Meditation definitely does not come easily to me. But everything and everyone in our modern world wants our attention — and where we put our attention determines the outcome and quality of our life. With soaring rates of mental illness and distraction, it’s never been more important that we exercise our capabilities of focus and attention. There are MANY ways to meditate, but here’s one concept I’ve zeroed in on after years of struggle that has helped me: “Trains of thought”: 🚂🚂🚂 I love this visual. In our minds, we are often boarding a train that takes us to a far away destination of thought. So often I get lost in thought and *boom* — an hour has gone by. I wonder how I lost that time, how I got there. Thought trains pop into our head literally constantly and we unconsciously jump on and let them take us wherever *they* want to go. It’s like we are asleep on the train, being taken for a ride, but that ride is our lives. Meditation allows us to wake up from that stupor and say, “Whoa, I want to get off this train. I NEED to get off this train. I need to be HERE, not THERE.” Or, “I want to get on another train of my intentional choosing.” 🚂 What I’ve come to realize is that the entire work of meditation (for me) is literally just realizing when you’re thinking about something/have a thought (ie, have boarded a train of thought), notice that fact non-judgmentally, and then shift attention to the breath. The goal is NOT to STOP thinking, it’s to NOTICE when you’re thinking and immediately come back to the breath. That’s it. That’s the work. Do this thousands of times and it becomes so much easier to realize that when we’re lost in thought, and get back to the present moment or get back to thinking about what we intentionally want to think about. This is like shooting free throws for our brain: a drill that makes us stronger. If we aren’t aware that we are jumping on these trains of thoughts constantly, we *could* spend our ENTIRE life on these different trains, NEVER ever waking up to the fact that these thoughts are illusions we can board and exit as desired. Waking up from passive thought is bliss. Meditation helps us do it. #meditation #mindfulness