Three Things I Say to My Busy Mind in Meditation

If your mind gets busy during meditation, you’re not doing it wrong — you’re doing it right. Meditation isn’t about making the mind silent on command. It’s about creating space for all that arises, and learning how to meet it with kindness, breath, and presence.

At Onward Light’s online meditation classes, we guide you into practices that don’t demand perfection. You don’t have to “clear your mind” or sit in stillness for hours. You just have to show up and begin. Over the years, I’ve found a few gentle phrases that help me return to myself when my mind gets loud. These aren’t techniques to suppress thought — they’re invitations to soften and stay close to awareness.

Here are three things I say to my busy mind in meditation:

1. “Let the judgments and opinions of the mind be judgments and opinions of the mind. And you exist beyond that.” – Ram Dass
This teaching is central to our practice. Your thoughts are not the enemy — they’re part of the human experience. In our gentle guided meditation sessions, we begin to shift from identifying with every thought, to noticing thoughts with compassion. You are the one witnessing the mind, not the mind itself. Over time, that shift changes everything.

2. “Come back, my dear.”
This phrase is a soft reminder — not a command. I use it like I’m calling my sweet dog gently back to the path in the woods. When your attention drifts, as it always will, we simply return. This is the rhythm of our online mindfulness meditation classes: noticing, returning, and settling again into the breath. Meditation isn’t about staying focused — it’s about how gently you come back.

3. “I hear you.”
Sometimes the thoughts that arise need care, not dismissal. In our online sessions, we create a space where even difficult emotions can be held with tenderness. When a feeling or memory arises that wants attention, I pause, stay with it, and flood it with compassion. I like to imagine that compassion as a golden light. You might visualize warmth, water, or color — whatever helps you feel steady. This is what trauma-informed meditation can offer: a place where your inner experience is met, not avoided.

Online meditation isn’t about escaping your thoughts — it’s about learning to be with them, lovingly.
Whether you’re completely new to meditation or returning after a long time away, there’s space for you here. You don’t have to fix anything or get it right. You just have to begin. Again and again, you come back — and that’s the practice.

I’ll be here to guide you, one breath at a time.

With care and love,
Serena