Take Your Mind for a Walk: A Worthwhile Read

Excerpted from Take Your Mind for a Walk:

Have you ever felt that you are at the mercy of your mind when meditating? You’re watching your breath when the mind serves up a juicy thought. Perhaps you are contemplating a Hollywood hunk’s marital woes and your odds for stepping in as his next love. Maybe it’s just the enticing smell of dinner simmering. Cody is bright and cheerful, and can be quite attentive, but let him catch sight of a bushy-tailed rodent and you can almost hear him exclaim “Squirrel!!!!” and he’s off on the chase. That is how our minds tend to be, doglike and distractible.

So what to do? We can’t change the nature of our dogs, and the same is true of our minds. They follow thoughts, especially if they are compelling, seductive, and promise an adventure, however illusory or ultimately preposterous (like a dog actually catching a squirrel.)

So how about if you cultivate the neural equivalent of a retractable leash?