After a busy day, our brains tend to overflow, making it hard for us to relax. It is at times like these, when things are far from quiet in our heads, that meditation can be very effective. Try this sometime:
- Focus your attention on something else for a moment, preferably something that moves, such as your breathing.
- Choose a sentence to stop the continuous thoughts, such as ‘I’ll do it later’ or ‘This is old news’.
- Picture an object. Imagine for example that you are throwing your thoughts over a wall. You can also see your thoughts as boats sailing on water, and you are deciding whether to board them or to stay on the shore.
- Label your thought, such as ‘memory’, ‘fantasy’ or ‘worry’. This helps you create a distance, but you are not pushing the thought away. You simply let is pass by.
- Want to find out more about meditation? You can read about it in our special Flow 19 Days of Mindfulness.
Source: Beter Nu – Breng mindfulness in je leven (Better Now – Bring Mindfulness into Your Life), Rob Brandsma (Dutch only) Photography Shutterstock
