Thoughts in the mind have a lot in common with ripples through water. Here is an easy exercise anyone can do to observe these ripples, it will show you how busy your mind is. Western life, work and education have not educated us about the connection between, stress, health, consciousness and a busy mind. With an awakened awareness, we need tools to settle the mind and simply be present. Mindfulness offers an oasis of calm even when the world around us appears chaotic.

A simple exercise, getting to know your own mind

Step 1. Listen and recite internally any mantra for a few minutes and observe the number of different thoughts and subjects your mind throws at you. You can even count the amount of thoughts that arise. You can use one of my favourite mantras if you would like to work with an example.

Note* The Om Benza Satto Hung mantra is said to help with past karma. Mantras and their effects is well beyond the scope of this short post. I will write more on this subject in the future.

Step 2

By this point, you should have a better idea of how many thoughts are in your head. Do you see how busy your mind is? It will be even busier if you have just consumed a stimulant, like a morning cup of coffee! You can try doing this exercise later when you haven’t had a stimulant if you prefer.

The next step is to make a list of all those thoughts you just observed.

While trying to meditate or recite mantras different thoughts are created to disturb us. By writing down these different thoughts, it creates space. These thoughts will come from different categories:

Work issues/priorities

Loved ones/emotional turmoil

Shopping needs or daily activities

Food and drink

Distractions around us

Dis-comfort in our body

Other outstanding issues and worries

By writing the thoughts down we won’t need to remember, we can come back to our list later and deal with things as needed. It also gives us a chance to observe how busy our heads are with “stuff”. This “stuff” is a potential barrier to inner peace. This process also shows us how busy the mind is, no wonder we feel stressed!

For some reason, the act of writing it down seems to satisfy your mind that it won’t be forgotten, so your mind doesn’t bother to hang on to it anymore.” Source: The incomplete guide to yoga – Charlotte Carnegie 

Step 3

Go back to your mantra of choice, and recite it internally as you listen. Can you get in time with the words more easily now? Are fewer thoughts bubbling up to disturb you? If you can listen for even a minute or two at a time, without thinking, you will start to reach a deeper state of awareness and inner peace. This exercise is a perfect companion to the meditation I created; you can listen to it here!!!!!

Feedback on this article and the technique is appreciated! Your experience might help others reading this post in the future.