What to Think About During Meditation?

Date of the last update: 16.01.2025

The word ‘meditation’ comes from the Latin meditatio, which means ‘to ponder, to delve into thought’. However, many meditation techniques aim to reduce or completely eliminate thinking during practice. So what to think about during meditation and what can be done to gradually reduce unwanted thoughts?

Table of contents:

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First meditation – how do you learn to meditate?

Everyone has probably heard of meditation, and although many people declare that they would like to try it, they often don’t know where to start. This is perfectly natural because, as with other first-time activities, the practice of meditation requires adequate preparation. First of all, we should ensure that the place of meditation is as isolated as possible from distracting noises, as well as turning off the sound and notifications on the phone. We can then sit down so that we are comfortable, close our eyes and begin the practice, gradually entering a state of deep tranquillity. Initially, the meditation can last as long as 3-5 minutes, before gradually increasing the length of the practice.

What to think about during meditation?

One of the most frequently asked questions by beginners is what to think about during meditation? This is a broad question, requiring discussion of individual meditation techniques. At a basic level, however, a few tips can be mentioned for those entering the world of meditation:

Focusing on the breath – we direct our thoughts to the breath, how it travels from top to bottom and back again.
Counting the breaths – we can extend the above practice by counting the breaths in our mind, e.g. inhale, exhale – one, inhale, exhale – two, etc..,
Mind wandering through the body – we scan our body, wandering with our mind through its various parts or organs.
Mindfulness meditation – we focus on the present moment, without thinking about the past or looking to the future.
Gratitude meditation – we focus our attention on appreciating what we have, where gratitude can be felt for anything, even seemingly insignificant things.
Kindness practice – we think with empathy, sympathy and kindness about our lives, other people, nature, the world around us.
Mind drawing – in order to occupy our thoughts with something, some people practice creating all sorts of pictures, patterns or shapes in their mind.

Check out also: What is Mindfulness?

How to calm the thoughts in your head?

Don’t try to be calm by force! Many people mistakenly believe that when meditating we must necessarily get rid of all the thoughts running through our head. Nothing could be further from the truth. What we should certainly do is accept the incoming thoughts and let them go of their own accord. For it is not possible to switch them off completely at the ‘snap of a finger’. In the early days of meditation, just a few seconds of complete silence will constitute some success. As time goes by, the thoughts swirling around during the practice will become fewer and fewer, allowing us to enter even more deeply into the process of cleansing the mind.

Meditation – with or without music?

Music can provide a form of support for beginners in meditation. This is because, paradoxically, for many people complete silence can be downright distracting. Calm, relaxing music or the sounds of nature (e.g. the sound of waves or rain), then allow one to enter a state of deep relaxation better. In addition, beginners often practice with recordings where a guide, against a backdrop of calm music, guides us through the meditation process, directing our thoughts and actions. Although there is no rule, people who have been meditating for several years generally prefer to practice in silence, and music is more of a form of enrichment for them.