Allowing Yourself to Stop Thinking

In one of the meditation recordings that I was listening to recently, it encouraged me to

“Allow yourself to stop thinking. Let go of your thoughts.”

Within the context of the meditation, it seemed completely possible and logical. Instead of focusing on whatever I was thinking about, I could just follow my breath.

 

However, it became more powerful when I’ve thought about it since then. I realized that in a way, that’s a major goal of meditation: to have such control of your thoughts and your mind that you can just let go of your thoughts. Thoughts create our reality: they are our expectations, our fears, our dreams. While they can be incredibly powerful, they can also be incredibly harmful. Thoughts are the origin of all fear and anxiety.  In our thoughts, we worry about things we can never change: we replay conversations to think about what we should have said and we judge the behavior of people around us. We may even worry about upcoming events for days, only to have them never actually occur.

 

Imagine if we could just get rid of that? What if we could just let go of our thoughts? Let go of our judgements, our fears, our stress?

 

This practice has allowed me to be more present in my life. While I’m at work doing repetitive tasks on the farm, I've noticed how often my mind is filled with unimportant thoughts. After seeing the movie Hamilton recently, I’ve had many of those songs stuck in my head. This week, when I start thinking about them, I say to myself,

“Thank you for remembering that. I’m glad you know that, but we don’t have to think about that right now. We can let it go.”

Even though I enjoy the songs, and they’re not particularly negative thoughts, they distract me from where I am. When I let them go, my mind is able to relax since it isn’t focused on trying to remember something that doesn’t matter. My mind is instead able to focus on what I’m doing: to feel the plants in my fingers, feel the sun on my face, and hear the sounds of the farm around me. I'm more aware of how I’m feeling: it’s much easier to notice that you’re dehydrated or too hot when your mind isn’t focused on something else.

 

Beyond letting go of our thoughts, a powerful implication of this is the idea that we can more fully control our thoughts. If we can stop thinking completely, then we can also choose what we’re okay with resuming thinking about. Often I find it important to think about what my body needs in a specific moment, ideas related to what I’m doing (like if a bug I find is a pest or if it’s a beneficial insect), or to pay attention to the people around me. In my daily life, this has been so important for my happiness and my ability to be fully present. I can use thoughts to be more fully present in my life, instead of allowing them to pull me out of the present moment.

 

It also means that we can choose to think about more important things. Arguably, there is nothing more important than thinking about our behavior and feelings in the current moment. However, if we’re no longer dwelling on anxieties, regrets, and stressors, we have space in our minds and in our lives to think about other things. Maybe we can notice what parts of our day are most rewarding to us and brainstorm ways to incorporate those more regularly. Maybe we can spend a small amount of time every day thinking about bigger problems. What can I do today to help with climate change? How can the farm I work on more successfully feed the people in our region? How can I help improve the days of the people I’m around right now?

 

Imagine if every human being spent just a few minutes a day thinking about how to solve the major problems our world faces, or how to spread compassion to those around them. What would our world look like?

 

Obviously, it isn’t easy to let go of our thoughts, or to stop thinking for even a small amount of time. But like most things, it gets easier with practice. If you start doing it in meditations, you will find it easier to incorporate into your life. And the more you do it, the more you will realize how drastically it can affect your life.

 

“The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.” ~Thich Naht Hanh

Sunflowers