Take The Weight Off Your Mind

Discover four ways to lighten your mind of heavy thoughts and escape from 'mindfalls'. When we remove the weight of heavy thoughts, our whole life and demeanour lighten as a result.

Photo by Oskars Sylwan on Unsplash

Transcript

Today we will deal with a real world yet somewhat intangible phenomenon that can disrupt our creativity and productivity during the day.

If our head becomes heavy with thoughts,

Often with the same types of thoughts and dialogues repeating over and over,

It can be impossible to get anything done in the day.

Today's meditation will give you four techniques to take the weight off your mind.

So make yourself comfortable either lying down or sitting up.

If you are sitting up,

Make sure your back is nicely supported and your spine is straight.

If you're lying down,

Prop your head up on a pillow and you may like a cushion or a pillow under your knees.

So notice any tensions in your body,

Starting with your forehead,

Slacken your jaw,

And let your tongue lie at the bottom of your mouth.

Drop your shoulders.

Give your arms,

Hands,

And fingers a wiggle.

And imagine any tensions leaving your fingertips floating out into the air around you.

Give your legs a little wiggle too.

And imagine any tensions from the lower half of your body.

Seep out from the ends of your toes.

Sometimes our brains can be overloaded with thoughts.

And thoughts can go round and round incessantly.

If somebody crosses a boundary and has wronged us,

We might have conversations from the past that we keep replaying.

Or imagine conversations of the future that we rehearse.

We might conjure up multiple scenarios in which we right that wrong.

Or the same can be true if we have an upcoming speech or presentation or interview.

What we plan to say can go round and round in our heads.

When this happens to us,

We can end up in what is known as a mind-all.

Like a constant raging waterfall of thoughts going round and round in our heads.

If we have one in the middle of the night,

They can keep us awake tossing and turning for hours.

And they can consume our waking days.

Which of course affects our efficiency and creativity and output.

If we let our mind-falls run loose,

We can become weighed down by them.

And feel we're carrying a heavy load on our shoulders and our back.

It's even thought that carrying around such repetitive thoughts can eventually lead to neck and back pain.

So it's a good idea to deal with them once and for all.

Meditation of course gives us the key to avoid and escape from such mind-falls.

Now as we can only experience one thought at a time,

We can choose which thoughts we allow around in our heads.

So we can use any of the four common ways to meditate,

To escape from our mind-fall,

And to take the weight off our mind.

We can meditate on the breath.

We can meditate on a sound like a repetitive mantra.

We can meditate on our thoughts.

We can meditate on a thing,

A spot on a wall or a candle flame.

And for the rest of this meditation,

We're going to use all of these techniques.

So first,

Let's breathe together.

And you imagine that your breath is starting in your belly,

Around your navel.

And as you breathe in,

The breath comes up through your diaphragm,

Through your chest,

Through your neck,

And into your head.

And as you breathe out about four times as long as the in-breath,

The thoughts from your head come down with your breath,

Past your heart,

Into your gut,

And out into the floor.

And in this way,

It lightens the load in your head.

So repeat that breathing pattern five times.

So starting in your belly,

You breathe in,

And the breath comes up through your diaphragm,

Through your chest,

Through your neck,

And into your head.

And on the out-breath,

You literally lighten your load,

And take the thoughts down with you into the floor.

Repeat that another four times.

And now we'll introduce the idea of a mantra or repetitive sound.

I'm going to use the phrase,

Be calm.

So on the in-breath,

Internally,

You say the word be,

And on the out-breath,

You say the word calm.

Just repeat that three times.

So if your mind is wracked with thoughts in the middle of the night,

There's two easy solutions to help take the weight off your mind.

Either using the breath,

Or using a simple mantra like be calm.

But until we deal with the source that's caused the mindfall in the first place,

There's a tendency for it to come back.

So imagine that someone overstepped the mark with you.

The way to deal with this is really counterintuitive,

And it's this.

Imagine there's a beam coming from your head,

Or a beam coming from your heart.

You send it out back in time to that person,

And you send them love for upsetting you.

And as a result of that upset,

It's led you to listen to this meditation,

And learn how to deal with the cause of the upset at its source,

Simply by sending love to that person.

Try it now on one or even more events that have upset you in the past.

Any of the thoughts that are going round and round in your head are about a future event,

When you're rehearsing an imagined dialogue.

Go out even further to the future,

After what has to be said is said.

And just imagine a really successful outcome.

And every time what you want to say comes back into your mind,

Just think about the successful outcome.

Try that now.

And now,

Open your eyes slowly,

Come back into the room.

And somewhere in your room,

Find a spot on the wall.

It might be a light switch,

It could be a hook,

A nail,

Or just a blemish.

And as you gaze directly at that spot on the wall,

Without moving your head,

Allow your attention to become aware of what's around that spot.

And just notice what happens to your thoughts as you do so.

Now allow your attention to go right up to the ceiling above the spot,

Right down to the floor below the spot,

And way out to the side.

And again,

Notice what happens to your thoughts.

And now widen your attention,

So you're aware of the walls either side of you,

And the ceiling above you,

And the floor below.

All the time,

Staring right at that spot on the wall.

And again,

Notice what happens to your thoughts.

And all these techniques are safe,

And can be used either individually,

Or in any combination or permutation.

Play around with them,

Have some fun,

And above all,

Enjoy taking the weight off your mind.

Reviews

Thanks for the reminder of these simple yet powerful techniques Tom. This brings back memories of how I discovered you with your “Be Calm” meditation which inspired me and changed the course of my life 💗🙏

Straight to the heart to address negative thoughts that weigh down. Helpful and calming.

This is a timely meditation since lately I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. Thank you! 🙏🏼

Thanks for all these practical suggestions. Breathwork has always been my go to. 🙏🏻

I liked this sampling of the 4 types of meditation and which were best used when unable to sleep.

Thank you ever so much. I feel prepared for anything now.

Thank you ..these will be my lightening the load go to kit..which I so frequently need.I already know they've done a good job..now to repeat ad infinitum...

My thoughts actually became lighter through this meditation. Thank you for sharing these tools in this most useful way.

I love that term, mind fall. Also, the technique with the dot on the wall was really useful. Thank you