Meditation Demystified: How to Meditate When You're An Over Thinker?
6 Tips to Regain Control of Your Attention
If you, by chance, have found yourself wondering how you are supposed to meditate when you have the habit of overthinking, you are not alone.
Thankfully, there are supportive practices that can help you to regain control of your attention. This post will outline 6 Tips for Meditating When You're An Over Thinker.
The Habit of OverThinking
It’s commonplace for overthinkers to believe that meditation may not be an ideal fit simply because it calls for you to redirect your attention from excessive thought. For many, the call to do the exact opposite of what one does daily is daunting.
Despite your best intentions, the thought of having to cease doing the very thing you’ve done for practically all of your life is enough to cause the most determined aspiring new practitioner to question why they even contemplated it in the first place.
This raises an interesting question, what does it mean to be an overthinker? Despite what the term implies, overthinking goes beyond extreme thinking, as it often involves ruminating about the past and worrying about the future. Hence the more one engages in overthinking, the more likely they are to experience increased fear and anxiety of doing it wrong based on past experiences. This is just a glimpse into the nuanced complexities of overthinking.
Contrary to popular belief, a thought is not just a thought. Hence all thinking is creative, as every thought is a unit of energy that can shift energetic frequency. Everything is energy, and whether conscious or not, every idea we think and entertain generates an energetic vibration that magnetically attracts everything agreeable to its nature.
Like most things, all thoughts aren’t created equal, as they span the spectrum, from low to high vibrations with disempowering thoughts that are sourced from fear, doubt, and worry, emitting some of the lowest frequencies, to those of joy and happiness, which tops the scales with some of the highest vibrations. Think that you are continuously surrounded with unlimited opportunities for more health, love, joy, financial wealth, and abundance, and you will indeed be met with more of the same. Whereas, if one singularly focuses on the absolute worst that could happen, one is sure to manifest the substance of their fears.
The more low vibrational thoughts you think, the more lack, limitations, and loss you experience until you shift your thoughts. Being like attracts like; every thought that focuses on what you don’t want continuously elicits a low vibrational frequency that perpetually keeps the cycle going. The more one excessively becomes attached to and internalizes the thoughts that flow through their awareness, the more one identifies with the content of their thoughts, ruminating on past experiences and worrying about the future. In other words, dropping into practice can overly critique their experience prompting more thoughts to call into question past instances where they may not have previously missed the mark at forming a consistent habit. The next thing you know, you’re focusing on what you potentially did wrong and worrying about what could keep you from successfully making it a habit. The list essentially goes on and on.
The more one overthinks, the more likely one will engage in analysis paralysis. Whether you are an avid overthinker or a former card-holding member, you’ve, at some point or another, gotten pulled down into the rabbit hole of overanalyzing every thought to the moment where it leaves you questioning practically everything. Next thing you know, you’re up to your eyeballs in active thinking, and the weight of forming a consistent practice meditation seems like a pipe dream. So naturally, if you self-identify as an overthinker, the very idea of having to observe your thoughts (aka meditating) can trigger several energetically charged emotions that can easily steal one’s attention away from their initial intent (aka meditation), leading them to believe that is an unlikely fit.
The good news is that no matter how long one subjects themselves to old habits of thought, we each possess the inner power to change at will and begin again, chartering a new course to invite more love, life, and joy.
The Art of Meditation
Meditation is paying in-distractible attention to all that is unfolding on a moment-by-moment basis. Thanks to the invariable distractions competing for our attention, it is often easier said than done. Most are familiar with the idealized meditative postures and positioning; however, beyond the poised postures, meditation is achieved by settling both the mind and body into a calm state. This practice calls us to pull our attention away from the many things that may distract us from residing in the present.
One would think that simply being able to focus on any particular task equates with being in the present moment. However, the key to residing in the present moment lies in increasing our awareness of all that is while releasing judgment and attachment to an expected outcome by accepting what is.
5 Tips to Regain Control of Your Attention?
1. Beginners Mind
The moment we encounter a new experience sparks a beautiful sense of curiosity for us to explore. With each subsequent encounter, the spark gradually dissipates until it becomes yet another obligation. Experiences can span the spectrum from all things good to the absolute worst. Depending on the substance of your experience, the very thought of revisiting it can figuratively leave a bad taste in your mouth. The beginner’s mind calls you to approach each moment (aka encounter) with an open curiosity as if it were your first time. In other words, if you had what you would classify as a not-so-good experience with meditation, it calls you to release the weight of the past and approach it as if it were your first time.
With each practice, assume an open, receptive stance without judgment or attachment to a desired outcome (A beginner’s Mind) you. It opens you to approach each encounter with open expectancy (without attachment to an expected outcome).
2. Go Beyond the Silence
Assume a posture that empowers you to close your attention to outside distractions. Select an approach that allows you to feel the most at ease. Whether you elect to close your eyes or lower your gaze, closing your awareness to distractions supports one to go within.
Beyond merely sitting in silence lies myriad random thoughts that can hijack our attention into a downward swirl of mental chatter. Hence the more thoughts we think, the more disconnected we are from the present moment. Feel into the quiet silence that emanates from being in the stillness. Redirect the flow of thoughts by bringing your awareness back to the breath as often as needed.
3. Anchor Your Awareness in the Now
Contrary to popular belief, meditation does not require you to cease the flow of thought. Admit-tingly, it would make dropping into meditation a whole lot easier. However, the mind doesn’t quite work that way, as it does the opposite. Where your attention goes, your energy flows. Likewise, the faster you stop thoughts' rapid flow, the quicker they will flow. In other words, the harder you try to cease its flow, the more forceful it becomes as it rapidly fires one after another until we reclaim volition over our attention.
Understandably this can quickly leave one to wonder what they got themselves into. As spiritual beings having a human incarnation, we control where we direct our attention. Hence our power lies in our ability to shift our attention onto the things that can solely occur within the now moment.
Likewise, the breath is one of the faculties that can only happen within the present—focusing your awareness on the natural rhythm and flow of the breath roots your awareness within the now. When you find your attention drifting, be gracious with yourself by releasing any judgment and redirecting your attention back home to the breath as many times as needed.
4. Accept What Is
Our minds are in a persistent state of action and activity, replaying past events and experiences at will. Of which there will likely be experiences that you’d rather forget.
Thoughts and memories are infused with vibrational frequencies that can either increase or decrease our energetic frequency, making it much harder to objectively observe all that flows through our experience.
5. Release Any Guilt
Naturally, there are countless things that you can release. However, whenever you experience difficulty, there will likely be times when your experience feels too overwhelming to find an ounce of mental fortitude to engage in the practice. Guilt will likely follow, as with most things that misalign with what we believe we should feel.
Anytime you feel guilt arising, allow grace and release any feelings of guilt. As with the clouds that float across the sky, any number of things will cross through your awareness that can make you feel guilty. There will be seasons where life is not all rainbows and butterflies as we experience the ebbs and flows of life. Know that it is ok to miss the mark and experience feelings that may not feel comfortable. Permit yourself to release guilt as often as needed, and know this is precisely why it’s a practice.
6. Self Forgiveness
Forgiveness is a practice primarily reserved and emphasized as something we should do for others. However, forgiveness first begins with the self. There will be times when the density of life so clouds your vantage point that it may become challenging to not center blame and guilt on oneself.
Know that beyond every experience lies a lesson. As we grow and evolve, we will make mistakes along the way. Release any feelings of guilt, blame, or shame, permit yourself to forgive yourself, and allow yourself to begin again.
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