What are you thinking?

What are you thinking?

As a result of recognizing the differences between awareness and its content, it is inevitable for most, if not all, of us to notice how often we are distracted. In the Validating: Being with What Is and the Yoga, Awareness and Consciousness episode, we mentioned distractions. Let’s remember that distractions are normal. All of us move away from our intended focus, sometimes very frequently. Remember also that noticing that we have been distracted is a sign that the process of increasing our awareness is working, because instead of allowing thoughts to control our attention, our ability to notice distractions is increasing. In other words, it is becoming easier to notice the space between awareness and its content.

With regular practice, it becomes clear that there are different types of content in our awareness, including sensations, thoughts, memories, feelings, and emotions. Today we will practice paying close attention to our thoughts and thought processes.

As usual, you can harness the power of your curiosity to invite your attention into the practice.

Let’s get started.

Find a comfortable position so that you can be relaxed and aware. Give yourself permission to set aside all your current worries and concerns…. Whatever worries you may have, place them out of reach for the duration of this exercise, so that you can pay attention to what is happening right here and now. …

Consider the reasons you have for doing this exercise, perhaps you want to feel more at peace, or you want to release stress, maybe you want to connect more deeply to your own awareness…maybe you desire to have greater clarity so that you can participate in your life wholeheartedly….

Take several rounds of breath, with comfortable inhalations replenishing you and easeful exhalations releasing unnecessary tension….

Breathe for a few more rounds, inviting your attention to notice the specific sensations arising as you breathe in and out. Make your breath smooth and effortless…. Savor each inbreath and each outbreath….
The focal point for this exercise is your thoughts. … Notice any thoughts currently in your mind….Just be curious to notice what thoughts are present…. Do not control any of them… Just becoming aware of the thoughts that make up the contents of your awareness….

It may be helpful to remember that you do not need to like, dislike, or narrate…just notice your thoughts….
How do these thoughts manifest? … When you notice a thought do you see a word?… Or do you see an image?… Perhaps you hear sound inside of you? … Does the thought seem to be presented by your own internal voice? ….. Maybe the thought manifests as a sensation some place in your body…Remain curious….Is it possible that the thought is a memory that triggers inner images and/or emotions?…

Now invite your mind to rest in open awareness…releasing all focus and opening to whatever is happening as part of this unique experience…stay relaxed and open…feel without the need to control any of the sensations you experience…there is no need to describe or narrate…just rest in your natural open awareness….

Let’s return to noticing the thoughts… As you pay attention, notice if the thoughts you are noticing are still, or fixed or if they seem to fluctuate in clarity or intensity…If the thought is still, is there any effort on your part in holding that thought in place? Or is the thought just there, without any control on your part? …. If the thought fluctuates, what makes it change? Is this something you are regulating? Or, does it seem to happen on its own? What happens if you choose one thought and try to stay with it, just repeating the same thought? …If you keep repeating the same thought, does it create any particular sensations or mood? …briefly consider if this may be an interesting avenue for later exploration…

Take a long exhalation, release any tension in your body and let go of the inquiry… just rest in calm open awareness…completely at peace with whatever you are experiencing…be still, just witnessing the endless flow of sensations, thoughts, emotions, memories… do not try to fix anything…there is nothing for you to do….just relax and be….just being, no doing….

Once again, we direct our awareness to the thoughts present in our mind… pick one thought and try to follow the thread that originated the thought… For instance, did you know that this was the next thought that would manifest in your space of awareness? … An even when you think the thought you chose is your own original thought, be curious to reflect on what may have influenced the emergence of that thought… If the thought seems to be in one place in your physical body, can you examine how did the thought appear there? … Stay with the same thought, just holding it loosely… would it make sense to develop that thought? …In other words, can you take this same thought and consider it from all possible perspectives? Can you take the thought to its completion so that there is nothing else to think about along that direction? … If the thought is complete, can you let it go…and when it does, where does it go? …

Now, let go of all the thinking processes… bring your awareness to your senses, whatever you are feeling in your feet, legs, hands, arms, torso… pay attention to the sensations and allow your mind to relax and be open…For several rounds of breath just focus on the sensations that happen when you inhale and notice also the specific sensations that let you know that you are exhaling … Just feel

In this practice we explored the nature of the thoughts we notice in our field of awareness. We paid attention to how our thoughts manifest, we also noticed their fluctuations, their location, their origin. We also explored staying with a thought and trying to bring it to completion. Over the next few days, notice both your thoughts and how they manifest along these dimensions. It might also be interesting to notice what you mean when you say things like: “I was thinking about…” or “These are my thoughts about…” Notice the extent to which what you say is an accurate reflection of your internal mental processes.

Could this exercise be a useful way to grow in awareness so that instead of allowing our random thoughts to control our attention, we can consciously choose what we think about?

If you prefer, you may listen to the podcast:

This is an excerpt from the book Unravel the thread: Applying the ancient wisdom of yoga to live a happy life

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