If we were to put all of our focus on one little ant, that ant would take up all of our attention and awareness. Similarly, even though there’s always so much happening within us and around us, if we put all of our focus on our thoughts, those thoughts will become the only things that exist to us. 

Similarly, when we become triggered because of traumatic events in our past, we lose sight of the here and now as we get swept away by our thoughts and emotions. In my latest YouTube video, I talk about how we can truly heal from trauma and unlearn those trigger responses.)

Most of the time, our focus goes wherever the most exciting thing is happening. It moves and wanders aimlessly, a slave to the whims of our environment. While our thoughts can be very clever and attention-grabbing, they are usually repetitive, negative, and at times even nonsensical — definitely not our highest wisdom. Sometimes our thinking minds will help us solve problems or be creative, but most of the time they are distracting us from the here and now, disturbing our inner peace, and causing needless stress and suffering.

There are two key ways for dealing with intrusive thoughts:

1. Expanding our perspective 
2. Developing our powers of focus and concentration.

Expanding our perspective means focusing more on where thoughts are coming from, what unhealed experiences we are still holding onto, and noticing more what is happening right in front of us. The more present and mindful we become, the less space there is in our field of awareness for those thoughts to take up. This means setting alarms on your phone and writing on Post-It notes reminders to breathe consciously and be fully present. The more we practice, the more it becomes our permanent way of being.

Secondly, to develop our powers of focus and concentration so that our thoughts can no longer pull us out of the present moment, we need to practice sustained, single-pointed concentration. We must use something that is not hyperstimulating, like watching TV or using our phone would be. It can be meditating while staring at one spot on a wall, staring at a candle flame or a crystal, or focusing on the breath entering and exiting at the tip of the nose. For beginners, repeating a mantra or counting breaths is extremely helpful.

For people who find sitting still particularly difficult, walking meditation can be a powerful practice, where we maintain our focus on each footstep rising and coming down. We can meditate sitting, lying down, standing or walking. Because we always move through life in these positions, practicing each of these meditations will help us turn our entire life into a meditation. When we’re eating, we can maintain awareness of the sensations of eating. When we’re cleaning, we can stay with the cleaning instead of mentally complaining or thinking about what we’ll do next.

By deepening into presence, and by developing a mastery of our own mind, our intrusive thoughts become quieter, unconscious thinking lessens, and the more peaceful our lives can become. 

Here’s My Personal Story:

We all have a constant stream of thought going through our mind. A narration of our life told by us, the narrator, and it never stops. How exhausting!

This voice in our head is rarely useful and often critical. We don’t need our brains to always label everything for us to understand what we’re seeing. There is so much to reality beyond the one-word-at-a-time narration. In fact, it makes us really miss out on the beauty and depth of our lives. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then one fully present moment is worth a billion.

There was this one time when I was sitting on a park bench during my lunch break. I was really upset at something a coworker did. My mind wasn’t just talking, it was screaming. And then I realized something that completely changed me. I realized that for the past 5 minutes, I was completely unaware of anything that was happening in front of me. My eyes were open but I wasn’t seeing. I was so in my head that I was completely unaware of what was happening just 2 feet in front of me. As soon as I realized that I was mentally someplace else, my mind immediately stopped racing and the office drama no longer bothered me. Peace instantly came over me the second I got out of my head. (More on how meditation helped me with my mental health, and how it can help yours as well, in this article.)

Love,
Todd

PS – Have you ever wondered if you can be a millionaire as well as an enlightened human being? My thoughts on the subject are on today’s podcast.