How to Meditate — without actually Meditating.

Yesterday I caught myself drowning in my own thoughts.

They weren’t pleasant though. They were destructive. Ugly. Manipulative.

I sat on the couch feeling paralyzed. I couldn’t move a muscle. All I wanted to do was listen to them. That was my first option. They seemed so serious, so rational. But the more I listened, the more I felt paralyzed.

My second option was to figure a way out. I contemplated the best solution that could reduce my mental chatter and take me back to a space of and serenity.

But that didn’t work either. Sometimes overthinking solutions aggravates our suffering and becomes a problem on its own. After spending hours and hours lost in the nonstop stream of thoughts in my mind, I remembered a third option.

It’s something I’ve always done in meditation, and I’ve been implementing it recently:

Nothing.

I’ve done absolutely nothing about the mental chatter that’s been annoying me. I’ve been practicing this “nothingness” everywhere. I’m not sitting in a lotus position and my eyes are wide open. I’m moving, I’m working, and I’m taking care of my child.

When I stop trying to control the thoughts in my mind, they naturally dissipate…