The Gap Between Your Thoughts

Perhaps you’ve never thought about having a gap between your thoughts and maybe cannot imagine it right now. After all, our thoughts tumble one right after the other, oftentimes overlapping. I’ve heard we can entertain hundreds of thoughts per minute but only about 5 or 6 ever reach our mind to register as a thought. So how could there possibly be any gap between thoughts?

There is always a gap, or space between every thought just as there is a gap between every step into the next step that you take. You never think about it most likely; you just do it without realizing there is a gap.

Think about a trapeze artist. Everyone watches in awe as the performer lets go of one bar as he/she flies through the air, grabbing for the bar swinging towards him. But think about it – there was a momentary, split second gap between the release of one bar and the grabbing of another. A lot can happen during that split second. The performer can actually grab hold of the bar swinging towards him and wow his audience, or completely miss the bar and experience a catastrophic result. The same is true in our lives – we can experience a wonderful success or experience a catastrophe through our gaps.

In the gap is your realness, the space in which for that moment there is silence. This is where you can quiet your mind and meditate. You’ve probably heard that it’s important to meditate every day, but if you’re like many individuals, you just can’t seem to squeeze it into your busy schedule. Or perhaps you are like some individuals who find they cannot quiet their mind chatter so simply give up trying to meditate. Yet meditation is life’s most powerful tool!

So why is it so difficult to stay in the gap? Our minds have been conditioned to be active and continually moving from one thought to another. We have created the busy schedules for ourselves because we have been programmed that this is the norm and what is expected of us. But when we do this we never have a chance to discover who we really are or what our truths are, for it is in the silence that these things are revealed…in the gap. Nor can we calm our brains and our bodies if they are always in action mode.

Deepak Chopra has been an advocate of meditation for many years and teaches various forms of meditation in his centers and programs. Many other healers and teachers follow suit with meditation programs as well, and this is due to the realization of the good it does for anyone when they regularly meditate. Dr. Michael Lam promotes meditation as part of recovery for adrenal fatigue and Dr. Henry Emmons tells us that meditation is critical for calming and balancing the brain. In my own life, I was a procrastinator about taking the time to meditate, but every time I made the time for even 5 or 10 minutes of meditating, I felt so much lighter and uplifted, and my body was calmer.

Meditation really has no rules. It simply means sitting quietly for a period of time without thoughts or movements. Many assume the lotus pose, but as soon as you sit down your mind doesn’t stop running thoughts through. Your goal is to acknowledge the thoughts but not to put any feelings to them…just let them be and slip right on through your mind.

Here are some tips that were sent to me when I participated in Deepak Chopra’s 21-day Meditation Challenge a few months ago. They were tremendously helpful to me and I hope they will be beneficial to you as well.

1- Have no expectations. Sometimes the mind is too active to settle down. Sometimes it settles down immediately. Sometimes it goes quiet but you may not notice. Anything can happen because the goal is not to control the session.

2- Be easy with yourself. Meditation isn’t about getting it right or wrong. Surrendering to whatever happens is also an indication that you are on the right track. It’s about letting your mind find its true nature.

3- Really be there. If your attention is somewhere else, thinking about your next appointment,errand or meal, gently shift your attention back to the “So Hum (I AM)” mantra. Focusing on your mantra will help lead you back to the gap between thought.

Using the So-Hum mantra was a big help to me. As you sit quietly, taking slow, deep breaths in through your nose and then quietly exhaling through your nose, you simply think in your mind “So” as you inhale and “Hum” as you exhale. If you find your mind wandering, simply focus back on your breathing and the mantra. You may have to do this a lot in the beginning, but over time you will get the hang of this and be able to stay in the gap more readily.

The wonderful part of the gap (silence) is that it is only pure love. We want to operate our lives from love but often find ourselves operating from the fear of the world. In the space of love is where we know our truths and can create the desires of our heart. It is here that you can shift your beliefs, and inner silence is the place where you can heal. In her book Embraced by the Light, Betty Eadie, who experienced a near death experience and whose spirit traveled through death to the other side and back, said she discovered this on the other side: “Above all, I was shown that love is supreme. I saw that truly without love we are nothing. We are here to help one another, to care for one another, to understand, forgive and serve one another, and we are here to have love for every person born on earth.”

Sometimes while sitting quietly some old unpleasant experiences (stories) may surface. This is a great time to notice an experience and feel the negative feelings connected to it, but recognize it serves no purpose in your life and let it go. You can release the weight from around your neck and be free from it in this space of love.

Another benefit of daily meditation is that it has been proven to provide deeper levels of intuition and creativity . If you want to wake up your intuition and connect with the realm of spirit, or revive your stagnant creativity , this is a way to open up the channels within you. Additionally, it provides relief from stress, more restful sleep, more inner calm, and many health benefits. It has been noted that a deep meditation can literally revive the body just as sleep can!

So why wouldn’t you want to make use of this amazing gift of the gap between thoughts, given all the benefits it can provide in your life? Why not try it for just five minutes to start? The key is to simply begin, and once you get the momentum rolling, I believe you’ll see the benefits in your life and won’t want to live a day without meditating. Remember, there are no rules and there is no time-frame requirement…that is your choice. But even ten minutes per day can dramatically change your life for the better.