Episode Details

Can an overthinker actually meditate? I could not for twenty years, because I thought meditation meant no thinking. It does not, and that changed everything.

At 40 I hit rock bottom, could not sleep, and every book I picked up told me to meditate. I was diagnosed dyslexic so I had stopped bothering with books, then started again because reading was the only thing getting me to sleep. Your mind is built to think the way your heart is built to pump. Meditation is not the absence of thought. It is the gap between the text arriving and your reply.

One thing to try: Notice one gap today. Between somebody speaking and you answering. That is the whole practice.

In this episode

• (0:00) Why meditation comes up this early in the podcast
• (1:30) Is your mind one of the busy ones?
• (2:54) Rock bottom at 40, and not being able to sleep
• (4:30) Reading myself to sleep, having given up on books
• (5:54) Diagnosed dyslexic, so why bother reading at all
• (7:33) Every book said meditate, and I put every one down
• (10:02) Your heart pumps, your mind thinks. That is the job
• (13:17) The gap between the text arriving and your reply

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Thank you for listening.

Steven

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