One of the most important things we learn in meditation is something surprisingly simple: thinking is happening. Usually, we’re completely swept away in our thinking. We’re lost in the story.
You’re going about your day, and then—whoops—ten minutes later you realize you’ve been somewhere else entirely. You’ve replayed a conversation, relived a situation, imagined a future scenario. It’s amazing that the brain can recreate the past or invent the future with such vivid detail.
But often what we’re left with is worry, anticipation, anxiety, or stress. Of course, not all thinking is unpleasant. There’s daydreaming, which can be lovely. We imagine possibilities. We fantasize. We think about future vacations or exciting opportunities. But if we’re honest, much of our thinking isn’t particularly pleasant.
What becomes interesting is noticing the relationship between thoughts and emotions. Why do some thoughts feel sticky while others simply pass through? If a thought is just a thought, what makes certain thoughts grab our attention and refuse to let go?
Usually, it’s because something else is attached to them. It’s the emotion, the meaning, the feeling underneath the story. A thought becomes sticky because it matters to us in some way. There’s an emotional charge attached to it. That’s where mindfulness begins to get really interesting.
Why Do We Think So Much?
From an evolutionary perspective, thinking has been enormously useful. Thinking helps us plan ahead, supports learning, and allows us to navigate complexity. Human beings developed language, and language opened extraordinary possibilities. It allowed us to communicate ideas, imagine futures, solve problems, and organize ourselves in ways that other species cannot.
Thinking has given us a lot of good things. It has also gotten us into a lot of trouble. The challenge isn’t that we think. The challenge is that we identify with our thoughts. We become so immersed in the story that we forget we’re telling it.
A large part of meditation practice is simply becoming aware that thinking is happening. That moment is incredibly powerful. You realize, “Oh, I’m thinking about that work situation again.” Or, “There’s that story running once more.” Something shifts immediately. You are no longer completely lost in the story. You have stepped outside it just enough to see it. There is now some space.
Coming Back to the Present Moment
Once we notice that we’re caught in a thought loop, the practice is to come back to an anchor. Feel your feet on the floor. Feel your breath. Notice the sensations of being here. What’s important is that, in that moment, it actually doesn’t matter whether the story is true or not.
Meditation is not psychotherapy. The question is not, “Is this thought true?” The question is: “Is thinking about this right now helpful?” When I come out of the story, do I feel more at ease? Do I feel more peaceful? Do I feel more free? Or do I feel tighter, more anxious, more angry, more contracted? Those questions can tell us a lot.
Thoughts Are Something the Brain Does
One of the most liberating perspectives I’ve encountered is the idea that the brain produces thoughts the way the mouth produces saliva. It’s a comparison my teacher Trudy Goodman often uses. The brain produces thoughts just as the mouth produces saliva.
I don’t take my saliva personally. But I often take the secretions of my brain very personally. That simple shift can create a tremendous amount of freedom. Ears hear, eyes see, the brain thinks. And I have some choice about how much attention I give those thoughts.
The Connection Between Emotions and Thinking
What I’ve come to understand is that emotions often feed thinking. When we’re anxious, we tend to have anxious thoughts. When we’re angry, we tend to have angry thoughts. Sometimes I’m not even aware that something emotional is happening. I simply notice that my thoughts have become unusually negative or crabby.
Then I get curious. What’s happening in my body right now? How am I actually feeling? If I pay attention, I can often trace the thoughts back to an underlying experience. Sometimes it’s something significant, sometimes it’s much simpler than I expected. Like I haven’t eaten, for example. For me, being hungry is a real thing. My blood sugar drops a little, and suddenly my thinking changes. The stories my mind produces become noticeably less generous and less balanced.
It’s a helpful reminder that not every thought deserves to be believed. Sometimes we need wisdom. Sometimes we need lunch.
Learning to Relate Differently to Our Thoughts
Mindfulness doesn’t ask us to stop thinking. It asks us to become aware of thinking. The moment we recognize a thought as a thought, we create a little space between ourselves and the story. In that space, we have options. We can continue feeding the story. Or we can come back to the present moment.
We can ask whether the thought is useful. We can notice the emotion beneath it. We can reconnect with our bodies. And we can remember that thoughts are simply one of the many things arising and passing through awareness.
The practice is not to eliminate thinking. The practice is to stop getting completely lost in it. Over time, that simple shift can bring more freedom, more clarity, and a little more peace into our lives.
Thank you for reading,
Christiane
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