Let thoughts pass like clouds
You are not trying to stop thinking — that's impossible, and not the point. You're learning to watch instead of being carried.
- Settle into a steady, comfortable seat. Take a few slow breaths to arrive.
- Rest attention lightly on the breath as your home base.
- When a thought appears, notice it — "ah, thinking" — without judging it as good or bad.
- Picture each thought as a cloud drifting across the sky, or a leaf floating down a stream. You are the sky, or the bank — not the cloud, not the leaf.
- Let the thought pass on its own. Resist the urge to argue with it, finish it, or follow it.
- Each time you realise you've been swept into a storyline, gently return to watching, and to the breath.
- To close, let the watching soften, rest quietly for a moment, then open your eyes.