I can’t find the name of it or the right keyword, so I’m reaching out to you.
The keywords I have about the state that I’m researching: meditation, mindfulness, flow, stream of consciousness, insight, processing, EMDR
I’m looking for a name how to call this experience to read more about it from the perspectives of mindfulness, meditation as well as psychology.
I’m explaining the state with an example below:
It’s my day off and I go on a walk.
I am present in my surroundings, but I don’t pay particular attention to them - I’m not observing what’s around me. My mind starts processing my state of being - how I feel (mostly emotionally) and what has brought me to this moment. Recent moments of joy and thankfulness as well as struggles. Resolved or unresolved things. If unresolved, the mind starts a kind of problem solving - “Strange that I felt so bad after that simple experience. Ah, but here’s how it actually touches my roots, my wounds from the past. So my strong reaction actually wasn’t to this small conflict but to the big event in my past,” and I practice some self compassion.
That whole time I am conscious of my thought process (as well as my surroundings). But I don’t feel like guiding the thought process, I’m just observing it, like it was happening on it’s own. And in a way I’m listening to these thoughts, meaning - they are not “just” thoughts that distract me from the present moment, they are precious, they are the present moment. So my attitude is non-judgemental towards the thoughts, but positively judgemental towards the process.
So I’m back from my walk. I have seen the beautiful nature and I have been on an inner journey which has brought me some steps further than I was before I took the walk. I feel refreshed but also mentally a bit tired, it’s the best to continue the day with an activity where I have to focus on something.
- In some ways I feel like after a “good” meditation time, but in some ways it’s very different.
- It all can as well happen when I’m just sitting in a chapel - I like to call it “thinking in the conscious presence of God”, but in this definition I don’t like the word “thinking” ‘cause I’m more like observing my thinking.
- It is very different from just wandering thoughts because they actually are not wandering, the mind is processing and really productively working.
- It can happen of course that the mind starts wandering - then it’s no more productive, then I’m in my thoughts and not in the present, it’s a state in which I try not to stay.
- I can’t “make” this process/state of being happen whenever or wherever, but I know quite well from experience what facilitates it happening - being in the present moment, being relaxed (having no time pressure) etc
- Of course it is not at all the same, but the process a bit reminds me EMDR - eye movement desensitization and reprocessing that I have experienced in psychotherapy.
How would you call this state and process?
What keywords from mindfulness, meditation, psychology could lead me to useful information about it?