Mindfulness Meditation Exercise: Watching the Thinker
Mindfulness meditation teaches the importance of separating your self—you—the person who inhabits your physical body, from the thinker or the thoughts that go through your mind on a constant basis. Trying to understand this concept—the idea that you and your mind are separate things—can be confusing at first and challenging to really grasp. However, it’s very important to understand that these two entities are distinct from one another so that you can reach a point where you can successfully be the observer of your thoughts rather than identifying with them.
The trouble with identifying with your thoughts is that you run the risk of believing what your mind tells you. The mind works a lot like a reflex organ—it reacts and responds suddenly and sometimes haphazardly. The mind also comes up with some pretty unrealistic, extreme, exaggerated, and negative thoughts and beliefs. Identifying with this—and believing the contents of your thoughts—places you at risk of then identifying with whatever your mind comes up with at any given time. If it’s something negative, then negative feelings and emotions will likely result. These feelings and emotions can, in turn, lead to negative behaviors, which lead to even more negative thoughts and so the cycle continues.
It can help to consider that if you can observe your thoughts—that is, if you can observe the workings of your mind and what your mind is telling you—this means that there must be two separate entities at play. If you and your mind were one in the same, you wouldn’t be able to identify what you are thinking at a given moment.
Identifying what you are thinking is precisely how you can start watching the thinker. Once you start doing this mindfulness exercise, you are initiating the process of creating that important separation—of de-identifying with your mind. It’s like going out of your mind, but in a good way!
You can watch the thinker anytime, anywhere. Try it as you sit comfortably for 10 minutes with your eyes closed. Take deep breaths and try to focus your attention on your breath only. If any thoughts pop into your mind, simply observe them; watch them like you would watch a video online or a movie. Acknowledge the thought, whatever it is, without judgment and then return to your breathing. Here, you are developing your ability to acknowledge what your mind is “saying” followed by turning back to your self, your physical body, and continuing with observing your breathing.
In between scheduled meditations, try watching the thinker while you’re in traffic, in line at the grocery store, or going for your morning walk. Strengthen this ability you have to acknowledge the thoughts that your mind comes up with, but then move on from those thoughts without feeling the need to react to them or believe them. You will find that as you get out of your mind and de-identify from it, you will go through the trials and challenges of life with greater peace and acceptance of what is.
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