Pop the Bubbles of Your Thoughts
“May I meet this moment fully. May I meet it as a friend."
-Sylvia Boorstein
Hello, Everyone!
I hope that you’re settling into the rhythm of autumn with kindness and ease. Perhaps, much like trees losing their leaves, you’re also discovering the spaciousness that often comes with letting go.
Just as trees release what’s no longer needed, we, too, can watch our thoughts come and go and release those that do not serve us. Yet, our busy minds tend to cling and not readily shift to what’s ready to fall away. Sometimes we do this out of habit. Sometimes we do this because we’re uncomfortable with the unpredictability of not knowing what will come next.
Each day, thousands of thoughts move through our minds. Some are fleeting; others repeat themselves, looping through familiar grooves shaped by our moods, families, culture, and conditioning. Many of these thoughts go unnoticed, running quietly in the background like an old program still influencing the system. Others feel so convincing that we don’t think to question them. We assume they must be true because they feel familiar.
Jon Kabat-Zinn once described thoughts as bubbles rising in a pot of boiling water. They appear, expand, shimmer for a moment, and then burst—one after another, endlessly and effortlessly. Using this metaphor, Jon invites us to not only observe this natural process, but to participate in it with awareness. When we notice a thought beginning to swell—gaining energy and drawing us away from the present moment—we can meet it with attention and awareness and pop it. In that instant, the thought loses its hold. We return to what is actually here—the breath moving through the body, the sensations of this moment, the clarity beneath the mind’s activity. Awareness itself becomes the gesture that frees us from the thought.
However, when we believe our thoughts—which humans are quite good at doing—we hold onto them or chase them. Sometimes we refuse to let them go despite knowing that they are causing us distress. And, we most often forget that our thoughts were only ever bubbles to begin with.
Mindfulness invites us into a different relationship with these passing bubbles of thought and helps us come to our senses—literally and figuratively. Through the body, breath, and the senses, we begin to notice when a thought has taken hold. We can pause long enough to ask: Is this thought real, or is it just a bubble rising in the mind?. Mindfulness also gives us a way of meeting our thoughts gently, as we would a friend. As the Buddhist teacher Sylvia Boorstein so beautifully reminds us, “May I meet this moment fully. May I meet it as a friend.”
These words invite us into a compassionate relationship with our own minds. They remind us that mindfulness is not about silencing thoughts or creating a perfectly calm mind. Rather, it helps us slow down so that we might see with more clarity and relate to what is arising in the present moment with kindness.
With mindfulness, we learn to approach rather than avoid. We meet difficult thoughts or emotions with curiosity, seeing them as events rather than fixed truths. And, even painful patterns can become teachers when met with awareness and care.
This is how we begin to pop the bubbles.
The Practice
Pop the Thought Bubbles
This month, I invite you to explore using skills that we learn through Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). This short practice helps us step out of autopilot and identity thoughts as passing mental events rather than as facts. As we pause and notice the movements of our minds, we create the awareness, space, and freedom to meet them with curiosity instead of judgement and begin relating to them with greater kindness and ease.
Identify a Thought Pattern. Choose one recurring thought or storyline that tends to bring tension, worry, or self-criticism. The goal isn’t to get rid of it, but to bring awareness to how it operates. As well as to question if it continues to benefit you, and, if so, in what ways.
Recognize It as a Mental Event. When the thought appears, pause. Notice its arrival the same way you might notice a sound or a sensation. If you care to, see if you can step to the side, reminding yourself that thoughts are created in the mind, based on our perceptions and conditioning. You might want to observe the kind of thought that has arisen. Is it a worry thought? Self-doubt? Critique? Planning for the future? Regret? You might even notice if it’s a thought that is very familiar to you. Bringing awareness to what’s happening helps you step out of automatic pilot.
Turn Toward It with Curiosity and Kindness. Instead of judging or believing the thought, get curious. Ask: Is this true? Is it helpful? What mood or body state is it connected to right now? Offer compassion for the part of you that believes the thought.
Allow It to Pop and Dissolve. Notice what happens when you stop feeding the thought your attention. Often, like a bubble in boiling water, it expands and then dissolves on its own. You might discover that the mind settles naturally, like water after the bubbles fade. Rest for a few breaths in the awareness that remains—steady, open, and kind.
This short practice, which you can turn to over and over again, helps to strengthen our ability to see thoughts as thoughts—transient mental events rather than facts—and to meet each moment with greater clarity. You may even find yourself meeting this thought, this moment, and yourself, as Boorstein says, as a friend.
I want to express my deepest appreciation and love to each of you.
Thank you for your presence—I’m so happy that you are here!
May you be filled with warmth and kindness.
May you be happy, healthy and safe.
May your heart know peace.
Wishing you presence, softness and clarity as this season continues to unfold.
With warmth,
Karen
NEW MONTLY MBCT & MINDFULNESS MEDITATION GROUP!
This group, geared toward those who have completed the the 8-week MBCT course, as well as anyone interested in deepening their mindfulness/meditation practices, especially to help with with low mood, stress or worry, will be offered once a month. Our 75-minute session will include a dharma talk, a 30-minute guided meditation and a group discussion on a mindfulness topic that is relevant to our modern lives.
Please join us if you're interested!
The schedule through the end of the year will be as follows:
Tuesday November 6 from 7 - 8:15 pm EST
Thursday December 4 from 7 - 8:15 pm EST
You can find more details and register for the group on my Mindfulness Meditations Sessions webpage. Also, please feel free to reach out to me directly with questions at: karen@drkarenwalant.com.
If you know of anyone interested in deepening their mindfulness and meditation practices, please forward this email along and invite them to join as well! All are welcome and can sign up for the newsletter on my website.
Dr. Karen Walant has been a practicing psychotherapist for almost three decades and holds a MSW and PhD in Clinical Social Work from New York University. Karen supervises other clinicians in private practice and has given lectures around the country on issues related to attachment, mindfulness, meditation, addiction and recovery, deepening the therapeutic relationship, parenting with kindness, and fostering compassionate relationships. She is the author of Creating the Capacity for Attachment: Treating Addictions and the Alienated Self. A long-time meditator and teacher, Karen is a 2021 graduate of the 2-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program (taught by meditation experts Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield), is certified as a Mindfulness Meditation Mentor, and is certified as a Level I Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Teacher through Brown University, and completed her Certificate in Mindfulness and Psychotherapy from the Institute for Mindfulness and Psychotherapy in 2022.