Turn Down Your Thoughts

Okay, let's get real about meditation. You've already heard that meditation has proven benefits. You think it would be great to add some meditation to your day... in theory.

But your thoughts are like chattering voices that won't be quiet. One judging what you are currently doing, another thinking about all the other things you need to be doing, another wondering if you're hungry, maybe another singing an earworm, on repeat. And so on...

Trying to quiet those voices may seem impossible. That's okay.

Luckily, you don't need a perfect, quiet mind to take a meditation break.

Thinking is what your brain does. You don't have to stop thinking to start meditating. Instead, you can learn to turn down the volume on your thoughts and focus on something else. What is that something else? We'll get back to that in a minute...

First, imagine you're working on your laptop in a busy Starbucks. Getting started may be tough, and interruptions are likely, but the more focused you become on your work, the more the voices and sounds around you become a fuzzy background of white noise.

If you get really into the flow of your work, even sudden sounds may barely register. Someone drops a coffee cup, you glance up, note that there's no emergency for you to deal with, and go right back to what you were doing.

Those distracting voices and sounds haven't gone away, you're simply focusing on other things.

Meditation can be pretty much the same thing. It's often less about stopping your thoughts and more about shifting your focus to something else.

In our Starbucks scenario, work is the focus that makes the voices and sounds around you fade into a fuzzy background. In meditation, it's some other focus makes your own inner voices fade away.

Here are some focal points to try out:

• Breath - Close your eyes and really notice how it feels to inhale and exhale. Notice how your lungs expand in multiple directions on every inhale (forward and back, side to side, up and down) and how they soften in all those directions on every exhale. Notice if your inhales are shorter, longer, or the about the same length as your exhales. Observe these things without judgment and without considering why they might be. 
• Candle Flame - Sit in front of a candle and keep your eyes focused on the flame. Notice every flicker of movement, the variations in color, and any other feature of the flame. Simply observe. Try not to let your eyes wander away from the flame, but it's okay to let your eyes go out of focus.
• Mantra - Close your eyes and silently repeat a short mantra (phrase) with each breath, such as I am here (as you inhale) and this is now (as you exhale). Perhaps match the phrase to the length of each breath, spreading out the words as your breathing becomes slower and steadier.
• Mala Beads - Use mala beads for a tactile focus, passing a bead between your fingers with each breath. Be aware of how the beads feel between your fingers. You can combine this with a mantra or with silent breath. 

Even with one of these focal points, those thoughts and voices might still be a distraction. Here are some other visualization tricks that might help with that:

• Clouds or Leaves - Close your eyes and imagine you are lying in a field, watching clouds float overhead (you can actually lie down for this). You see the clouds float by without any deeper thought about them. Your thoughts are like those clouds. You see them, but let them pass without interaction. Instead of clouds, you could imagine watching leaves floating in a stream in the same way.
• Tag and Release - Another way to let thoughts go is to give them a one-word name. When any thought intrudes on your meditation, tag it with the first word that comes to mind, then let the thought go. If you catch yourself thinking about your shopping list, you might tag that thought groceries, then go back to your focused breath (or mantra, etc.). Your tags can be a category, an emotion, a color... anything that works for you. 
• Thought Party - This one may seem a bit silly, but... Imagine that all of your thoughts are conversations at a party. You are the host of the party, your inner voices are the guests. Take a moment to greet your guests (noticing what you are thinking), then slip away to another room. Your guests will be fine talking amongst themselves while you take some time for your host duties (meditation). When you are finished meditating, you can rejoin the thought party, feeling better prepared to socialize with ease. 

Remember that when you meditate, your brain is still thinking in the background—and that's normal! Any important thought that comes up in the background will come back to you again when your meditation is finished. 

Turning down the volume on your thoughts gives your conscious mind a rest, while also making it easier to connect to your unconscious mind. That's kinda like having a superpower, and a superpower is totally worth a few minutes of meditation each day. 

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