“Mind your mind.”
– Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
My picky eaters can’t stand the smell when I cook fish for myself. I thought that my making it when they weren’t home would help, but they insisted that the kitchen still smelled “fishy” when they walked in hours later. However, they didn’t notice it if I simultaneously burned a vanilla candle or baked apples—edging out the fish odor with something else.
For years, outside of writing and working, I rarely sat still without external input—reading, watching, scrolling—and thus found meditation stressful. Although I tried to relax and not think of anything, my mind focused on my to-do list and problems to solve. Minutes felt like hours.
Meditation is easier when I edge out those thoughts with other thoughts, like burning a candle or baking apples to mute the fish odor. I silently count five breaths in and five breaths out while envisioning light flowing in and out of my body for twenty minutes each morning. Boring, right? At first, yes. But the repetition calms me, something I’d experienced as a child when I recited prayers before bed or watched surfers catch wave after wave. The counting and imagery anchor me, giving my mind something to do, keeping me connected to my body and focused on the moment, reducing the number of times my mind drifts off to the past or anticipates the future. Now my twenty-minute meditation window flies by, providing me with a heightened sense of calm and alertness with which to tackle that to-do list and solve those problems.
For years, outside of writing and working, I rarely sat still without external input—reading, watching, scrolling—and thus found meditation stressful. Although I tried to relax and not think of anything, my mind focused on my to-do list and problems to solve. Minutes felt like hours.
Meditation is easier when I edge out those thoughts with other thoughts, like burning a candle or baking apples to mute the fish odor. I silently count five breaths in and five breaths out while envisioning light flowing in and out of my body for twenty minutes each morning. Boring, right? At first, yes. But the repetition calms me, something I’d experienced as a child when I recited prayers before bed or watched surfers catch wave after wave. The counting and imagery anchor me, giving my mind something to do, keeping me connected to my body and focused on the moment, reducing the number of times my mind drifts off to the past or anticipates the future. Now my twenty-minute meditation window flies by, providing me with a heightened sense of calm and alertness with which to tackle that to-do list and solve those problems.
What positive practice can help edge out the negative? How can you incorporate it into your life this week?
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