Helping With Negative Thoughts

Hey, welcome to this meditation on how to work with difficult thoughts that can sometimes arise in the mind. Have you ever noticed this? Sometimes thoughts about the future? What if that thing doesn't go well? What if they don't like me? What if I don't fit in? And then sometimes thoughts about the past. Oh, I wish I did that differently. Why did I say that thing that way? All these different thoughts that can come up in the mind that can make us feel not so good. So I'm going to share a strategy to help you work with those thoughts when they arise so you can feel more calm.

Let's just start by finding a comfortable posture. It could be sitting down or lying down. If you'd like, you can close your eyes. And we'll take one deep breath together. In through the nose.

And slowly out through the mouth. Relaxing all the muscles in your face. Imagine that any of the tightness in your shoulders is just melting. And if you'd like, you can even place one hand or two hands on your belly. Just feeling your body breathing.

One way we can help work with thoughts is give the mind something else to focus on. And so let's use our breath right now. You already have a hand or two hands on your belly, and we're going to make that the thing that we focus on. In the same way that you might focus on doing your homework, or you might focus on a cartoon that you're watching, here, we're just going to try to focus on the breath. So we'll keep it really simple.

Just see if you can feel that your body is breathing right now. Can you feel that movement that's happening in the belly? Feeling the full inhale, as the body breathes in and the belly inflates like a balloon. And then feel the belly get soft and smaller as you exhale, and the belly deflates like a balloon. Now, as you're doing this, you may notice that the mind starts to think about something. Now, those thoughts, they're just like clouds passing through the sky, or like a train passing by.

They come and they go. But, you can watch them as they're coming and going. So see what that's like. Just notice, oh, there's a thought. And even imagine the thought sitting on a little cloud, passing through your mind.

It can be kind of fun. Oh, there's another thought passing through the mind. And once the thought goes away, you just bring your attention and focus back to your breath. Inhale. Exhale.

Another thought might come up and you watch it just like a little cloud, or maybe watching the thoughts sitting on a train passing by. And then once it passes, just come back to this breath. Let's take a few more breaths like this. Breathing in and out, watching the thoughts pass by. And bringing all of your focus back to this breath, this moment.

And we'll take one more deep breath together. In through the nose. And slowly out through the mouth. And when you're ready, you can open your eyes again. Great job.

Now, this is something that you can do all throughout the day. We have lots of thoughts throughout the day. And sometimes they're really positive. And we want to think about what we're thinking. Other times, the thoughts might be causing us to feel scared or nervous.

So when that happens, you can just bring your focus back to your breath. Maybe you're sitting in class or on the playground or at home, just focusing on your breath and watching the thoughts pass through your mind, like clouds passing through the sky. And then back to the breath. Thank you for meditating with me. You're really training your brain to be powerful and calm and focused.

I'm proud of you. I'll talk to you soon. And until next time, take care.