Fear. False Evidence Appearing Real. The runaway mind is both tremendously insecure and wildly inventive. It’s like the man who enters a dark room, steps on a coil of rope and immediately assumes he’s standing on a snake. The home of fear is the head. Fear seeks to legitimize itself in partialized truth, in truthiness, in something that could be true, might be true. But the truth is never partial. And fear is always a lie.
No, we cannot stop thinking. Yes, we can stop identifying ourselves with our thoughts. The process of dis-identification begins when we check ourselves for gullibility, when we stop believing every thought we think.
The world is more noise-polluted than it’s ever been. Likewise, the racket in our heads. The average person thinks 60,000 thoughts per day. These thoughts are mostly negative. They are also, by one estimate, 97 percent repetitive. This is the cause of tremendous suffering; And all of it is completely unnecessary. The mind wants you to feel badly about this. Don’t. No one does this on purpose. Clarity is charity.
The breath is our most important biological function. It is also our best ally in breaking the thought habit. We breathe 22,000 times per day. Most of these breaths are unconscious—that is, we don’t notice them. A conscious breath, a breath we notice, stops the mind. Which is amazing! The mind cannot do two things at once. It can either think like crazy or notice that the body is breathing. Yes, you’re right. Minus the treats, it’s like training a dog.
Surrender to the fact that you cannot stop thinking, that there is no ‘off’ button, and that any effort you make will only exacerbate the problem. There is no situation that cannot be improved on by allowing it, by relaxing into it. That’s why children learn so quickly—they’re not trying to learn. Take one easy breath. Now take three more. There we go.
Men's Work 