How to acknowledge thoughts during meditation

[aly4519]

Hi all,

I wonder if this has been an issue in my meditation.

When I am breathing and I notice a thought, I immediately come back to the breath. Maybe I don't realize it, but I am not saying to myself, "ok, there's a thought" before coming back to the present.

Do I need to? Or am I already doing that by coming back to the breath?

[piedwagtail91]

i tend to acknowledge them as "thinking", " thinking" and then come back to my breath.
the reason being that i read somewhere, possibly pema chodron or kristin neff,or both that the mind ,full of it's own importance, will keep sending the thought until you do take notice of it.
it's just trying to do it's job.
by acknowledging the thought as "thinking", " thinking" or however you choose to acknowledge it the mind then accepts that you've taken notice, that it's doen it's job and it lets it drop.

i know others tend to just return to the breath but that's what works for me.

[Matt Y]

When I am breathing and I notice a thought, I immediately come back to the breath. Maybe I don't realize it, but I am not saying to myself, "ok, there's a thought" before coming back to the present.

Do I need to? Or am I already doing that by coming back to the breath?

This is a really key point.

Firstly, whether you say (or think or vocalise) "okay, there's a thought" is not really important. You can notice and acknowledge a thought without having to comment upon it; though I'd suggest that it is perhaps more common, and more useful, to acknowledge the thought by reflecting upon it. This allows you to see (acknowledge) the thought more clearly.

Here's a metaphor to consider.

Your thoughts (and emotions) could be considered like fires; they might be blazing bushfires, or they might be quietly smouldering embers. Either way, the action of returning to the breath, when you notice one of these fires, is akin to dousing the fire with water, or stamping it out. This can be effective, temporarily, in cooling things down.

However, if you always stamp out these fires, you are unlikely to learn much about what fuels them; so the conditions in which fires arise remain. Sooner or later, you'll start thinking again, and you'll probably relate to the thoughts in the same old ways, with little insight into how they get started, what perpetuates them and the various ways in which you might be unconsciously fanning the flames.

Acknowledging your thoughts, on the other hand, can help you to see into the various ways in which you fuel your thoughts. However, for this 'acknowledgment' to really be useful, you need to let your thinking go on for a while. You don't necessarily need to 'fan the flames', but you can just let the fire burn. It will burn itself out eventually, and then you can reflect back and see what was going on as you were thinking. How were you relating to the thoughts? Were you throwing fuel on the fire?

As you do this, you will also develop the capacity to tolerate, or even welcome your thoughts; so they will cease to be such a problem in your meditation, and in your life too. This kind of acknowledgment is much more sophisticated and nuanced than the usual recommended strategies (for example, those in which you are encouraged to label your thoughts with simple descriptors such as 'planning, planning', 'worrying worrying' etc.) When we label our thoughts too abruptly we are not really acknowledging them fully. What we are doing is more akin to dismissing them. When we say 'thinking, thinking' it's as though we tell ourselves: "Oh, I know what's going on here. Just more thinking." But we haven't really seen what kind of thinking is going on. We think we know it, but all we've really done is to slap a judgment on it.

For a more detailed exposition on this topic see my recent article: http://melbournemeditationcentre.com.au ... nt-moment/

If you do try out what I'm suggesting above, please let me know how you go. You'll likely have more questions as you proceed down this path.

[JonW]

Superb metaphor, Matt.
Cheers, Jon

[signsofpregnancy]

I am a new mambar of here. I am interest about meditation. But can it safe do meditation during the prepaid of pregnancy? Please give me advise.

[Janknitz]

Post by signsofpregnancy » Sun Apr 26, 2015 9:44 pm

I am a new mambar of here. I am interest about meditation. But can it safe do meditation during the prepaid of pregnancy? Please give me advise.

Signs of Pregnancy, you may want to start your own thread for better answers. I'm not sure what the "prepaid of pregnancy" is--I'm sure it's an auto-correct thing or something lost in translation but not sure what you meant.

In any case, can you tell us why you might think that mindfulness would harm your pregnancy?

It seems to me that pregnancy would be an ideal time to practice mindfulness as it will help you relax and get in touch with your body and mind--very good for you and your baby.

[KernelOfWisdom]

Hey there,

Loving the responses you've gotten to this so far (really loved Matt's too, Jon, agreed!). So I would just reiterate the point that it can be really helpful to "acknowledge" what you notice however works for you but the "name it to tame it" strategy is often helpful for people. Our brains our SO trained to think in language that it is sometimes the easiest way to acknowledge for many people, but not everyone, and helps bring more awareness to what's happening so we can learn from it. The real key is just trying to use a "neutral" label, or noticing when any "judgements" come into the picture. So it you notice a thought, a neutral label might be "thinking" or "worrying" or "planning" or something that acknowledges what you notice while a judgement might look something more like "thinking again" or "negative thoughts" or "thinking too much", etc.