Our thoughts accompany us from the moment we wake until we fall asleep. Some are helpful. Others are habitual. Many pass through unnoticed, shaping how we feel, what we believe, and the choices we make.
The Buddha taught that our experience of the world comes through our senses. While most of us recognize sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, what often surprises people is that he also included the mind as a sense organ. In Buddhist psychology, thoughts are understood as another form of sensory experience. Like our other senses, they arise, linger for a time, and eventually pass away—if we let them.
Since the beginning of 2026, we've been exploring what happens when we slow down by just ten percent. Together, we've practiced paying closer attention to sound, sight, touch, smell, and taste. Each of these senses offers a doorway into the present moment, inviting us to step out of the constant momentum of our lives and into a deeper awareness of what is happening right here, right now.
This month, we turn our attention inward to explore our relationship with thoughts.
At first, this may seem like an unusual way of thinking about the mind because most of us don't experience thoughts as something we're observing. Unlike the sound of a bird or the scent of fresh coffee, thoughts don't feel fleeting. We identify with them, believe them, and, without awareness, they shape our emotions, decisions, and the stories we tell ourselves.
However, when we slow down—even by just ten percent—we create an opportunity to notice our relationship with thoughts rather than immediately becoming swept up in them. Even a slight shift in pace creates space to pause. And, within that pause lies the freedom to choose how we respond.
Mindfulness Isn't About Having No Thoughts
One of the biggest misconceptions about mindfulness is that the goal of meditation is to stop thinking, but thoughts are part of being human. The practice isn't to eliminate thoughts. It's to become aware of them.
This is one of the reasons I love Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). At its heart, MBCT helps us recognize our thoughts without automatically becoming caught in them. Over time, and with practice, we begin to relate to our thoughts differently.
Perhaps you recognize some of these familiar thoughts:
I'm not good enough.
I don't know enough.
Everybody else knows more than I do.
Or perhaps yours sound more like this:
I'm anxious.
I'm going to fail.
I'll never figure this out.
Whatever form they take, we often experience these thoughts as reality rather than recognizing them as passing mental events, or as just an occurrence of a thought. Without realizing it, our thoughts begin to shape the relationship we have with ourselves and the choices we make
Mindfulness offers us a different way.
Rather than asking whether a thought is true or false, we begin by noticing that it is there. Instead of saying, “I am anxious,” we recognize that an anxious thought has arisen. Instead of concluding, “this is just who I am,” we become curious about what is happening in this moment.
In MBCT, this is called decentering. Rather than becoming immersed in every thought that passes through the mind, we learn to step back and observe it with curiosity and kindness. We begin to see thoughts for what they are: passing mental events that don't always require belief or an immediate reaction.
This doesn't mean that our thoughts aren't important. Some carry valuable information. Others alert us to something that genuinely needs our attention. The practice isn't to dismiss our thinking or replace it with positive thoughts. It is to become aware enough to recognize the difference between thoughts that are helpful in this moment and those that are familiar habits of mind.
Slowing Down: A Different Relationship with Thoughts
One of the gifts of slowing down is that it creates space to notice what is happening before we automatically react.
Most of the time, a thought and our response happen so quickly that they feel like the same event. We have a thought, believe it, and act on it almost instantly.
Yet, when we intentionally slow down, something remarkable begins to happen.
A pause appears.
That pause creates space for awareness, and within awareness is choice.
We may notice that a thought we've believed a hundred times before is simply doing what thoughts do. It has arisen because of our mood, our history, or something that happened during the day. While it may ask for our attention, it does not require our agreement.
Over time, we begin to realize that we don't have to believe every thought we have. We can acknowledge a thought without following it. That simple shift changes our relationship with thoughts and, ultimately, the way we experience ourselves and move through the world.
Working with the Five Hindrances
If you’ve been receiving my newsletter for a while (please join here if you’d like!), you may remember the series we did on The Five Hindrances, a core Buddhist teaching. The hindrances describe the common mental patterns that keep us entangled in suffering and disconnected from the present moment.
The Buddha observed that the human mind naturally gravitates toward desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt. Although these hindrances can feel deeply personal, they are universal experiences that have been part of the human condition for thousands of years.
What often keeps them alive are the stories we tell ourselves.
The mind imagines that happiness lies somewhere else. It replays old hurts, predicts worst-case scenarios, questions our abilities, or convinces us that we should wait until conditions are different before taking the next step. When we're unaware of these thought patterns, it's easy to mistake them for reality and find ourselves caught in the same habitual ways of thinking and responding.
As our awareness grows, so does our ability to recognize the hindrances as they arise. Instead of automatically believing every thought, we can pause with curiosity and compassion. We begin to see that these mental habits are not who we are. We begin to recognize that our thoughts are simply patterns of mind that have arisen, and, like every other experience, they will pass.
If you'd like to explore the Five Hindrances more deeply, I highly recommend Joseph Goldstein's talk, States of Enlightenment: Working with the Hindrances. It offers a thoughtful and compassionate exploration of these universal patterns and practical guidance for working with them in everyday life. You can also revisit the newsletters from the Hindrance series, which are posted in my blog. They begin in June of 2024 with The Five Hinderances: How to Skillfully Work with Difficult Energies; Part 1 of 6.
From Thinking to Embodying
One of the most meaningful shifts that can happen through mindfulness is moving from narrating our experience to actually living it.
So much of our day is spent inside the stories our minds create. We interpret, analyze, judge, remember, and anticipate. While thinking is a natural and important part of being human, there is a profound difference between thinking about our lives and fully experiencing them.
As we slow down and become more aware of our thoughts, we also become more aware of our bodies. We begin to notice our breath, the sensations beneath our feet, the sounds around us, and the subtle ways our emotions are expressed physically. Rather than living almost exclusively in our minds, we become more fully embodied in the present moment.
I often find that when I'm truly present in my body, I'm less caught up in my thoughts. They are still there, but they no longer dominate my experience. Awareness naturally returns me to what is happening here and now.
Your Relationship with Thoughts: An Invitation to Practice
I invite you to become curious about your relationship with thoughts. Notice which thoughts you immediately believe and which ones move into the background. Notice how your body feels when a familiar thought takes hold, and what happens when you pause before responding.
You don't need to stop your thoughts or determine whether they are right or wrong. Simply notice them with the same curiosity you've practiced with sound, sight, touch, smell, and taste. Over time, you may discover that your thoughts have less power to pull you away from the present moment and that you have more freedom to choose how you respond.
As always, there is no need to rush. Let this be your practice for the coming month. Slow down by just ten percent, observe your thoughts with kindness and curiosity, and notice what begins to change.
With love,
Karen
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