How to Meditate: Mind Wandering While Meditating

Transcript

in this video we're gonna look at how to manage mind-wandering when we meditate and if you missed the first couple of videos in this series including how to meditate in five easy steps you'll find links to them in the description whether it's while meditating or just as we go on about our day our minds are constantly generating thoughts and mindfulness isn't about preventing ourselves from having thoughts we're trying to block these thoughts or shut them out but about noticing where our mind is from moment to moment and then whenever we notice that our mind isn't where we want it to be for example if our mind has wandered to thoughts unrelated to what we're doing as best we can we simply let go of these thoughts allow our thoughts to float away and gently redirect our attention back to where we wanted which may be our breath if we're meditating or some sensations in our body that we're paying attention to or just back to whatever we were paying attention to before we became distracted soon as you do get your attention back to where you want it new thoughts will arise and as best we can we simply treat these thoughts as if they were clouds passing overhead noticing has thoughts enter into our field of awareness stick around for a while and then float away and then are replaced by new thoughts and we just let these thoughts come and go like clouds passing through the sky without allowing them to grab hold of our attention or pull our minds away from what we're trying to pay attention to still always be times when we do allow our thoughts to carry our mind away and so when this happens here are some strategies we can use to help acknowledge and let go of these thoughts and redirect our attention back to where we wanted one way to deal with these distractions is to make a mental note of what's distracted you so if you become distracted by some thoughts repeat silently to yourself a word or two that describe those thoughts like thinking thinking whirring whirring or daydreaming doing myself or you can use the short phrase that describes your thoughts stressing about work I'm thinking about the argument I had earlier or I'm planning what to make for dinner just making this mental note and acknowledging where your mind is and what you're thinking about can make it easier to then let go of this thought and redirect your attention back to where you want it sometimes it can be very difficult to let go of a thought especially if there's a strong emotional component to it and that emotion can act as a magnet and no matter how hard we try to let go of a thought that emotional magnet keeps attracting it and pulling it back in and so when this happens acknowledging the emotion behind the thought can help make it easier to let go of that thought so try acknowledging the emotion with a silent mental note saying to yourself something like I'm feeling sad right now or just the word sadness and just acknowledging that emotion and how you're feeling right now can take away some of the power of that emotion give it less of that magnetic pull and make it easier for you to then let go of the thought and redirect your attention back to where you want it another type of thought that can arise during a meditation our judgments related to your experience while meditating so for example you might think this is so boring am i doing it right how much longer do I need to keep doing this so bad at this what's the point or even I'm meditating so well right now I'm not distracted at all and whenever you have these judgments remember that mindfulness is about paying attention to our experience non-judgmentally so see if you can let go of this tendency to want to judge how you're doing and to just accept your experience while meditating however it is but when these judgments to arise just treat them like any other thought acknowledge that you're having them perhaps with a silent mental note and then as best you can let go of this judgment allow the thought to fade away as you redirect your attention back to where you want it and so whenever we're meditating or doing anything in our life for that matter and we noticed we're having trouble paying attention because our mind keeps wandering or we keep getting distracted by our thoughts we simply repeat this process of noticing that our mind is no longer where we want it acknowledging where our mind is with a silent mental note that describes our thought or what we're thinking about and perhaps even acknowledging a feeling or emotion associated with a thought and then having acknowledged the distraction as best we can just letting go of the thought and allowing it to fade away as we redirect our attention back to where we wanted please hit the like button and for more videos like this and to watch the next video in this series click here and for a link to the first video in this series how to meditate in five easy steps as well as to my online mindfulness meditation course where these videos come from please check out the description