HealthyGamerGG - Meditation for Controlling Thoughts

Episode Date: March 1, 2022

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We're going to focus on physics, but I want to let it go. But I want to let it go. Physics. Okay, go ahead. That's simple. So I want to teach you all a particular meditation. Okay? So I'm going to teach you guys a meditation that is helpful for controlling your thoughts.

So this is going to sound kind of weird. But when it comes to our thoughts, we tend to not control them. Right? So our mind does whatever it wants to. It thinks about whatever it wants to. When I'm sitting there and I'm trying to study, my mind is like, no, let's think about Dota. As I'm sitting here thinking about, do I want to teach meditation today? Oh no, Western European tiebreakers are going on.

My mind is like 2.15, stream ended 15 minutes ago. Let's hop off and go watch some Dota because we can do that. We can just say, oh my God, I've talked too much today. My throat hurts. I can't teach meditation. I don't have the energy. My mind will yell at me all of these things so that I can get what it wants to. So our thought, our mind has thoughts, right?

So it's thinking Dota. It's thinking unhealthy food. Sometimes we have negative thoughts about ourself. Right? And we don't want to think these things. We want to think positive things about ourselves maybe. We want to think about, you know, what we're, studying. So we want to think about physics. We want to think about philosophy. We want to think

about grocery list. These are the thoughts that we want. But as our mind exists, like let's say this is our mind, we just don't get to pick. Right. So whether it's this that goes in, this that goes in, we just don't get to pick. We try to tell it, hey, let's think about groceries. Then our mind is like, ah, no. We're going to think about Dota. So this is how our mind works. We don't control it. Right? So sometimes people have anxiety. I can't get out of my own head.

Sometimes people have thought loops. We have thought number one, which leads to thought number two, which leads to thought number three, which leads to thought number four. And then you end up over here. Right? Sir, this is a Wendy's. The person who's on the other side of that doesn't know how to restrain their thoughts. So, what if I told you there's a way to control what goes in here? Wouldn't that be pretty cool?

Like, if we could just control what goes in here? And it turns out that there is. And it turns out that it's actually pretty friggin simple. And all we're going to do, I'm going to teach you how to do today. It's going to be a long process. So, what I want you to do is I'm going to draw some circles. Okay, I want you to look at some, notice a couple objects in your room.

Make a mental list of objects. Okay, and I'm going to draw some circles. So you can do this in your room, or you can do it with the circles. So what I'm going to ask you all to do is I want you to look at the white circle. And now I want you to look at the blue circle. And now I want you to look at the red circle. And now I want you to look at the green circle.

And now what we're going to do is notice one object in your room. In the moment you notice, that one object, I want you to stop noticing it and find something else to notice. So I see a, like a card thing here, right? I see a set of headphones. I see a controller. I see a stapler. I see a pager.

I see a cup. And so whatever whatsoever are mine notices, we're going to just notice something else. Okay? So now I see a purple. a paper pen. Now I see a black pen. Now I see dental floss. I see, you know, stangler. Right? So I'm going to just rotate my attention. I'm going to notice different things. I see a pop filter. I see a portable hard drive. I see a USB cable. How fast is too fast. Okay. Now I want you all to pay attention to what you

were doing when you notice another object. Okay. So for those of you getting caught up in the floss, notice what your mind is not doing. Right. So for those of you that were able to stop thinking about the floss and do the practice versus those of you that caught up on the floss. So when you deviate your attention from the floss, you are telling your mind to let go of a particular thought and move to another thought. So you were both detaching from a thought. and picking up a new thought. You are directing your mind away from something towards something else. So the more you do that, you are literally training the mind to let go of one thing and go to something else.

Now, the first phase of this practice, we are going to need a second object to let go of the first. Okay? That's how we do it. So if I'm, the other way to think about it is let's say I've got two objects, right? and I'm going to say pick up the floss in order to pick up the floss my hand has to drop the other thing

right so I've got this and I'm going to say okay now pick up this thing so I have to drop the floss to pick this up your mind is the same way so when we have a thought loop we have anxiety what is it it's holding on and we're telling it stop thinking about this

and our mind is like no I don't want to let go don't want to let go don't want to let go pick this up okay I don't want to let go, right? So even if you all have a dog or a child

and you want them to let go of something, what do you do? You give them something else. Right? So when we rotate our attention between different things, we're training our mind to do something very important, which is to let go of a thought

so that we can pick up another one. The first phase of the practice is going to involve relying on a second object to let go of the first one. As you practice, that, so do this for like 10 minutes a week. Okay? And then this is the other thing. So as you start to do this practice, what's going to happen? You're going to start thinking six minutes in, you're going to be like,

okay, enough of this. I want to go do this now. This practice is boring. And if you do the practice properly, you're going to set that thought aside and pick up the floss. Ah, let me notice this. Let me notice this. Let me notice this. You can go for a walk if you want to. That could make things a little bit easier. and then your mind will say, but I don't want to do this practice anymore. I want to go do this. Let's stop meditating. Let's stop meditating. And just notice something else.

So let go of a particular thought in your mind and just move its attention elsewhere. That's phase one of the practice. Once you do this for about one week, 10 minutes a day, then the next thing to do is to notice just the letting go part. And don't even pick up another object. Because now that you've worked that muscle a little. little bit, you will just be able to let go. So now I want you to go for another walk on week number two. And then you will notice other things. And what I want you to do is don't pick up anything. Just stop noticing whatever it is that you see. So just detach yourself from whatever thought you have.

Just put down the thought. It doesn't matter what you see. Let your mind be empty. And your mind will pick something up again. That's totally fine. Right. But just say like if you see a tree, okay, I'm not going to look at that tree anymore. And you're just going to continue walking. Okay, I'm not going to look at that grass. I'm not going to look at this. I'm not going to look at this. I'm not going to look at this.

Okay. So now what you're doing is really zeroing in on the letting go because you no longer need the anchor of the second object. Okay. Phase three of the practice. Week number three. We're going to sit down and we are going to discard whatsoever comes into our mind.

So as I see, sit down, I'm going to have a thought. Let it go. I'm going to have a thought. Let it go. I'm hungry. Let it go. I can feel my hands. Let it go. For a second or two there, I'm not having a thought. And then I have the thought, oh, for a second or two, I didn't have a thought. I'm going to let that go. I can feel my hands. Let it go. I'm teaching meditation. Let it go. You can hear my voice. let it go. And soon your mind will be empty.

And the more that you practice, the better you will be at letting it go. Once you master this technique, when you do it for a year, two years, three years, then you will be able to control your mind because you're learning how to push things out of it. You're learning how to escape thought loops.

And then eventually, the right thought will come in. And now, since you have the control over what you let go, then you let it sit. Right? And then over time, the right thought will come in and again and again and again, because your mind will learn. Because what does the mind love? The mind loves doing something.

It doesn't like being empty, right? Nature abhors a vacuum. So over time, you will start to focus on studying because when you start thinking about league or some other game, you've practiced letting it go. So be it. It's there. Let it go. Let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go.

It's this simple. How to control which thoughts exist within your mind. How to control which thoughts sit in your mind. So people ask me, how do you focus your mind? You don't focus your mind. You practice letting go thoughts. And then once you have the power to let go of thoughts, then you have the power to let thoughts stay.

Once you have the power to let thoughts stay, your mind will move in the direction that you tell it to. We're going to focus on physics, but I want to let it go. But I want to let it go. Physics, okay, go ahead. That's simple. Right? So Hatcher is saying, it's working.

Yeah, it's that easy. Takes practice, but it's that easy. It just involves understanding like literally where thoughts come from. Right? And when someone's saying just, yeah, this is one of the few cases where, remember, So what makes this technique difficult to do in your day-to-day life is that the strength of your mental muscles cannot let particular thoughts go, right? So if I have anxiety, I can't let it go. That's why if we want to swim across the ocean, we don't start by jumping into the ocean.

We start in the kitty pool. So what is the kitty pool? Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. right? So start by exercising the muscles of your mind in low priority situations that have no attachments

where you can literally practice the movement of abandoning a thought in favor of another one. And then as time goes on as you get stronger, you can learn how to abandon different thoughts. Right? So practice with a piece of food where now you're at a restaurant and you want to order this thing. Let it go. consequence. Leave one French fry uneaten. Share one French fry with someone else. You know, get water instead of soda. There are all kinds of little things that you can gradually build up your capacity for letting go. Questions. And who are we going to raid? So for the person who's saying no to water instead of soda, so don't start there, right? There's going to be something else you can do.

Mustard instead of ketchup. Who knows? Right? Don't get bacon on your burger. Like, whatever. Figure out whatever it is. If it's too much to ask, we're not going to worry about that. Do whatsoever you can.