“Sit still and focus on your breath. Focus on the rising and falling of your belly. When a thought comes in, just note that you had it, and let it float away. Label it, “Thought.” Don’t judge the thought for what it is. Just let is float away….”
RRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrr! (Car tires screeching to a halt). What?! Sit Still and think of….NOTHING!? That’s Crazy pants!
I remember thinking when I was first introduced to meditation as a pre-teen that it would be imPOSSible to empty my mind of thought. And I also could not imagine how long it would take me – how many HOURS of sitting still and practicing it would take me to get there. Fast forward to the year after college. I remember laying in my bed at night after yet another busy day and thinking to myself: “Yay – Now I have time to THINK about today and tomorrow!” I couldn’t wait to analyze my day, predict what was going to happen tomorrow, create to-do lists in my head, etc. etc. etc.
Then somewhere in the next year or so, something clicked. My asana (physical) yoga practice went from sporadic to obsessive. I don’t remember going one day without making it to the studio. After a little while, I had gotten the sequence down so good that if I had to miss a day at the studio, I would practice the hour-and-a-half sequence on my own. But the classes were magical. If you walked into the middle of the class with a blindfold on, you might have mistaken the sound of unified breath as ocean waves. Savasana (Corpse pose), or the final resting pose, was a welcome and much-deserved surrendering into the mat, as you were held by the earth.
It must’ve been around this time.
It must’ve been around this time that I actually felt what meditation was supposed to feel like. It was after this that my meditation – something that had once seemed forced – was now…not necessarily easy…but welcomed.
Many people have this same habit of “Night thinking” but it also trickles into our daily lives. It takes many forms: overwhelm, anxiety, stress, anger, and so on. Now that I am a teacher of yoga and meditation I see the different struggles that my students have with the practice. Recently, in the span of just one week, a few students mentioned that the week was hard for them, depression or anxiety loomed overhead, and just “focusing on the breath” wasn’t cuttin’ it. I decided instead to teach breathing in and breathing out positive affirmations. This technique taken in part from Thich Nhat Hanh, someone whose teachings have been ingrained in me from a young age. So if “focusing on your breath” seems too overwhelming, do this instead:
“Breathing in, I am enough. Breathing out, I smile to my wholeness.
Breathing in, I am confident. Breathing out, I smile to my confidence.
Breathing in, I am beautiful. Breathing out, I smile to my whole beauty.”
The more you repeat these positive affirmations to yourself throughout the day, the week, the months and years to come, you become them. You also exude them and in turn help others with their smiles, their confidence, their wholeness.
Try thinking of what you might need in your life today. Peace? Strength? Confidence? Say that you ARE that, and then SMILE to that. 
Don’t think you have time? Do it the next time you are at a red light. Do it the next time you’re washing dishes or are doing your morning or night time bathroom routine. Catch yourself thinking. If letting thoughts just “float away” isn’t cutting it, replace them with positive ones. Rinse and Repeat.
Comment below with positive affirmations help you or which ones you think might help you. Let me know where you found yourself thinking and when you were able to replace them with positive thought.
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