Questions About Enlightenment for Two™ |
| Q. | I can’t stop thinking about things, even though I don’t want to think about them. What can I do to stop this? | |
| Ans. | It doesn’t make any difference what the thoughts are, the problem is non-stop thinking even when you would prefer to be quiet inside. The challenge is to gain mastery over your thought process. The mind can behave like a drunken monkey, pushing thoughts in front of you whether you want to think them or not. Here is an excellent meditation to help you quiet the mind and gain mastery over the thought process.
Counting Breaths Meditation
Sit comfortably in a space that is quiet and free of distractions. Allow 5-15 minutes for this practice. Take a full breath, filling the lungs to the bottom, but not bursting. On The exhale count one. Inhale and exhale through your nose. Take another breath and on the exhale count two. When you complete 10 breaths in this way, start the count over at one again. Counting on the exhale seems to make it easier to keep from wandering away in thought, but inevitably you will find yourself at 15 or 25 breaths. If so, just return to one on the next breath and again when you complete 10 breaths, go back to one, etc. As soon as you discover you are thinking about something (anything at all) drop the thinking and return to your counting. At first getting to 10 without any intervening thoughts is a difficult task, but eventually you can work up to doing 30 counts to 10 without interruption from a single thought. Then you have mastery over your thought process, one of the objectives of all advanced meditation practices. | |
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