From “Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart” by Brian D. McLaren
One of the most time-tested approaches to private contemplation could be called the focus/release method. Instead of letting my trains of thought and emotion take me where they will, I might turn my focus from my internal reactions and negotiations to my breath or my heartbeat. I might focus on a single, simple word. I might focus on a phrase or mantra (like the chapter titles of this book). Sometimes, when simple breath, heartbeat, words or phrases aren’t working, I might listen to music, dance, cook, or simply walk mindfully and focus on what I see around me…this, that, this that…to disrupt my speeding trains of thought. Sometimes I focus on an image, a “happy place,” or the face of someone I love (like Grandpa Smith or the faces of my wife, children and grandchildren). I may go running, practice yoga, or play a game, so I have to shift my focus from inner turmoil to physical endurance and prowess.
Of course, whatever my focus is, I soon leave it and jump back on the trains of my internal subway again, I don’t beat myself up (usually). Instead, I just step off the train and return to my chosen focus.
That act of returning to focus is the point of contemplation as a practice. Each return strengthens my ability to realize I’m on the subway again so I can disembark from its speeding trains. In a real sense, as long as I keep returning to focus, even my distractions serve the practice. It’s a no-lose situation.
After I feel that I’m holding my focus with some steadiness, I let that word, phrase, or image go and let myself be present to a gentle stillness. This stillness feels like an unfocused awareness, a restful openness and receptivity, a soft fascination, a withdrawal into a secret safe place, or a breakthrough to a place so expansive that my trains of thought seem like tiny toys. Sometimes it feels good, restful, and serene, like I’ve been welcomed into the presence of all who have ever loved me. Sometimes it feels like a void, a darkness and emptiness, simultaneously a tomb and a womb. However it feels, I gain similar benefits (another no-lose situation).