Not Thinking: Meditation

Emptying your head is a lot harder than it would seem. When you can do it though, it's really satisfying. Sometimes before I go to sleep, and I'm thinking about things that are stressing me out, I'll stop and think, I'm probably going to dream about this...I don't want to dream about stressful things...so if I think about nothing...then the things i'm worrying about won't affect my dreams. So i'll lay there and start trying to empty my head. I start by closing my eyes and focusing on a "point" in the nothing that I see. Things start popping in, borders, random flashes, thoughts, etc. I try to empty them all out as they come. It starts to become layers; there is the not thinking, the trying to not think, the awareness that your trying to not think. You can catch yourself doing that though, and empty those thoughts too, but you can't react with the thoughts. You have to just let them empty out.

I think the challenge is to not react...either once you get it you want affirmation of the accomplishment...or if you lose it you want to start fighting thoughts with thoughts.

I tend to be very analytical and I think a lot, so not thinking is a difficult challenge. But it's really worth it, even if just to relax and take a break from thinking every second of every day.