hick said,

In other words,

You can look at the hole in the wall or you can look at the beautiful painting.

You can look at the light bulb that is out or you can see the light bulb that is working.

You can look at your mate in his positive aspect or you can look at your mate in his negative aspect.

You can look at your own body and find something that pleases you or you can find something that doesn't.

You can remember your childhood and find something of pleasure or you can find something that makes you feel discouraged.

You can remember a compliment or you can remember somebody downing you.

You can remember your love or you can remember your hate.

In other words,

You have that choice in every moment.

Well said.

Close your eyes now and let's start to get in touch with our breath.

It doesn't matter if you're sitting or standing or lying down or sitting in your comfy recliner.

The only thing that matters when you meditate is that you are comfortable and alert in this moment.

There is no right way to meditate.

First let's start to scan our body as we begin to relax.

Let's relax our face,

Unfurrow your brow and unclench your jaw.

Relax your neck and your shoulders.

Those are common places of tension in our world today.

Maybe roll your neck around or shrug your shoulders and let them drop.

Remember you don't have to stay stationary just because you're trying to meditate.

You can move around a little.

Relax your arms and your hands and let go of any tension you might have in your chest or belly.

Try to feel yourself getting heavier with each and every breath.

Relax your legs and your feet and as you begin to relax,

Let's focus even more on our breath.

Our breath is like a river as it flows in and flows out.

Just inhale slowly and then gently exhale.

Notice your breath as it flows in.

Notice where you feel it in your body,

A cool sensation as it comes in through your nose and the movement of your chest and belly as the breath flows in and then flows out.

We're just breathing,

Breathing in and breathing out one breath at a time.

Over the years I've discovered a range of things you can do to get away from your pesky thoughts and remember each person will find the way that works for them.

I'm just going to give you some options to try.

One thing you can do is to talk to yourself like a friend.

It's kind of a make-believe but sitting yourself down like you would sit down with a dear friend to tell them about your problem and this can often help because it gets your brain in a different aspect.

Another thing you can do is to stop shooting yourself.

By that I mean we often say I should have done this or I should have done that or I shouldn't have done this and I should have done that.

You have to get out of that pattern of thought.

Another thing you can do is try to schedule some worry time.

Schedule a time with yourself like four o'clock today to think about a problem and find some solutions and all the while you're breathing in and breathing out one breath at a time.

Another thing you can try is to save your bedtime thoughts for morning.

You can jot down the things you're thinking about as you're trying to go to sleep on your smartphone or tablet or computer and that way they're cleared out of your mind and you can get to sleep and then in the morning they're all there laid out for you to deal with.

Another thing you can try is to try to focus on positive things for a change.

Force yourself to think about the positive things in your life.

The good that's all around you.

The good that you can find in any situation.

And in all of these techniques the goal is to get your brain to think of something else besides the pesky thoughts or to think of those thoughts in a different way so that it's beneficial.

Another technique you can try is the 5-4-3-2-1 technique in which you list five things that you can see,

Four things that you can feel or touch,

Three things that you can hear,

Two things that you can smell,

And one thing that you can taste.

And you could arrange the different senses any way you want but regardless this practice holds your attention outside of the negative and helpful thoughts.

And all the while we're still breathing in and breathing out one breath at a time.

Another one that I really like that you can try is to sing about your difficulties.

You know,

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen.

But putting your difficulties into a song tells your brain that your problem isn't as serious as you thought it was.

It makes the mood a little lighter.

Because dealing with difficult thoughts is a common challenge.

And for those with experience in mental health.

So now we're going to try for a few cycles to count our breath because counting our breath also helps divert our mind.

So what we're going to do is we're going to inhale deeply through our nose for a count of four,

Then hold our breath for a count of four,

And then exhale slowly through your mouth for a count of six.

And we'll do that just three times just to get the feel for it.

And you'll breathe and I'll count.

So if we're ready,

We're going to breathe in two,

Three,

Four,

Hold two,

Three,

Four,

Exhale through your mouth,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six.

Breathe in two,

Three,

Four,

Hold two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale through your mouth,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six.

Breathe in two,

Three,

Four,

Hold two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale through your mouth,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six.

Now just breathe normally and just observe your thoughts.

Thoughts are going to arise,

Both pleasant and challenging.

What we need to do is just acknowledge them without judgment.

Another thing that I like to do,

And you know I like a river motif,

Is to imagine placing each pesky or difficult thought on a leaf and then letting that leaf float away on a gentle stream.

And we're just breathing,

Focused on our breath,

Breathing in and breathing out,

Just one breath at a time.

That's the key to meditation,

One breath at a time.

While we're sitting here breathing,

Let's expand our awareness.

Notice any sounds or scents or sensations or emotions that are around us and allow everything to just be as it is.

Now if you feel able to do so,

Let's say a few positive affirmations.

You can silently repeat these or you can say them out loud.

I am calm.

I am centered.

I am capable of handling difficult thoughts.

Another thing you can try is box breathing or using a mantra.

With box breathing,

The counting of your breath helps divert your mind from the pesky thoughts.

With a mantra,

The recitation of the mantra breaks out of your difficult thoughts.

Now as we come to a close,

Open your eyes and come back into the room.

Wiggle your fingers and toes and stretch and feel how good it is to be alive.

Feel how good it is to be in this moment.

I want to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to join me in this moment.

You hear me say often that time is our most valuable commodity,

So I'm honored that you have invested some of your time to spend with me.

If you'd like,

Please join us in our group here on Insight Timer,

Meditation with Michael.

You can just search for it.

We'd love to have you.

And always remember that meditation is a practice,

And it's okay if your mind wanders.

The key is to gently guide your focus back to your breath when you have distractions.

We all have problems with difficult thoughts,

And the key is to get yourself thinking about something else.

Hopefully some of these techniques that I've shared will help you.

And what works for me might not work for you,

So experiment with different techniques until you find one that works best for you.

I hope this has been a beneficial and calming session.

Till next time.

Reviews

This was very helpful. I personally have been having a lot of trouble with difficult thoughts especially in my past. Thankfully this has reduced nowadays. This session was helpful in guiding myself back to normalcy