When you get to 20,
Okay,
From 50 to 20,
In some people call it throwing the dog a bone.
I mean,
Basically,
You're giving your brain something that it has to do so that it can't run off somewhere else.
You're keeping your brain occupied by counting from 50 to 20,
All right?
When you get to 20,
20 to 0,
I call that the halfway house because you're still counting the exhales,
Which still keeps the dog chewing on the bone so your thoughts can't go running off back to whatever they want to run off to.
But the inhale is a preview.
It's a preview while you're inhaling of no thought.
It's a preview of actually experiencing your breathing without talking to yourself about it,
Without the mental.
.
.
If you watch a game,
If you watch a sports event,
Usually on TV,
Usually there's a play-by-play announcer,
And then next to him is a color commentator,
Right?
So the counting is the play-by-play announcer who is saying what's happening,
And the color commentator is,
I wonder what's coming next.
Oh,
I'm behind.
Let me catch up.
Right?
So from 20 to 0,
The challenge is for the color commentator to shut up,
For you to actually experience the physical sensations of inhaling without adding commentary to it.
And that is probably why there's a little bit of anxiety,
Maybe a little bit like,
Oh,
What am I supposed to do now?
So the 20 to 0,
That's why I call it the halfway house.
And it gets better the more you practice it.
In the beginning,
It's like,
What am I supposed to do?
But then once you get it,
You just go,
Oh,
Is it quiet like this all the time if I shut up?
So thanks for that.
Yeah,
That's great.
The other.
.
.
You just brought up a point that had me think of a point,
The part about thinking and that we're supposed to be able to not think during that moment where we've prepared ourselves by creating that space,
Right?
That void.
Yeah.
When you ask a man,
What are you thinking?
He can say nothing.
When you ask a woman,
What are you saying?
Those words never come out of her mouth.
The word is probably everything.
So even though you've created a vacuum for us,
It's still everything,
I think,
For personally me anyway.
Okay.
I have to interject one very,
Very,
Very,
Very,
Very,
Very,
Very important thing here.
How did you say it?
You said we are supposed to be able to stop thinking.
Is that what you said?
Yeah,
Well,
When you're not using,
For example,
Words,
Words,
Words,
Words,
For the inhale,
The exhale,
And now you've taken out the words.
Okay,
Yes.
I think it was for the inhale.
Okay,
Yeah,
Yeah.
So now there's a void,
A vacuum that's created for us to train,
Groom our minds to just be not thinking about things in that moment,
Right?
Okay.
Okay,
Yes.
So the important point that you really got to get this,
Do not expect to be able to stop thinking.
Even though it may contradict what I just said,
I may not have said it well,
But here's what you're trying to do.
Like when you're inhaling and you're not counting it,
Your job is to observe yourself,
Oh,
There's a thought,
And just let it come,
But let it go.
Don't think that you're supposed to clamp,
Don't think that this thinking is going to stop.
What your job is to observe it,
Not to stop it.
Because the observing of the thoughts automatically creates a sort of a little bit of distance.
When you're not observing your thoughts,
Then you are your thoughts,
You're like inside of them.
But in that moment of like inhaling and not counting,
You're observing whether there is a thought or whether there is not a thought,
But you are not trying to stop the thoughts.
Does that make it more clear?
Because if you have the expectation that you're going to be able to stop the thoughts,
You're going to drive yourself nuts.
Believe me,
I tried it.
It's like putting your hand on a hornet's nest.
It doesn't work.
Now having said that,
It does happen.
Eventually,
It can and it will happen that thoughts will stop,
But not by trying to make them stop.
That's a really important distinction.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
So basically you're not participating,
You're the fly on the wall.
You're kind of like an observer in what's happening.
Yes,
Yes,
Yes,
Yes.
And the more you be the fly on the wall,
The more you'd be the observer of the thoughts coming and going,
The more the muscle of observing becomes.
And the stronger that muscle of observing becomes,
The less you'll be lost in the thoughts.
You'll be able to say,
Oh,
There I go again.
It's I guess you could call it dissociating from the thoughts,
But it's not trying to stop the thoughts.
You're just observing them,
That's all.
And it's kind of a game.
It's kind of a game.
You're like,
Oh,
I didn't realize that there are these little gaps between the thoughts because until you start observing them,
It's like they're just nonstop.
But once you start observing them,
Then you'll notice,
Oh,
Here's a gap.
There's no thought.
Wow,
Isn't that cool?
And then the more you practice that,
The gaps get longer and more often.
And you get a little more freedom over whether you're letting the thoughts go or whether you're saying,
You know what,
I don't really want to play that game right now,
That thought train.
