You’ve Got This
by Tracy Becker
Abbie asks: I have been trying to teach myself how to meditate, but my mind keeps wandering. Is there any way to stop this?
Hey Abbie, what a great question. I have been teaching and practicing meditation since 1988 and I thought the same thing when I began. My mind was so busy I didn’t think it was possible to quiet it down.
Here are a few tips from a book I wrote several years ago called: Finding Refuge in the Storm: A Meditation Handbook, which I hope will help.
Expect that your mind will attempt to talk you out of the practice of meditation. It will sound similar to this: I can’t do this, it isn’t for me, my mind won’t be quiet, maybe everyone else’s will, but not mine, I don’t have time, my kids won’t leave me alone long enough, I don’t know how, and on and on it goes.
Yet, here’s what you’ve got to do if you are serious about this. Move your buts (excuses) out of the way and sit your butt down to do the practice. You are NOT your mind. Your mind is a thinking aspect of yourself, but it IS NOT YOU. Your mind was made to think, and it thinks approximately 65 – 85,000 words a day. When it is thinking it is doing its job. Allow it to do what it does and every time you recognize that your mind has gone off on tale, gently bring it back to your breath.
Focusing on breathing in and breathing out slow relaxing breaths will help. Focus on finding peace and ease of being still. You’ll have to overlook all the excuses and train yourself to return your attention to the breath over and over again.
Set a timer even for 5 minutes and stick it out. The next week go to 8 minutes and so on. If you allow yourself to surrender to the practice of being still, you WILL get there.
Some days will be easier than others, but it is the commitment to the practice that will get you where you want to be sooner rather than later.
All the best, Tracy
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