Name the Thoughts and Let Them Go

This meditation teaches you how to gently label thoughts as they arise and return to the breath. Instead of getting pulled into the story, you practice letting thoughts go moment by moment. A practical tool for stress, studying, and overthinking.

Why this helps? Labeling repetitive thoughts creates distance and reduces mental looping.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Inner Strength Meditations. A moment to breathe and be.

Three-Part Exercise Overview

Settle The Body And Attention

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Hashtag thinking. Hashtag thinking is a mindfulness exercise that will help you develop self-knowledge. You're going to practice noticing and working with your thoughts so you can understand yourself better. 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'll 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 listening. Next, we'll explore thoughts or sounds that are pleasant, unpleasant, or in between. And 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'll be helpful to invite an open attitude of curiosity. Let's begin by coming into a comfortable sitting posture with both feet flat on the floor. Notice the sensations of sitting and feel the support of the surface you're sitting on. The solidity of the ground beneath you.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Simply sitting in a relaxed and alert way. You can gently close your eyes if that feels comfortable for you.

Part One: Tag Thinking Or Listening

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Sitting quietly in a relaxed way, and allowing yourself to be very natural. After a few moments, you may notice that your mind is wandered to a thought. It might be a thought about something that happened earlier, or maybe something that 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 that you're having. This is different than just thinking. You're noticing your thoughts as they arise and fade away. When you become aware of a thought, simply notice it and tag it, thinking. Then you can let it go and return to sitting in a relaxed and easy way. Or your mind might be drawn to a sound. When this happens, just notice that you've become aware of a sound and tag it listening, and gently let it go. So you're continuing to sit quietly, and when you notice the mind is wandered to a thought or a sound, simply tag it thinking or listening, and let that experience go, allowing yourself to just be exactly as you are, sitting quietly in a relaxed way.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

The practice is always the same.

Part Two: Pleasant, Unpleasant, In Between

Part Three: Specific Repeating Thoughts

Working With Sticky Thoughts

Befriending Thoughts And Examples

Silent Practice And Closing Bell

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Noticing when the mind has wandered to a thought or a sound and tagging it thinking or listening and beginning again, just sitting in a relaxed, easy way. Now we're going to move to the second part of the exercise. As you practice tagging thoughts and sounds, you may notice that some are pleasant, while others are unpleasant, and you might even notice that others are somewhat in between. Whatever you feel about a particular thought or sound, whether you like it or not, practice tagging it as pleasant, unpleasant, or in between. And once you tag it, you can let it go and return to sitting at ease. Sometimes a particular thought might keep coming back over and over again. When you notice these thoughts, you can practice getting specific with your hashtag. This is the third and last part of 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 stress or 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 or to figure it out. Instead, you're just practicing relating to the thought in a 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 it. 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 as you return to sitting quietly. If it's an important thought, you can always attend to it later after you've finished this practice. By observing your thoughts or being mindful of your thoughts, you are getting to know and befriend them one thought at a time, so that you can work with them in an empowering way. You might be aware of an unpleasant thought such as a homework thought, or it might be a pleasant and exciting thought such as my birthday party thought. It might even be an in-between thought such as I need to tie my shoes. Whatever the thought is about is just fine. You're simply noticing the specific types of thoughts that are arising for you, tagging them 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 in this way in silence, sitting quietly, noticing when a thought arises, tagging it, letting it go, and just resting with ease. And when you hear the bell, you can allow the sound of the bell to softly bring you out of the meditation and gently open your eyes.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Enjoy this moment and stay well.