Labeling Thinking in Meditation
In meditation, it doesn’t matter what comes up. You don’t have to analyze anything when you are meditating. You can simply maintain your dignified posture and pay attention to your breath. The technique is that you look at the thoughts as they arise and say to yourself, “thinking.” Whatever goes through your mind is purely thinking, not mystical experience. Label it thinking and come back to your breath.
So you are there. You are thinking. You don’t try to get away from your thoughts, but you don’t stick with them or encourage
them either. Thought patterns are just ripples on the surface of the pond. They come and they go. They merge into each
other, and you take the attitude that they are not a big deal.
From Mindfulness in Action: Making Friends with Yourself through Meditation and Everyday Awareness, page 23.
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