by TARA BRACH
Our mindfulness practice is not about vanquishing our
thoughts.
It’s about becoming aware of the process of thinking so that we
are
not in a trance—lost inside our thoughts. That’s the big difference.
To train in
becoming mindful of thoughts can help us to notice when
your mind is actively
thinking, either using the label “thinking, thinking,”
or identifying the kind
of thought—“worrying, worrying,” “planning,
planning.”
Then, becoming interested
in what’s really happening right here.
Coming home to the sensations in your
body, your breath,
the sounds around you, the life of the moment.
As our mindfulness practice deepens we become more aware of
our thoughts.
This offers us the opportunity to assess them and notice that much
of the time our thoughts are not really serving us.
Many thoughts are driven by fear and lock us into insecurity.
During our meditation retreats, one of the
biggest breakthroughs people share with us is:
“I realized I don’t have to believe my thoughts.”
Training in mindfulness allows our minds to have a
choice.
At the moment in
which you pause and realize that these thoughts
are not really serving you, you
have the option to come back to
the present moment.
This process of choosing our thoughts becomes more
powerful
as you realize how thoughts can create suffering and separation.
They
create an “us” and a “them.” They create judgment and end up
making us feel bad
about ourselves.
In those moments when you’re lost in thought, what if you could pause
and
say,
“OK, it is just a thought” That is revolutionary.
That can change your
life!
Now,
the key is that we approach this with a
gentleness and kindness.
Each time we recognize thinking and come back into the
present moment
with gentleness and kindness, we are planting a seed of
mindfulness.
We are creating a new habit—a new way of being in the world.
We
quiet down the incessant buzz of thoughts in our mind.
We take refuge in what is
true—the aliveness and tenderness and mystery
of the present moment—rather than
in the story line of our thoughts.
“Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in
summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.”— Wu Men
Adapted from my book
Radical Acceptance (2003)
