A Restless Mind Is OK

On Monday, I went to my third night meditation class. The whole day long, I was looking forward to spending some time by myself on my cushion. Once I got there, the teacher said that when you find yourself drifting, just label it "thinking" and move on. I had a lot of "thinking" moments, where my mind seemed to move away from my breath and I started pondering about all sorts of things, mostly work and wedding. But being able to label it as such, without any feelings of punishment or wrongdoing, was really helpful. It reminded me of how I can label themes in this blog. Just a very matter-of-fact, conscious action of saying "OK, I am thinking now." And then I could move on. Of course, thoughts would arise again, but there were a few moments of stillness, where all I thought about was the breath. Those moments were great. But perhaps a more important lesson I took away was not to beat myself up if my thoughts drifted. Just acknowledge and go back to the breath, leaving that middle part about blaming yourself out of the equation.