FOR YEARS I'VE REFERRED TO my overly active thoughts, both in meditation and daily life, as "monkey mind." Recently, I've switched to an image I've seen on several nature shows: billions of sardines in a frenzied bait ball being attacked by various swimming and flying creatures. I'm not sure my ball of thoughts numbers in the billions, but I do know that it can be challenging to work with them as they dart around in my brain. That's why I've taken to allowing a single sardine-thought to jump out of the ocean of my mind so that I can hear it separate from the rest. How do I let a thought jump out of my mind? I simply say it. I call this process journaling out loud.
For most of my life I've valued letting thoughts jump from my brain onto a piece of paper or computer screen in a daily journaling practice. I can see my thoughts in a journal, but there's a different effect when I say them out loud. A journal is a confidential tool in which we can explore thoughts and emotions that may feel unspeakable, unshareable, unfit for anyone else's eyes. Maybe that's why giving voice to thoughts-literally saying them out loud-feels so helpful. It makes the unspeakable speakable.
Here's how I do it. I find a location where I can speak without holding back for fear of being overheard. No need to have anyone questioning my sanity for talking to myself!
After a few moments of centering breathing, I allow myself to speak thoughts I'd rather not be having. These are generally those thoughts tinged with anxiety, comparison, judgment, anger, perfectionism, or other shadow energies.
This story is from the July/August 2022 edition of Spirituality & Health.
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This story is from the July/August 2022 edition of Spirituality & Health.
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