Created by Inner Strength Education, this podcast brings the Inner Strength vibe to you with accessible mindfulness sessions whether you're navigating classes, work, friends, stress, feelings, boredom, or any of the other distractions we all feel from time to time. These practices are practical, fun, and easy to return to—whether you have two minutes on the move or you're winding down at night.
You don’t need to clear your mind... Just press play, breathe, and make a little room inside.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
0:00
|
6:30
This meditation teaches you how to notice thoughts without getting pulled into them. You'll practice tagging experiences as "thinking" or "listening" and gently letting them go. Part one of a three-part series for understanding your mind better.
Why this helps? Learning to observe thoughts without reacting builds self-awareness, reduces overthinking, and creates mental calm.
When you pay attention to your thoughts in this special way, you'll start to identify thoughts that are helpful, and you will also start to recognize thoughts that are unhelpful or that can sometimes even be harmful.
This will be a three-part exercise. In the first part, we'll begin by noticing and tagging experiences such as thinking or listening. Next time, 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 keep repeating themselves and tag these. For this exercise, it will be helpful to invite an open attitude of curiosity and interest to the exploration.
Let's begin by coming into a comfortable sitting position with both feet flat on the floor. 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 your feet, 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. You can close your eyes if that feels comfortable for you. Sitting quietly in a very relaxed way. Allow yourself to be very natural. Simply be aware that you are 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 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 are having. This is different than just thinking. You are noticing your thoughts as they arise and pass away.
SPEAKER_01
This helps you develop self-knowledge as you notice what you are thinking.
SPEAKER_02
It also helps you develop calm as you experience that you don't need to respond or react 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. Sometimes the mind is drawn to a sound.
SPEAKER_02
When this happens, simply notice that you become aware of a sound. 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.
SPEAKER_01
No need to push any thoughts or sounds away or to stop thinking from happening.
SPEAKER_02
You're just practicing noticing when a thought or sound has arisen and tagging it. Thinking or listening. Once you tag it, you can turn your attention to sitting quietly at ease until the next thought arises.
SPEAKER_01
This practice is always the same.
SPEAKER_02
Observing, tagging, letting the thought go, and beginning again, just as you are in the present moment.
.png)