In this lesson, I’m going to ask you to practice this for a full week before continuing on and it’s a very simple mental exercise and it may sound a little bit silly to begin with but trust me if you put in the time, it can be very rewarding. I want you to find within your day a place to sit quietly and uninterrupted for 5 to 10 minutes. It can be at home or at work. The location really doesn’t matter so long as you feel comfortable and for that time there will be no interruptions including your phone. The position you sit in whether you’re in a chair, on the floor cross-legged or even laying down does not matter, the important part is that you and your body are comfortable. Next, I’m going to ask you to ask yourself inside your head “I wonder what I’m going to think of next?” Then without forcing it, quietly wait until something pops into your mind. Then I want you to acknowledge the thought that is there and then immediately release it, there is no work to be done, no matter what pops up within this time! Once you have released the thought, you’re going to repeat the original question “I wonder what I’m going to think of next?” Then, again, sit quietly until something pops up into your mind.

This now obviously begs the question of “how do you exactly let something go?” In the beginning, you might find yourself chasing the fantasy for a while before you realize that you’re obsessing about a thought. Now I can give you lots of tips and tricks in order to do this, but the real practice is in seeing that it’s happening, so let’s not worry about tips on how to let go of the thought process, let us practice instead seeing that we’re lost within the fantasy. Once you catch yourself chasing that fantasy, I want you to interrupt yourself with that same sentence. “I wonder what I’m going to think of next,” and if your mind drifts back to that same thought the moment you catch yourself, I want you to interrupt yourself again. Please understand that this is a practicable skill and it’s going to take some time and patience in order to hone this in for yourself but as you do, that thought won’t need to be obsessed over when it’s being acknowledged and intentionally let go, so go easy on yourself with this and realize it’s not going to be perfect the first time, the second time, or the third time you practice it. Your focus should be on seeing that you’re obsessing or fantasizing rather than acknowledging the thought.

 You’re going to continue to repeat this cycle for the full 5 to 10 minutes that you have allocated to this. My suggestion is that you start with 5 minutes and when you feel comfortable increase it slowly until you can get all the way to sitting quietly for 10 minutes. It’s not as easy as you might think but I would like you to do this every day for one full week. Personally speaking, I would like you to continue on this exercise every day for the rest of your life however for the purposes of this course, one week will suffice.