A Powerful Meditation Tip

This meditation tip is valuable not so much for active meditations like these during which you’re actively thinking and visualizing, but more so for passive meditations when you’re just trying to clear your mind and achieve that zen-like state of thoughtlessness you’ve heard so much about but have never been able to achieve because you keep getting caught up in the thoughts racing through your mind.

I wish I could remember whom to credit for the tip, but I read it long ago and forget who said it first, if that person was even the first to come up with the tip.

The best and easiest way to clear the mind of thoughts and clutter is to focus only on one idea:

What will my next thought be?

By wondering what your next thought will be, you will be more aware of your thoughts and better be able to be a passive observer of your thoughts instead of an active player in them. You will be better able to watch them come and go.

Simply step back from your mind to your pure awareness and try to pick out what your next thought will be. And when it comes, instead of focusing on that thought and going with it, go back to wondering what the next thought will be.

“Interesting. I just thought about the oil change I need to get. What will the next one be? ……. Ok, I just heard a motorcycle go by and thought of it and the distracting noise. What will the next one be?”

And on and on. As you continue to do this, you will find that fewer thoughts will come to you at all.

It’s as if the next thought, when it realizes it will have a critical audience, is afraid to show itself. Good. Stay out of my head and out of the spotlight. I have to deal with you throughout the day, and now that I’m meditating, for just these few minutes, please leave me alone.

As fewer and fewer thoughts reveal themselves, reflect for a moment on your state of awareness. It’s completely calm and empty, a state of pure being, a welcome break from your usually racing mind. A state which, when enjoyed for several minutes or more, will rejuvenate your mind and body and make you better able to deal with whatever comes your way..

Who knew it was so easy?