This is a 15-minute experiencing thinking meditation.
We'll start at home base,
A comfortable experience that's grounding for you,
And move into experiencing the process of thinking.
It's important to note that we're not trying to stop thoughts,
But change our relationship to them,
Observing them without getting caught up in them.
Begin by taking your meditation seat.
Physically,
If you're in a chair,
Maybe scooching forward just a bit on the edge of your seat,
Sitting up nice and tall and straight as is comfortable for you and your body,
Feet on the floor,
And inviting the hands to come to stillness,
Wherever they happen to land,
On the legs or lap.
You don't need to hold them in any particular way,
But you can if you like.
Your eyes might be open or closed.
And taking a moment to just check in and notice the position of the body and inhabit it.
Also take your meditation seat with the heart and mind.
Just a gentle check-in to what emotions might be present,
Making themselves known and moving on,
And what thoughts are also here.
And here too,
Just a light check-in.
Refresh your acquaintance with home base,
A comfortable experience you can feel right now that's supportive and welcoming.
Perhaps following the breath,
Wherever you feel it most in the body,
Is a good home base for you.
Or it may be that breathing is not so comfortable.
If you notice stress or perhaps some anxiety arising with the breath,
That does happen.
For some of us,
You are welcome to choose a different home base.
It doesn't have to be the breath.
You can place your attention on the tips of your fingers,
The bottoms of your feet.
Perhaps listening to sounds or silence is a more supportive and stabilizing home base anchoring you and welcoming you to experiencing this moment.
Take your time.
Find a home base experience that's comfortable and supportive for you.
And for a few moments of silence,
Get to know it,
Feel it,
Inhabit that experience.
Realizing how home base is always changing,
Always moving,
That with each breath there is a beginning,
A middle,
And an end,
And then a new breath.
That sounds arrive and then become quiet and shift into another sound.
Perhaps your attention is on a different layer of your sense of touch.
You might not feel anything at all.
That's okay.
This is about exercising your capacity to guide your attention and hold it in place and bring it back when attention wanders.
From this supportive home base,
As we did just a little bit in the beginning,
We're now going to turn attention to thinking,
The process,
Thoughts showing up,
Thoughts moving on.
Again,
This is not about trying to stop thoughts,
Thoughts are not the enemy.
They're just thoughts.
They have no weight.
They have no mass.
They're only as compelling,
So you allow them to be and you get to choose how compelling,
Interesting a thought is.
You can choose to connect with it and lead that thought or be led by it.
From home base,
Slightly checking into what thoughts might be showing up.
Slight check-in,
It's just a surface,
Noticing the pace of thinking.
Noticing if the same thought seems to keep coming back.
Perhaps your experience is one thought leading into a different thought.
The intention here is to observe and not get caught up in thinking.
Like walking past a library bookshelf,
Seeing the titles but not having to take the book off the shelf and start reading.
Just notice the title and keep moving,
Allowing those titles to pass by,
To be noticed,
Acknowledged,
But not held on to.
You may also think of thoughts,
Imagining them as leaves passing by on a mountain stream.
Just gently,
Lazily drifting by,
Coming into your field of awareness,
And then moving on.
And then some new leaves float by.
Growing the focus a little bit more,
Refining your bright awareness just a little bit more.
Doing your best to notice the beginning of a thought.
The beginning of each thought.
As you might notice,
The beginning of each in-breath.
Highlight the beginning of each thought.
Vibrantly aware.
Perhaps with a bit of kindness towards the experience.
From time to time,
You may notice that attention does get caught up in a thought or wanders.
That is an expected part of this practice.
It happens.
There's no need to give yourself a hard time about it.
That's just adding more thinking to the process.
There's no need to evaluate here.
It's just noticing and returning with kindness to noticing the next thought.
And not adding on more thinking by evaluating or judging.
What is it like being curious about the arising of a thought?
And receiving it as just a thought,
A momentary event that shows up and it moves on.
Each time,
Mind wanders or gets caught up in thinking.
Just come back to home base for a few moments.
Stabilize your embodiment in this moment.
And then gently turn attention back towards experiencing thoughts.
Moving up,
Moving on,
Showing up,
Moving on.
Exposing to allow the thoughts to land for just a moment and then move.
Gently receiving each thought,
Maybe with a little curiosity,
A little lightness.
Allowing the thoughts to land lightly before taking off again.
And gently checking in with how you're doing.
Always the body and the heart responding to receiving thinking as a process.
As a dynamic environment to notice,
Acknowledge,
But not have to live in.
Not having to believe,
But simply notice.
Supported by home base.
And at any time,
If some surprising difficulties arise,
Allowing yourself to be with those,
But not have to get overwhelmed.
If it feels like it's going to be a bit much,
Just come back to home base.
Or if need be,
You can stop the meditation entirely.
Do something else before coming back and trying the exercise again,
Seeing what it might be like.
Just experience thoughts as they arise and move.
Prepare of the beginning of each thought moment and then the next and then the next.
Gently landing and fluttering off.
Getting go of paying attention to thinking and bringing attention back to home base.
Focusing your bright,
Now warmed up attention to where you feel home base the most.
The breath and movement of the belly or chest or back.
Maybe a warmth and a coolness up by your nose.
Or of receiving sounds or silence in your environment.
Or just focusing in the tips of your fingers or the bottoms of your feet.
Whatever your home base,
That welcoming experience happens to be.
Refreshing that for a few moments and inhabiting that space.
This concludes this experiencing thinking meditation.
Thank you for your practice.
