Headspace | Meditation Tips | Understanding Dark Thoughts

One of the most challenging parts of meditation is sometimes called the dark side of the mind. These are the thoughts and fantasies that we’d rather didn’t appear in the mind, whether they’re exciting, violent vengeful or maybe even sadistic in nature. We might think we shouldn’t be experiencing them. But these thoughts and perfectly natural and there’s obviously no need to act on them. But why do they seem to appear more often once we begin to meditate? Well typically, we go through our day with quite a heavy filter on the mind, blocking out these thoughts we don’t like, either habitually or intentionally.

00:40 - When we block them out habitually, we’re unaware that it’s even taking place. We’re just so caught up in our day-to-day thinking. But by meditating, we’re creating more space in the mind. So it’s not that there are more of these thoughts, we just see them more clearly. But when we’re blocking them out intentionally, we already see the thoughts clearly, but we’re resisting them, perhaps fearful of what they say about us as a person.

01:03 - What meditation shows us is that we’re not our thoughts, so there’s no need to judge them to identify with them. We see that they don’t make us a mean person, a terrible person, a twisted person. And it’s through this process that we discover peace of mind. Allowing thoughts to come and go, at ease with the mind, exactly as it is. .