Instead of trying to stop thinking, try listening differently.

Let your thoughts and feelings help you practice being more present sometimes.

Imagine other meditators having just as many thoughts as you do.

Trying not to think never works. Try practicing this instead.

We have such a limited attentional budget that spending it listening to external sounds leaves less to allocate to the internal sounds of our mental chatter.

When you catch yourself absorbed by some immediate aspect of your environment, try to yield to the observation fully for a few seconds.

I swoon and recoil at the tresses blowing
in an arbor without glow
or flame. These are reprieves. Respites
in the demands of sensation
and flow. Know this: you can you can
you can you can you can.

~ Margot Schilpp

Training your attention by listening closely to words as sounds can enrich your lifelong relationship to the language you rely on to navigate your life. It might even rekindle the wordless wonder that existed before you developed the ability to comprehend words.

“All our education might be brought to a point where it allows us to glimpse in wonder the slightest breath of life in front of us."

~ Thomas Moore

“There's nothing wrong with thinking. So much that is beautiful comes out of thinking and out of our emotions. But if our thinking is not balanced with awareness, we can end up deluded, perpetually lost in thought, and out of our minds just when we need them the most.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn