Is “a too busy mind for a meditation practice” a thing?
We all know meditation practice is challenging, especially when we are starting out.
I so often hear that ‘a too busy mind’ is a reason why you give up at a very early stage or you do not even attempt to try the practices.
Let’s see if there is such a thing as “a too busy mind for meditation” .
The ancient teachings say that our mind (manas) is chanchala – always moving around and asthiram – never steady.
So even from that description we can see that it is the nature of the mind to wonder.
All minds wonder, some less other more, but they all do.
And that is something we need to acknowledge at the start of our journey with meditation. The mind will wonder.
But a not trained or cleanse mind, as we like to call it in yogic language, will have control over us. It will be constantly taking us to places, people, situations and stories often against our will.
Is overthinking, constant worries, fears of the future, reminiscing especially sad, emotional events over and over something that you notice is happening to you a lot?
Instead of being here and living your life in this moment you are mostly spending time in the past or in the future? It is said that over 90 % of our thoughts are the same every day. So we keep going over and over the same things. It sounds tiring even reading about it.
On the other hand it is actually a great thing that the mind can travel in time to the past and to the future, we can remember beautiful events or plan great things for the future. We just need to have more control over where our “manas” (mind) is going.
All of us have a capacity to get out of our head more. We can gradually get more in control of our thoughts with a regular practice. We can train our mind to become more still and focused through different tools and techniques.
Similarly as we cleanse our body daily taking a shower, brushing our teeth etc we should take care of our mind daily to keep it clean and spacious. Then, all the energy gained from overthinking can be directed towards more practices, contemplations and reflexions. Regular practices will allow us to improve and extend mind’s concentration capacities, freeing us from constant inner chatter, connecting us to more joy and purpose and helping coping with stress and overwhelm in life. It will help us think more positively and that in turn will attract even more positive outcomes to our life.
The more busy your mind seems the faster you should start your concentration practices.
If you would like to give it a try I will share the simplest technique we can use to bring ourselves into the moment, by making space in our mind.
Deep, even breaths. In Manasa Yoga we call it tanu 3. Let’s do a short practice now.
To prepare sit comfortably on the chair or on the floor, keep your spine straight, chest open, head centred and eyes closed. Then shift your awareness to your breath. Exhale completely and then inhale long counting to 4 and exhale long counting to 4 (both are done through the nose). If you are comfortable with this pace you can try to elongate the breath even more, so inhale in a count of 5, exhale in a count of 5. Repeat elongated breaths 5 times…and then sit for a moment in silence…
Reflect on the effect the breaths had on your mind. Does it feel a bit calmer, slower, more spacious?
You can contact me for a free consultation here if you need more guidance with starting your practices.