Getting to know your thoughts

This longer exploration helps you notice thoughts, sounds, and emotions with curiosity. You’ll practice tagging experiences and working with repetitive thoughts without getting caught in them. A powerful practice for self-understanding and inner steadiness.

Why this helps? Understanding your thought patterns builds self-knowledge and emotional resilience.

Transcript

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Hashtag thinking. Hashtag thinking is a mindfulness exercise that will help you develop self-knowledge. You're

What Is Hashtag Thinking

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going to practice noticing and working with your thoughts so you can understand yourself better. This is empowering. When you pay attention to thoughts in this special way, you'll start to identify thoughts that are helpful, and you'll also start to recognize thoughts that are unhelpful, or that can sometimes even be harmful. Hashtag thinking is yet another empowering tool in your inner strength toolbox that will help you understand and take care of yourself. This will be a three-part exercise. In the first part, we'll begin by noticing and tagging experiences such as thinking or

Three-Part Practice Overview

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listening. Next, we'll explore thoughts or sounds that are pleasant, unpleasant, or in between. In the third part, we'll zoom in our lens to look at specific thoughts that may be repeating themselves and tag these. For this exercise, it will be helpful to invite an open attitude of curiosity to the exploration. Let's begin by coming into a comfortable sitting posture with both feet flat on the floor.

Settle Into Posture And Presence

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Notice the sensations of sitting and gravity pulling your weight into the chair. Feel the support of the surface you're sitting on, and the solidity of the ground beneath you, sustaining and holding you. Bring your attention to your spine, inviting your spine to rise upward, sitting up tall yet without too much effort, allowing yourself to be easy in this posture, tucking in your chin and relaxing your shoulders. Your hands can rest on your thighs or fold them gently in your lap. You can close your eyes if that feels comfortable for you too. Sitting quietly in a very relaxed way, allow yourself to be very natural. Simply aware that you're sitting right here, in an easy way, in the present moment. After a few moments, you may notice that your mind has wandered to a thought. It might be a thought about

Part One: Tag Thinking Or Listening

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something that happened earlier, or maybe something you have to do. This is natural. Thinking is what minds do. The objective is not to clear your mind of thoughts, but rather to begin to pay attention to the thoughts you're having. This is different than just thinking. You're noticing your thoughts as they arise and pass away. This helps you develop self-knowledge as you notice what you're thinking. It also helps you develop calm as you experience that you don't need to respond to every thought that crosses your mind's eye. When you become aware of a thought, the instruction is to notice it and tag it thinking. Then you can gently let it go and return to your experience of sitting in a relaxed and easy way.

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Sometimes the mind is drawn to a sound.

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When this happens, simply notice that you've become aware of a sound and tag it listening and gently let it go. Continue sitting quietly, and when you notice the mind has wandered to a thought or a sound, simply and without judgment, tag it thinking or listening. Letting that experience go and allowing yourself to just be exactly as you are, sitting quietly in a relaxed way. No need to push any thoughts or sounds away, or to stop thinking from happening. You're just practicing noticing when a thought or sound has arisen, tagging it thinking or listening, and then returning your attention to sitting quietly until another thought arises. Observing, tagging thoughts or sounds, letting the thought go and beginning again with an open, easy awareness of sitting and being just as you are in the present moment. Now we're going to move to the second part of the exercise. As you practice tagging thoughts and sounds,

Part Two: Tag Pleasant Or Unpleasant

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you may notice that some are pleasant while others are unpleasant. And you might even notice that others are somewhere in between. Whatever you feel about a particular thought or sound, whether you find it pleasant, unpleasant, or in between, practice tagging it as pleasant, unpleasant, or in between.

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Once you tag it, you can let it go and return to sitting at ease.

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When you notice these recurring or repetitive thoughts, you can practice getting specific with your hashtag. This is the third and last part of

Part Three: Tag Specific Recurring Thoughts

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this exploration, tagging specific thoughts that keep returning. For example, if you keep thinking about a chemistry test that's coming up next week that may be causing you some worry, you can tag it chemistry test thought and gently let it go as you return to sitting quietly. You're not trying to get rid of the thought, nor are you trying to figure it out or work on changing it. Instead, you're practicing relating to the thought in a very fresh way by simply tagging it, softly letting it go, and allowing yourself to just be. If the thought is very sticky, that means it keeps coming back again and again, or it won't float away. You may feel a pull to get involved in the story behind the thought. For example, all the details about the chemistry test, what you have to do to prepare for it, whether you like the teacher in the class, or maybe some self-judgment about your skill level. See if it's possible to resist the temptation to get pulled into this story, and instead just give it a specific tag, chemistry test thought, and return to sitting quietly in a relaxed way. Each time the thought returns, tag it and let it go for a moment as you return to sitting quietly.

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If it's an important thought, you can always attend to it later, after you've finished this practice.

Working With Sticky Stories

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Maintaining that steadiness. You're like a huge boulder in a windstorm. Even when the trees are blowing, you don't move. You

Boulder In A Windstorm Metaphor

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just sit there as the storm comes and passes, and the sun comes out again. By observing your thoughts or being mindful of your thoughts, you're getting to know and befriend them one thought at a time, so that you can work with them in an empowering way. Or it might be pleasant and exciting thought such as my birthday party thought. It might even be an in-between thought, such as, I need to try my

Practice With Everyday Thought Examples

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shoes. Whatever the thought is about, it's just fine. You're simply noticing the specific types of thoughts that are arising for you, tagging them in an easy way and letting them go. Do they change in any way? Do they fade away or become stronger? Notice for yourself what happens when you tag your thoughts. Continue for some moments in silence, sitting quietly, noticing what a thought arises, tagging it, letting it go, and just resting

Silent Practice And Closing

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with ease.