Being mindful does not require a quiet mind; you simply pay attention to whatever arises with awareness and compassion. This type of bare attention can free you from cycles of rumination and lead you to peace.

But let's face it, if your mind is on overdrive, paying attention can be one tall order. 

In the early days of your practice, you likely viewed thinking as a barrier to practice. However, as your skill develops, your thoughts become part of the practice. Like sound, smell, taste, touch, and sensation, thoughts often arise, sustain, and fade away on their own. You will become more adept at letting them be. 

One way to cultivate this skill is the practice of mental noting. Like an inner whisper, mental notes are silent labels that you say to yourself whenever a thought arises. Noting — or labeling — brings mindful attention to your experience and interrupts the train of thought before it carries you away. Well, sometimes well after! 

Here is how to do it:

First, observe your thought without pushing it away or diving into its story.

Second, label each thought as it arises. Use one of the following methods, or find your own way of noting your experience:

• Acknowledge the thought by repeating the word thinking once or twice.

• Note whether the thought is useful or not useful. 

• Classify the thought: judgment, planning, remembering, or fantasizing.

Finally, let the thought go and return back to natural presence. In other words, begin again.

This technique works with all sensory experiences. You can label a physical sensation: itchy, warm, tingling. You can label sound: unpleasurable, pleasurable, hearing.

The key is, once you label your experience, to let it leave on its own time — no need to grasp or explain or analyze. Instead, touch back into this moment, and be here now.