This is why the instructions for the mindfulness-of-breathing practice encourage us to congratulate ourselves at first when we notice our awareness is no longer on the breath. In that very moment, it can be helpful to note briefly what is on our mind and name what is going on (for example, “thinking, thinking,” or “planning, planning,” or “worrying, worrying”). Whatever the content of the thought or impulse, the task is the same: to note what is on our mind in this moment and then to gently escort our awareness back to our breathing, renewing our contact with the in-breath or the out-breath,
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What is thinking, thinking of planning, planning? Why the double words?
