Its become a common conception that during meditation practice you are somehow supposed to stop thinking.

False.

The mind is a thinking machine, a problem solver, and its a tool just doing what it was brilliantly designed to do. The minds only doing its thing so good luck with ever trying to shut it off completely as this may require getting a full lobotomy.

If during meditation your primary focus becomes controlling the mind and preventing its attempts to think, ironically youve actually only caused the mind to think even more because now youve just given the mind a problem it believes it needs to solve. So if what Ive described is acommon, reoccurring dilemma for you, I highly suggest instead of the whole non-thinking approach you try something different and that beingallowing the mind to be and just do what it was designed to do.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with thinking and the thoughts you have are not the problem either.

The real issue lies in your inability to choose and believe one thought you have over another. For its the thoughts you choose to attach to that become the prominent stories you tell yourself and formulate the belief structures that construct who you think you are, why you feel the way you do, and your general overview on life and how you perceive everything and everyone else in it. And be honest, some of these stories youve attached to and sold yourself as true, hands-over-fist, are downright destructive to your well-being more than others.

Meditations primary purpose is simply practicing to detach from your thoughts and learning to play the role of the observer.

Through observing the mind we are able to see firsthand the stories, methods, and patterns the mind uses to manipulate the perceptions we hold about ourselves, other people, situations, and events. By learning the minds tactics, we can then apply this knowledge outside of meditation and into our daily lives after now clearly being able to differentiate and separate ourselves from the false notion that somehow we are slaves to its neurotic antics.

In other words, meditation is a practice allowing you to become quite skilled in deciphering when its just your mind doing its thing, and possibly more importantly, meditation gives you the priceless insight that whatever the mind is doing is outside of what you are, and with this knowledge you can quickly detach and release from any story that may cause you pain.

The result is that life gradually becomes far less stressful once youve acquired an inept ability to decipher between what was just another story of the mind and what is actual, true reality.

Meditation is the practice of observing your thoughts for the insane comedy show that they can be, then learning not to become emotionally involved and take them so seriously.

There is no wrong way to meditate.

Meditation can become a far more relaxing ordeal for you by simply choosing to release control and allowing whatever thoughts, feelings and emotions wanting to bubble to the surface come up without attaching any judgment. Then just as easily as you allowed everything to come up, now allow it to release without feeling the need to apply a meaning or story to any of it.

You just need to chill homie and just learn to let go of whatever came to visit you without a single hitch involved. Because trying to stop thinking during meditation will drive you crazy.

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Jared Ciofalo aka "The SoulTrekker, is the Founder/CEO of "SoulTrekker: Intuitive Guidance Channeling the Heart's Truth," Spiritual Counselor, Session Facilitator, Channel of Truth, Featured Writer for The Good Men Project and The Holistic Journal, Raw, Uncut Video Blogger and YouTube Channel Extraordinaire. Leaders create more leaders, and true leaders have heart. Jared's heart is blown open and he is unafraid of sharing his miraculous gifts with all of you.

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Excerpt from:

The Greatest Myth About Meditation that will Drive You Crazy - The Good Men Project (blog)