Month: November 2024

Sitting at the Water Hole

Photo by ActionVance on Unsplash

I sit at the water hole and let my thoughts come to me.

Sometimes, I feel like my thoughts are chasing me and they keep finding me. Gayathri Narayanan, my meditation teacher, encouraged us to ‘sit at the water hole’ and wait for our thoughts to come to us. She said that her teacher, Gil Fronsdal, talked about it in terms of being a wildlife photographer. You could either follow the footprints and chase the wildlife around their territory or you could simply sit at the water hole knowing all animals will eventually need to drink. The first helpful step for me is to stop chasing my thoughts and stop letting them chase me. I sit at the water hole and let them come to me.

As my thoughts come to me, I label them. Is it useful? Is it pleasant? Unpleasant? Neutral? These questions have been helpful to me as I navigate times in my life that consume my thoughts.