'Acknowledge what is on your mind, then return to the breath

[MattG]

How do you actually acknowledge what is on your mind? I suffer an odd OCD where I have to remember/think thoughts through until it it feels I've remembered them or thought about them 'right' so I have to be careful the OCD doesn't impede on this facet of mindfulness practice.

Also, I have found myself some time after I noticed what is on my mind trying to remember what WAS on my mind when I noticed it was not on the breath, in a non-OCD way (i.e. however I remember it is how I remember it, even if it doesn't feel 'rihght' to my OCD).

Do I need to do this? Or can I simply tell myself, "Whatever was on my mind then is not what is on my mind now. Now, the compulsion to remember what was on my mind in a non-OCD way is on my mind. I shall now return to my breath."

What do you wise and more experienced practitioners out there think?

As a side-note I have re-bought The Miracle of Mindfulness to re-read as I remember it covering mindfulness in everyday life (as opposed to just concentrating on formal practice sessions) very well.

[mintful]

From my personal experience I would say that in the very beginning in about 95% of the time I wasn't even able to notice my attention slipping away from breath.

The rest of the time (mere 5%, probably less), when I noticed that some thought was forming I shifted my attention from breath to the thought. And just as I before felt my breath in a non emotionally attached way I felt and observed about the thoughts.

The thing is if your able to observe the path of the thought and maybe even the path/location and way of the associated feelings you are starting to learn and get to know yourself for the first time.

You can start every now and then to have a glimpse of your inner motivations and if you know the motivation or base of your thought the thought itself looses it's attachment force and you can just walk by the thought and again get back to breathing.

By the time you will be able to both stay with your breath longer and catch a growing percentage of your forming thoughts.

One thing though: what's on your mind is on your mind, but your mind - well the part that is forming random thoughts we're talking about here - is only a very small fraction of your consciousness. What your consciousness does with this small fraction of itself is up to your decision.

It's like an itchy spot on your leg. Do you scratch it? Or do you just observe what is happening. Maybe the itch will go away or maybe it will stay. Maybe it will change it's quality. If you try to anticipate what will happen your removing your self from your mindful state. If you try to scratch you're doing the same. Observe what will happen and when you happen to understand the itch/pain/thought/feeling/impulse it will rapidly loose its force to attach your consciousness to its fleeting nature and eventually just vanish.

[JonW]

"The most heartbreaking thing of all is how we cheat ourselves of the present moment."
Pema Chodron

[Matt Y]

Hi Matt,

How do you acknowledge anything? For example, a comment a friend makes. A gift you receive. The shop attendant where you buy your groceries. I imagine you acknowledge all kind of people, comments and things in a very natural and spontaneous way, without analysing how you did it too much, or at all.

You can acknowledge your thoughts in just the same way. No special 'acknowledgment technique' is required. And if you spend time in your meditation trying to recall what happened earlier in your meditation that too is fine. It can actually be very helpful to get a sense of what has gone on during your meditation, and how you've related to various experiences. It's often not possible to be mindful of what's happening right now; but you can always remember, or recollect, what happened earlier. This is mindfulness too.

P.S. You only need return your attention to the breath if you feel overwhelmed by something. That is, if you can't tolerate a certain train of thought, or some other agitation, mental or emotional. Otherwise, you can just enjoy the exploration of whatever is coming up for you - thoughts, sounds, emotions, sensations, anything.

[Rhapsod]

Hi Matt,
I have OCD as well. I can see how the OCD is interrupting your mindfulness practise. The way out of this is, once you notice the thought, be it a question about what your mind focused on when you were trying to breathe or a question wondering about what was on your mind before and did you remember it properly, lump all of these questions into the OCD bucket and do not answer them. Bring your attention back to your breath as this is what you are going to focus on doing the mindfulness breathing. All the question, analyses, ideas that pop up during the mindfulness breathing time, just disregard all of these and re-direct back to the breathing.