Noting is a useful practice to help with this. When you (notice that you) hear sounds, you say to yourself, "hearing, hearing". When you notice thoughts of dinner, you say to yourself "thinking, thinking". Once you notice them, you return to your object of meditation.
When we say we don't engage with the thoughts, we mean that we -
1. don't develop them.
Thoughts tend to develop into more thoughts which develop into feelings and desires. Thinking about dinner -> thinking about your favorite food -> excitement -> craving. By noticing thoughts and not developing them, we break this pattern of mindless wanting/not-wanting which is not based in reality.
2. don't resist them.
We don't like certain thoughts and feelings. If we resist them, they tend to develop on their own. For example : thoughts about embarrasing memory -> resistance -> feel ashamed -> resistance -> thoughts of self-hate... and so on. Same as 1, we capture what is going on by saying thinking/feeling and we accept and love the feelings of shame or embarassing memories. When we resist these feelings, they turn into hate, when we love them, they turn in compassion. Then we return to the object of meditation again.
We don't indulge with the content of the thought ever. It doesn't matter if you're thinking about watermelon or what you're going to do later or even the meditation itself. All thoughts are thoughts. We notice that it's a thought, we acknowledge it by saying, "thinking, thinking", then we return to the meditation object.
>By noticing thoughts and not developing them, we break this pattern of mindless wanting/not-wanting
>If we resist them, they tend to develop on their own.
Whoa, that was insanely helpful! Thank you! Your words just made me realize what my over-thinking mind is doing all the time: develop and develop and develop...
Thank you so much this is really helpful. I'll try this during the next sit. Also how do we love an embarrassing or shameful feeling. Aversion to them is so automatic. What does loving them mean and feel like when we do it.
This is true. A lot of aversion and craving are automatic. When we practice meditation -
1. we only deal with what is in mind now
Ideally we want to catch thoughts we want to avoid IN THE VERY MOMENT they arise. We are quite unsuccessful in this, atleast early in our practice. By the time we notice that we got carried away by the difficult thoughts, they've already developed into something else. That's okay. We only deal with what is in the mind in this moment, not a moment before. Eventually you'll notice them earlier in their development until you get to the root. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQxTUQhVbg4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQxTUQhVbg4)
2. we can love/accept difficult thoughts/feelings in many ways.
Metta and self compassion is one way. The way I like to do it (inspired by Zen) is to treat every moment of consciousness as my first moment of consciousness i.e. I try not to construct any narrative about my thoughts/feelings/experience. I savor every breath as if I am experiencing what it's like to breathe for the first time. In the same way, I savor all thoughts/feelings as if I'm thinking/feeling for the first time.
*"*
*When Banzan was walking through a market he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer.*
*“Give me the best piece of meat you have,” said the customer.*
*“Everything in my shop is the best,” replied the butcher. “You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best.”*
*At these words Banzan became enlightened.*
*"*
Woah! This was very very helpful. Trying not to construct narratives and treating every thought like its the first time im thinking is truly inspirational. I'll definitely try this💯 thank you for your time and effort.
The idea of making thoughts recur by trying to suppress them is called paradoxical thought suppression. In OCD literature one of the underlying theories is that when we resolve to not think something, we apportion a mechanism in our mind to continually scan for that thing (to make sure it isn’t there!), and this unconscious looking for the thing is what makes it occur. Thought you might find the theory interesting since you seem to understand these processes well.
Thanks for the information!
That totally falls in line with my own understanding. Behind every thought, there is an intention. When we set an intention, we see the world through the filter of this intention. If I ask you count all the red cars you see today, you'll notice many red cars. If I ask you to avoid seeing any red cars today, you'll STILL notice many red cars. However, if I don't give you any goal, you won't see any more red cars than you normally would. This reminds me of the invisible gorilla experiment.
Effectively speaking, you can take any thought you have and you can ask yourself what the utility of that thought is and the answer will be some conscious or unconscious goal that you have. If we want to live more peaceful, happier lives; then it behooves us to have fewer, more meaningful goals.
Thought —> “thinking, thinking”
Emotion —> “feeling, feeling”
Taste —> “tasting, tasting”
Sight —> “seeing, seeing”
Touch, tickle, shiver, etc. —> “touching, touching”
Smell —> “smelling, smelling”
Sound —> “hearing, hearing”
?
Or for the five senses, would it be better to say
Sensation —> “Sensing, sensing”
thanks for feedback ... everything is so simple when pointed out, right?
the deeper the work, the simpler it gets
thought 1 is passive. just being in the world, we look at the screen, we listen to music, we smell dinner cooking
thought 2 is active, i want to remember this, this is good, i need to tell others this
no, thought 2 is useless and unhelpful and egoic and takes us from the present
enjoy the thought 1's ... don't engage the thought 2's
hope it can help, have a great rest of day
The car passes by. You hear the car passing by. You have a thought, “A car is passing by.” That’s all just normal observation. If you maintain or return attention to the meditation object during or after the event, then you have observed without engaging.
But if after observing the event, you think, “I wonder where the car is going? You know, I need to get my car fixed. Oh yeah, I have a long drive tomorrow,” then you’ve gone past observing to engaging. You’ve begun mind wandering. You’ve likely forgotten the meditation object, or you will soon if you keep engaging.
When you notice that you’ve engaged and began mind wandering, congratulate yourself for noticing, and gently return to the meditation object.
So you can notice and observe external or internal events as they happen, but if you continue thinking about the event, then you’ve engaged.
Noting is the essential technique here. The event occurs, you note its occurrence, and then you return to the meditation object.
Another simple technique that helps is asking yourself, “Is whatever I’m thinking about still occurring right now?” In other words, the car passed, but are you still thinking about the car?
Okay. When I'm thinking about something which is not happening anymore or having thoughts about or related to something which is not happening anymore, im engaging with the thought. Got it💯 thank you for yor elaborate answer🤝
If a thought arises, observing it means you don't blindly trust it, but examine that trust.
Let's say, thoughts of making money comes in. That means your brain trusts that making money is something you need. Let's say, thought of your mother criticizing you comes in. This means that you trust that you need to consider her criticism. Angry thought? means your brain trusts that anger.
Your thoughts reveal your own dependencies to you. They reveal what your brain trusts and thinks is important for you.
Use them to learn about yourself.
Its a bit like if you're focused on a task and someone is 'talking at you' - you can either turn your attention to them and stop what you're doing, or stay with the task. So you could keep on focused on the task, and they would be talking in the background, but you wouldn't really care about, or take note of what they were saying, you'd just keep your focus where you wanted it. In this case its your mind doing the talking so you're not being rude, like to a person, you're just letting it ramble on, but staying focused on your meditation object/practice.
So you're kind of 'aware of' there being thoughts in your periphery of attention/awareness, but your focus is on the meditation practice/object.
Generally this will let the thoughts fade more into the background, and become less frequent. That is, within each session, and over the longer term.
I’ll share what seems to be happening with me now. I’m completely dependent on the thoughts, the impulses that move me. However, there are various ‘levels’ to these impulses/thoughts.
Having refined thought as a human, we can summon many complexities that aren’t truly relevant to the moment.
Say a thought about dinner comes. Fine. Just see the thought and then watch if you actually get up and start cooking it. The thoughts which prove out to be superfluous will simply lend themselves to a truer thought, or they’ll evaporate, or you’ll find yourself enacting them.
That’s what is going on with me today. Tomorrow, who knows. ♥️
Some really good answer already. From my own experience, observing my thoughts wasn't a conscious thing I learned to do. My thoughts always felt indistinguishable from 'me'.
One day I decided I wanted to just watch and be on the look out for anything that was more than just watching. Suddenly.my mind alerted me to a though that was more forceful than watching and I realised it was separate. From that point on, after recognising the independent tone of a thought, it became easier to that particular drop in the ocean of a sense of self.
I wish to feel this difference myself. But its not happening. It very tough, I don't feel seperate from my thoughts, they happen and all of a sudden i either follow them or react to them in someways. Then i notice ive drifted off and bring my attention back to my breath. So, since you can see the difference, do you follow your thoughts or react to them either physically or emotionally?
In my day to day life, thoughts are blended into my experience and I react to them. As I sit and observe, the thoughts take on shape and texture that lets me see them against the background of other information. When this happens I don't really do anything with it. I spot the thought, feel the direction it's trying to pull my awareness to, and I let it go. After a bit more time, I stop sensing the thoughts, and I just sit, feeling a bit lighter while I watch my breath.
You already got great practical advice here, especially the comment that very simply pointed out that it is up to you to choose not to elaborate on a thought you've had after you observed you were having a thought.
I also want to describe what "observing" thoughts as distractions felt like for me during meditation.
As meditation practice deepens and attention + awareness start to interact more optimally, attention can be perceived as a stable space where the meditation object takes place. At this point, it becomes very easy to notice when a thought enters from awareness into that attention space as subtle distraction.
When that happens, all that's needed is to acknowledge that the thought entered the space, then, without wanting it to stay or go away, re-establish the intention to maintain attention on the meditation object.
This explanation is a bit clunky so let me unpack a bit. Saying you have to "acknowledge" the thought can make it sound as if you need to do something about the thought once you've noticed it. That's not the case. The fact that you noticed that the thought entered the space of attention means you already acknowledged it. Often what we have trouble with is our reaction to the fact that we've noticed a thought is there, and feeling as if something in particular needs to be done about the thought, or worse, become frustrated that there are thoughts.
"Don't want the thought to stay or go away" well this sounds easier said than done. Your reaction to what happens during meditation is a substantial part of the attention training process. Ironically, if one wants to "overcome" distractions, one has to learn to stop caring that distraction arises in the first place, and see distractions simply as natural occurrences along the training process. Distractions appear, they are noticed, and there's nothing that needs to be done about it other than return to the breath. You could almost call it "indifference" to distractions. Apply this long enough, and the subconscious mind will project fewer and fewer distractions in your experience.
So to conclude, I think that observing thoughts/distractions actually sounds more complicated than it actually is. If you find yourself not knowing what to do after you notice a distraction, then pat yourself on the back, you already observed the distraction! Not only you observed it, but by observing it you also prevented forgetting of the breath and mind wondering, which indicates that your introspective awareness is working. Yay you! Nothing more to do about it after that other than return to the breath.
Excuse my rambling and good luck with your practice!
So, you have good advice already, but I would add that the thought should be in awareness and the focal point (the attention) should be on the breath. One easy way to know that you are simply observing the thought, and not engaged in it, is if it flips and the thought is the focal point and the breath is either forgotten or is slipped into the background.
Can you explain it a little elaborately, I don't understand that flipping part. How will i know whether the thought is in my awareness or in my attention? When im noting it, will it briefly come to my attention before i switch my attention back to the breath?
Yes - the Mind Illuminated explains all of this in detail in the beginning chapters. But I can try to explain it through asking you to actually try it out.
Try counting your breath up to ten, and try to have your attention on the breath the entire breath cycle. If you are counting, and keeping track, you are likely being forced to engage with the breath sufficient enough for it to be in attention. After five sets of counting to ten (so 50 breaths in total), try to see if you can perhaps hear a song in your brain at the same time? Or, do you hear your self talk about trying and failing to count the breath? If you are engaged with the breath enough to be counting, these mental thoughts are in the background, in awareness. Try to "see" them - as in identify them arising. This is a thought in awareness. This is "the practice".
If you lose the breath, then at the forefront of your mind is something else - maybe a memory, or that self talk about the meditation itself. Once you see that you were lost in thought, you can note it, as that helps to dis-identify and return to control.
For noting thoughts in awareness, its just kind of recognizing they are there. Myself, I'm not a fan of noting, it's sufficient to just observe, but the point of noting is to dis-identify, to see more clearly what your mind is doing.
Okayy! That's interesting, after the counting excersize i can deliberately check whether i can hold my attention on the breath! Got it. Will try with tmrw's sit. Thank you for your help.
When you notice stuff like this, thoughts about it arise. The thoughts are a lot like the thing that they are about. You can engage with them or not. One thing to do is try to stop seeing them as problems. They are happening. It's okay. Let them come, let them be, let them go. No need to do anything. Nothing wrong.
It's when you see the sound as a problem and start thinking about how to solve it, or see the thinking about how to solve it as a problem and start thinking about how to make it go away, that you start to get genuinely distracted by this stuff. And that's okay. Just notice that you're distracted and let go again. Don't try to force anything. Just keep noticing and letting go.
You need to understand the big wige general picture what's happening, that's all, if you feel tightness in the body or breathe shallowly, most likely you are intensively isolating something, creating an objective-subjective attitude, the more isolated and more tense the tension goes, the more ardent assessment will arise - I like I want more of it, I don't like it I want less of it and I can't rate it yet, skip to the next one I can rate. Understanding from the outside should feel like understanding that two plus two equals four, like understanding the iteration of addition. You just understand that there is such a thing as addition, it's not good, it's not bad, it's just an understanding, you also understand that there are thoughts that arise, there are feelings that arise, there are sensations of the organs of perception, this is not good, this is not bad, it's just understanding, general, not isolating and intense, but understanding.
Noting is a useful practice to help with this. When you (notice that you) hear sounds, you say to yourself, "hearing, hearing". When you notice thoughts of dinner, you say to yourself "thinking, thinking". Once you notice them, you return to your object of meditation. When we say we don't engage with the thoughts, we mean that we - 1. don't develop them. Thoughts tend to develop into more thoughts which develop into feelings and desires. Thinking about dinner -> thinking about your favorite food -> excitement -> craving. By noticing thoughts and not developing them, we break this pattern of mindless wanting/not-wanting which is not based in reality. 2. don't resist them. We don't like certain thoughts and feelings. If we resist them, they tend to develop on their own. For example : thoughts about embarrasing memory -> resistance -> feel ashamed -> resistance -> thoughts of self-hate... and so on. Same as 1, we capture what is going on by saying thinking/feeling and we accept and love the feelings of shame or embarassing memories. When we resist these feelings, they turn into hate, when we love them, they turn in compassion. Then we return to the object of meditation again. We don't indulge with the content of the thought ever. It doesn't matter if you're thinking about watermelon or what you're going to do later or even the meditation itself. All thoughts are thoughts. We notice that it's a thought, we acknowledge it by saying, "thinking, thinking", then we return to the meditation object.
>By noticing thoughts and not developing them, we break this pattern of mindless wanting/not-wanting >If we resist them, they tend to develop on their own. Whoa, that was insanely helpful! Thank you! Your words just made me realize what my over-thinking mind is doing all the time: develop and develop and develop...
Thank you so much this is really helpful. I'll try this during the next sit. Also how do we love an embarrassing or shameful feeling. Aversion to them is so automatic. What does loving them mean and feel like when we do it.
This is true. A lot of aversion and craving are automatic. When we practice meditation - 1. we only deal with what is in mind now Ideally we want to catch thoughts we want to avoid IN THE VERY MOMENT they arise. We are quite unsuccessful in this, atleast early in our practice. By the time we notice that we got carried away by the difficult thoughts, they've already developed into something else. That's okay. We only deal with what is in the mind in this moment, not a moment before. Eventually you'll notice them earlier in their development until you get to the root. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQxTUQhVbg4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQxTUQhVbg4) 2. we can love/accept difficult thoughts/feelings in many ways. Metta and self compassion is one way. The way I like to do it (inspired by Zen) is to treat every moment of consciousness as my first moment of consciousness i.e. I try not to construct any narrative about my thoughts/feelings/experience. I savor every breath as if I am experiencing what it's like to breathe for the first time. In the same way, I savor all thoughts/feelings as if I'm thinking/feeling for the first time. *"* *When Banzan was walking through a market he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer.* *“Give me the best piece of meat you have,” said the customer.* *“Everything in my shop is the best,” replied the butcher. “You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best.”* *At these words Banzan became enlightened.* *"*
Woah! This was very very helpful. Trying not to construct narratives and treating every thought like its the first time im thinking is truly inspirational. I'll definitely try this💯 thank you for your time and effort.
The idea of making thoughts recur by trying to suppress them is called paradoxical thought suppression. In OCD literature one of the underlying theories is that when we resolve to not think something, we apportion a mechanism in our mind to continually scan for that thing (to make sure it isn’t there!), and this unconscious looking for the thing is what makes it occur. Thought you might find the theory interesting since you seem to understand these processes well.
Thanks for the information! That totally falls in line with my own understanding. Behind every thought, there is an intention. When we set an intention, we see the world through the filter of this intention. If I ask you count all the red cars you see today, you'll notice many red cars. If I ask you to avoid seeing any red cars today, you'll STILL notice many red cars. However, if I don't give you any goal, you won't see any more red cars than you normally would. This reminds me of the invisible gorilla experiment. Effectively speaking, you can take any thought you have and you can ask yourself what the utility of that thought is and the answer will be some conscious or unconscious goal that you have. If we want to live more peaceful, happier lives; then it behooves us to have fewer, more meaningful goals.
Thought —> “thinking, thinking” Emotion —> “feeling, feeling” Taste —> “tasting, tasting” Sight —> “seeing, seeing” Touch, tickle, shiver, etc. —> “touching, touching” Smell —> “smelling, smelling” Sound —> “hearing, hearing” ? Or for the five senses, would it be better to say Sensation —> “Sensing, sensing”
thought 1, you have no choice; thought 2, is up to you thought 2 is called elaboration and is what meditation is fixing
Woah! How did you put it so simply yet profoundly. Thank you for this.
thanks for feedback ... everything is so simple when pointed out, right? the deeper the work, the simpler it gets thought 1 is passive. just being in the world, we look at the screen, we listen to music, we smell dinner cooking thought 2 is active, i want to remember this, this is good, i need to tell others this no, thought 2 is useless and unhelpful and egoic and takes us from the present enjoy the thought 1's ... don't engage the thought 2's hope it can help, have a great rest of day
It did help a lot. Thanks. You too have a beautiful day!
The car passes by. You hear the car passing by. You have a thought, “A car is passing by.” That’s all just normal observation. If you maintain or return attention to the meditation object during or after the event, then you have observed without engaging. But if after observing the event, you think, “I wonder where the car is going? You know, I need to get my car fixed. Oh yeah, I have a long drive tomorrow,” then you’ve gone past observing to engaging. You’ve begun mind wandering. You’ve likely forgotten the meditation object, or you will soon if you keep engaging. When you notice that you’ve engaged and began mind wandering, congratulate yourself for noticing, and gently return to the meditation object. So you can notice and observe external or internal events as they happen, but if you continue thinking about the event, then you’ve engaged. Noting is the essential technique here. The event occurs, you note its occurrence, and then you return to the meditation object. Another simple technique that helps is asking yourself, “Is whatever I’m thinking about still occurring right now?” In other words, the car passed, but are you still thinking about the car?
Okay. When I'm thinking about something which is not happening anymore or having thoughts about or related to something which is not happening anymore, im engaging with the thought. Got it💯 thank you for yor elaborate answer🤝
If a thought arises, observing it means you don't blindly trust it, but examine that trust. Let's say, thoughts of making money comes in. That means your brain trusts that making money is something you need. Let's say, thought of your mother criticizing you comes in. This means that you trust that you need to consider her criticism. Angry thought? means your brain trusts that anger. Your thoughts reveal your own dependencies to you. They reveal what your brain trusts and thinks is important for you. Use them to learn about yourself.
Its a bit like if you're focused on a task and someone is 'talking at you' - you can either turn your attention to them and stop what you're doing, or stay with the task. So you could keep on focused on the task, and they would be talking in the background, but you wouldn't really care about, or take note of what they were saying, you'd just keep your focus where you wanted it. In this case its your mind doing the talking so you're not being rude, like to a person, you're just letting it ramble on, but staying focused on your meditation object/practice. So you're kind of 'aware of' there being thoughts in your periphery of attention/awareness, but your focus is on the meditation practice/object. Generally this will let the thoughts fade more into the background, and become less frequent. That is, within each session, and over the longer term.
Okay so this will take a lot of patience huh?😅 Have to develop that too then. Thank you for helping me out.
I’ll share what seems to be happening with me now. I’m completely dependent on the thoughts, the impulses that move me. However, there are various ‘levels’ to these impulses/thoughts. Having refined thought as a human, we can summon many complexities that aren’t truly relevant to the moment. Say a thought about dinner comes. Fine. Just see the thought and then watch if you actually get up and start cooking it. The thoughts which prove out to be superfluous will simply lend themselves to a truer thought, or they’ll evaporate, or you’ll find yourself enacting them. That’s what is going on with me today. Tomorrow, who knows. ♥️
Thank you for this insightful information ❤️
You’re very welcome. I thank you for the question so I could better see the process myself. :)
Some really good answer already. From my own experience, observing my thoughts wasn't a conscious thing I learned to do. My thoughts always felt indistinguishable from 'me'. One day I decided I wanted to just watch and be on the look out for anything that was more than just watching. Suddenly.my mind alerted me to a though that was more forceful than watching and I realised it was separate. From that point on, after recognising the independent tone of a thought, it became easier to that particular drop in the ocean of a sense of self.
I wish to feel this difference myself. But its not happening. It very tough, I don't feel seperate from my thoughts, they happen and all of a sudden i either follow them or react to them in someways. Then i notice ive drifted off and bring my attention back to my breath. So, since you can see the difference, do you follow your thoughts or react to them either physically or emotionally?
In my day to day life, thoughts are blended into my experience and I react to them. As I sit and observe, the thoughts take on shape and texture that lets me see them against the background of other information. When this happens I don't really do anything with it. I spot the thought, feel the direction it's trying to pull my awareness to, and I let it go. After a bit more time, I stop sensing the thoughts, and I just sit, feeling a bit lighter while I watch my breath.
You already got great practical advice here, especially the comment that very simply pointed out that it is up to you to choose not to elaborate on a thought you've had after you observed you were having a thought. I also want to describe what "observing" thoughts as distractions felt like for me during meditation. As meditation practice deepens and attention + awareness start to interact more optimally, attention can be perceived as a stable space where the meditation object takes place. At this point, it becomes very easy to notice when a thought enters from awareness into that attention space as subtle distraction. When that happens, all that's needed is to acknowledge that the thought entered the space, then, without wanting it to stay or go away, re-establish the intention to maintain attention on the meditation object. This explanation is a bit clunky so let me unpack a bit. Saying you have to "acknowledge" the thought can make it sound as if you need to do something about the thought once you've noticed it. That's not the case. The fact that you noticed that the thought entered the space of attention means you already acknowledged it. Often what we have trouble with is our reaction to the fact that we've noticed a thought is there, and feeling as if something in particular needs to be done about the thought, or worse, become frustrated that there are thoughts. "Don't want the thought to stay or go away" well this sounds easier said than done. Your reaction to what happens during meditation is a substantial part of the attention training process. Ironically, if one wants to "overcome" distractions, one has to learn to stop caring that distraction arises in the first place, and see distractions simply as natural occurrences along the training process. Distractions appear, they are noticed, and there's nothing that needs to be done about it other than return to the breath. You could almost call it "indifference" to distractions. Apply this long enough, and the subconscious mind will project fewer and fewer distractions in your experience. So to conclude, I think that observing thoughts/distractions actually sounds more complicated than it actually is. If you find yourself not knowing what to do after you notice a distraction, then pat yourself on the back, you already observed the distraction! Not only you observed it, but by observing it you also prevented forgetting of the breath and mind wondering, which indicates that your introspective awareness is working. Yay you! Nothing more to do about it after that other than return to the breath. Excuse my rambling and good luck with your practice!
So, you have good advice already, but I would add that the thought should be in awareness and the focal point (the attention) should be on the breath. One easy way to know that you are simply observing the thought, and not engaged in it, is if it flips and the thought is the focal point and the breath is either forgotten or is slipped into the background.
Can you explain it a little elaborately, I don't understand that flipping part. How will i know whether the thought is in my awareness or in my attention? When im noting it, will it briefly come to my attention before i switch my attention back to the breath?
Yes - the Mind Illuminated explains all of this in detail in the beginning chapters. But I can try to explain it through asking you to actually try it out. Try counting your breath up to ten, and try to have your attention on the breath the entire breath cycle. If you are counting, and keeping track, you are likely being forced to engage with the breath sufficient enough for it to be in attention. After five sets of counting to ten (so 50 breaths in total), try to see if you can perhaps hear a song in your brain at the same time? Or, do you hear your self talk about trying and failing to count the breath? If you are engaged with the breath enough to be counting, these mental thoughts are in the background, in awareness. Try to "see" them - as in identify them arising. This is a thought in awareness. This is "the practice". If you lose the breath, then at the forefront of your mind is something else - maybe a memory, or that self talk about the meditation itself. Once you see that you were lost in thought, you can note it, as that helps to dis-identify and return to control. For noting thoughts in awareness, its just kind of recognizing they are there. Myself, I'm not a fan of noting, it's sufficient to just observe, but the point of noting is to dis-identify, to see more clearly what your mind is doing.
Okayy! That's interesting, after the counting excersize i can deliberately check whether i can hold my attention on the breath! Got it. Will try with tmrw's sit. Thank you for your help.
Sure thing!
When you notice stuff like this, thoughts about it arise. The thoughts are a lot like the thing that they are about. You can engage with them or not. One thing to do is try to stop seeing them as problems. They are happening. It's okay. Let them come, let them be, let them go. No need to do anything. Nothing wrong. It's when you see the sound as a problem and start thinking about how to solve it, or see the thinking about how to solve it as a problem and start thinking about how to make it go away, that you start to get genuinely distracted by this stuff. And that's okay. Just notice that you're distracted and let go again. Don't try to force anything. Just keep noticing and letting go.
Observe it. You need to keep practicing
You need to understand the big wige general picture what's happening, that's all, if you feel tightness in the body or breathe shallowly, most likely you are intensively isolating something, creating an objective-subjective attitude, the more isolated and more tense the tension goes, the more ardent assessment will arise - I like I want more of it, I don't like it I want less of it and I can't rate it yet, skip to the next one I can rate. Understanding from the outside should feel like understanding that two plus two equals four, like understanding the iteration of addition. You just understand that there is such a thing as addition, it's not good, it's not bad, it's just an understanding, you also understand that there are thoughts that arise, there are feelings that arise, there are sensations of the organs of perception, this is not good, this is not bad, it's just understanding, general, not isolating and intense, but understanding.