Can you imagine what life would be like without believing everything the mind thinks?

Since the late 1970s, psychology and medicine have begun to scientifically study the effects of mindfulness meditation, meditation that involves maintaining full attention in the present moment.

Most of the studies were done using 8-week programs. In these Programs, participants learn one or a few new practices in each weekly session and, in this way, learn about various possibilities for training the ability to stay more in the moment.

One such practice is to watch your thoughts. It may seem a little difficult at first, but it’s not. We do this many times in life, for example when we say what we are thinking and reflect on what we just said. Hearing your own speech is not much different from hearing your own thoughts. It may just take a little practice.

Try this practice first: stop for a few minutes and notice the next thinking that comes up. You can then simply notice, be aware: “I’m thinking about this”. After a while, another thought arises, you can have the awareness again: “I’m thinking about it now”.

If it helps you, you can write a sentence on paper that represents the thought:

“I’m thinking about my work.”

“I’m thinking about how it’s going to be tomorrow”

“I’m thinking about her/him”

With mindfulness practices we learn to put judgments aside. So just notice this thought popped into the mind. And let go of judgments about thoughts or yourself.

The silence between thoughts

In my experience leading Mindfulness groups since 2015, it is often reported that when we go to observe thoughts, thoughts disappear. Isn’t it curious? If we turn attention to the mind, we often notice that the mind becomes quieter, as if metacognition (the cognition of having a cognition) alone calms the mind.

Maybe that won’t happen now. You might notice that if you notice the thoughts, it’s a lot of quick thoughts going by. No problem. Don’t judge your experience by now. Just notice.

Is it possible to notice a pause between thoughts?

Is it possible to notice even a second of silence between one thought and the next?

The consequence of the regularity of Mindfulness practices

With a longer time of Mindfulness practices, months, years, we begin to notice that these spaces between thoughts tend to increase. This is not a matter of mind control, but a natural process of thinking when you need to think and being silent (or much more silent) when you don’t need to think about something.

In technical terms, with Mindfulness practices – like the one I explained about thoughts – there is a decrease in mental rumination, which is the process of thinking many times about something. We also feel the effect of what is called Cognitive Defusion, which is the ability to look at thoughts as thoughts.

Cognitive Defusion is super interesting because in everyday life we ​​believe in the thoughts of our mind.

“That person doesn’t like me.”

“I really suck, I always do everything wrong”

“It’s no use even trying, I won’t make it”

These are examples of negative thoughts. If we develop the ability to look at that phrase, that thought, as just a set of letters, as just a sound or representation in the mind, we become free.

Can you imagine what it would be like to live without believing everything the mind says internally, everything the mind thinks?

Questions, suggestions, criticism, leave a comment.

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