Meditation For Overthinkers

I’ve suspected for a long time now that meditation would help me make positive changes in my life.

Some part of me constantly longs to sit still, breathe deeply and just…be.

The only problem is the constant stream of thought my monkey mind produces. It doesn’t seem to believe in being quiet at all.

On and on it rambles, jumping from one topic to another. I’ve learned to love this little quirk, but it does make meditation in the traditional sense almost impossible.

When I say traditional, I mean meditation that involves sitting still and recalling your attention to your breath whenever your thoughts wander off. This kind of meditation makes me feel oddly anxious.

It makes me think of someone placing a newly crawling baby on the floor and expecting the baby to just stay in that one spot. Not gonna happen.

And it doesn’t matter how many times you bring the baby back to that spot — as soon as you’ve let go, off that baby goes. I don’t know what I should make of the fact that my mind reminds me of a crawling infant but we won’t pull at that thread for now.

I’ve come to accept that my mind needs direction and if I don’t give it one, it will chatter endlessly and hoping that it will eventually quiet down if I keep focusing on my breath is an exercise in futility.

The only way I have ever been able to achieve moments of internal quiet is through a kind of directed meditation. This is similar to guided meditations, only you are the one guiding yourself.

If you have an overactive mind and struggle with meditation, I suggest you give this a try. This practice also makes me feel strangely productive, you’ll see why.

What I do is find a comfortable place to sit — usually on the floor, in a sun drenched corner of my home. I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and then I step inwards.

I do this by directing my attention to my own mind. It’s like the outside world doesn’t exist for a bit and I’m simply…

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