MINDFULNESS

As we begin to meditate, we see that our minds are awash in a constant torrent of thoughts and stories. This is simply what our minds do. Most of the time, we are engrossed in the thoughts and entranced by the stories they create. Some of the stories feel good, and others bring pain and suffering. Yet, when we learn to acknowledge the experience of the story— the emotions and bodily sensations that go with it, without identifying with the actual story or becoming lost in it, we can extricate ourselves from it and from the effects it is having on us. We begin to notice that this perpetual story is a “constant companion,” and that we allow and even welcome and become mesmerized by the  thoughts, believing that these ruminations and judgments and worries are reality, when we actually are allowing them to pull us away from the true reality of the moment and the felt experience of being in our lives.