Start Here · Day 6
Thoughts
Watch thoughts arrive and pass like cars on a street, without following them.
- 8 min
- Voice and captions
Spinn Originals play softly under the voice and step back while it speaks. If a workout is playing its soundtrack, that carries on instead.
Read the words
- Welcome to day six. Today you will watch your thoughts, rather than follow them.
- Find a position you can hold easily. Sitting, standing or lying down.
- Close your eyes, or rest your gaze on a spot in front of you.
- Take a slow breath in through your nose.
- And out through your mouth.
- Let the breath find its own pace. Rest your attention on it for a few breaths.
- Now imagine you are sitting by a quiet street, watching the traffic.
- Each thought is a car. It comes into view, passes in front of you, and drives off.
- Your job is only to watch. You do not need to stop the cars, and you do not need to get in.
- Some thoughts are words. Some are pictures. Some are plans, worries or memories. They are all just cars.
- Notice the next thought that arrives. Watch it pass.
- If you find yourself inside a car, riding along with a thought, that is normal. Notice it, step out, and return to the curb.
- If no thoughts come, rest with the breath until one does.
- Some cars are loud or fast. You can still let them pass.
- Keep watching. A thought arrives. A thought passes.
- If it helps, give each one a quiet label as it goes by. Planning. Remembering. Worrying.
- Notice whether there are gaps in the traffic. Short moments with no thought at all.
- Keep watching from the curb, coming back each time you get pulled in.
- Now let the street fade, and come back to the breath.
- Feel your body, held by the chair, the floor or the bed.
- Take one deeper breath in.
- And let it go slowly.
- Open your eyes if they were closed. Move your fingers and toes.
- That is day six. Thoughts will keep coming. You are practicing watching them without chasing them. See you tomorrow.