I started meditating earlier this year, and I found one of the hardest things to do is “quiet my mind”. I’m not even 100% sure I know what that would feel like. The thing I do recognize is that even when I try to focus on something, I am constantly interrupted by other random thoughts. It could be anything. What do I have to do today? did I take meat out of the freezer for dinner? I wonder if we have any plans for Saturday? and on and on and on.
I had an interesting thought recently. I was up early walking the dog, and not feeling my best because I had a little too much fun the night before with friends. Funny how quickly a few beers hits you when you get older 😉 But the thing I noticed was that when I was “recovering” I didn’t have nearly as many thoughts floating in my head. Then it hit me that while I was enjoying those beers, I also experienced a lot less thoughts running through my head. So it made me wonder, is that why so much drinking happens in our current world? With the constant onslaught of technology, texts, phone calls, emails, linked-in, Facebook, and hundred other things all fighting for my attention, is it possible that alcohol provides a bit of relief from so many distractions? I’m not saying it’s the right way to handle this, but it brings up an interesting point of view. Even when you drink for “liquid courage”, it really just turn off all the thoughts that tell you not to do something? Could this be part of the reason why drinking is prevalent in our society? I can’t answer that, but it some interesting food for thought.
The idea of getting in control of our own thoughts is liberating and challenging. Try an experiment. Just sit down for 2 minutes and focus on your breath. Just sit there and don’t think of anything else but breathing in and out. Can you do it? I can’t. I’m getting marginally better, but I can’t stop the thoughts. The best I can do is not chase them like a dog chasing a car 🙂 I recently heard someone say that if you want to get some water, you must first have an empty glass. Well, isn’t that same for our minds? we need to have a little bit of open space in order to really experience anything.
I know this is random, but as the holidays approach, my mind seems to go a little more random 🙂
Thanks for reading,
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike