POLL: Watching thoughts

[Peter]

I agree with Jon, anshu89.

An analogy:
We're like a boat that's taking on water. The formal practice is like dedicated time to scoop out the water with a cup, and everyday life is like the water getting into the boat. If we're constantly rowing the boat, we cannot scoop out the water quick enough, and we'll sink. So, once in a while we need to stop rowing and dedicate our time to just scooping the water out. If we do so, for a while we can do a bit of both scooping and rowing.

We just need dedicated time with ourselves, with little outside distractions, to grow or maintain this buffer. Technically, we're actually re-calibrating our brains by creating more 'mindful-connections' instead of 'mindless-connections'. While it is the other way around by default.

My advice would be to find a good mindfulness teacher (like our Jon), or to follow a course in a book like 'Finding Peace in a Frantic World'. Don't start creating your own program when you're new to all of this.

And remember: Don't take it all so seriously. Approach it all with a lightness.

I hope this made sense to you.

Peter

[Xaric]

I have realized that most of my days I am going through dozens of different states; I might wake up rested and happy and go to bed completely beat and f*cked up, or vice versa, having gone through all the in-between states throughout my day.

Some days are easy for me to be completely mindful of my thoughts, while others are harder... Some days my thoughts feel like little, white, fluffy clouds, and other days they feel like black, ominous, storm clouds.

Nevertheless, I have found that being mindful of my thoughts is almost equally hard whatever the case.

When our thoughts are good, we won't let them go because we like them... When our thoughts are bad, we can't let them go because we resist them.

What I try to live by that has helped me be more accepting and has improved the quality of my mindfulness practice regardless my state of being is the following quote:

“The way to live in the present is to remember that ‘This too shall pass.’ When you experience joy, remembering that ‘This too shall pass’ helps you savor the here and now. When you experience pain and sorrow, remembering that ‘This too shall pass’ reminds you that grief, like joy, is only temporary.”

You can never be all happy, but you can never be all sad, so there is really no point in trying to holding on to one or resisting the other.

Would love to hear your opinion on this.

[Gareth]

You can never be all happy, but you can never be all sad, so there is really no point in trying to holding on to one or resisting the other.

My opinion is that this is exactly true.

[MiM]

I am currently in a life situation that fosters introspection. I also believe that viewing my thoughts comes rather naturally tome, so I am actually doing quite a lot of it now.

However, as I am mildly aphantasiac, there is no visual component at all in the process, so the metaphore "watch as clouds passing by" fits me badly.

[Xaric]

"Aphantasiac"

What a nice-sounding word man! Thank God I am greek because I wouldn't even understand what it means

First of all, let me tell you that you can train your mind to do whatever you want. Through practice, you can learn to induce vivid images into your mind's eye.

However, imagining your thoughts as clouds is more like a simile or metaphor and not something that you have to imagine during your mindfulness practice.

Mindfulness is not about imagining sceneries and pictures... That is visualization...

Another simile that people use is that of an ocean and waves, the ocean being your awareness and the waves being your thoughts.

It goes something like this:

The waves of the ocean might be fierce but if you go below them you will find a calm sea.

Hope this helps!

[JonW]

Great post, Xaric.
Beautifully put!

[pankajgupta]

Depends for me from where I start i.e. what the current state of mind is. Many times I am able to watch thought by labeling the thought like thoughts about boredom, thoughts about past, future, thoughts about obsession, anger etc. That helps the thought go by. In between I drift to a state where I start getting random thoughts which are not conscious and seem to be coming up from subconsciousness. Some weird line repeating obsessively or a bizarre thought which I can't connect to my life. I am confused what this state is and many times my anxious mind triggers fear what is happening to me

[mtracyfryer]

I came up with my own way of dealing with the thoughts that try to intrude on my practice. I see a line of paintings by children which are not very defined. They are a distance away from me or. else I might go and tamper with them (getting dragged away by thoughts). The thing about this line of paintings is that they are trundling along and soon out of sight. This can go on to infinity. Out of sight out of mind.

I would love a comment on my idea.

Tracy

[JonW]

Hi Tracy,
Sounds like a good idea and, if it works for you, why not?
My own method sometimes involves the idea of waiting for a bus. A bus comes along but we don't need to get on it. It may not be the bus we want. Some buses we get on (because they will take us to our intended destination); other buses we allow to pass.
Some thoughts are useful and we might be wise to act on them.
Other thoughts (self-judgments etc.) we can allow to pass.
Cheers,
Jon

[SkyKisser]

I started observing my thoughts about 2 years ago. I have a bad memory so I can't recall some stuff. Say to your self "I am the observing witness" or "I'm about to watch my thoughts" . Saying this may create a brief Gap in your thoughts and put you in awareness mode. I'm fairly good at this so now it's different to me. I sometimes get a pre cognitive thought or it's like a whisper then I say the thought in my head. Try to be the awareness as the thought arises , as it endures and as it ends. Don't grab on to the thought and let it take you down. There will be an urge to follow the thought but just watch it pass. I also recently found a meditation app called Insight Timer. Do a search there , they have two tracks recorded for observing.