Thoughts Are Not (Necessarily) Facts - A Mindful Look at the Nature of Thinking
Simply put, thoughts are not facts. They are mental events that arise in the mind. Of course, some thoughts are true. But our habit of believing every thought and taking it as true does not truly serve us.
With practice, we can learn to recognize that thoughts are not necessarily reality, and observe their arising and passing with patience and awareness. I’ll cover a bit about what thoughts actually are, why we believe thoughts, and what we can do to actually change the relationship to the thinking mind. There are some guided meditations for beginners below, as well as some tips for working with difficult thoughts.
What Are Thoughts Really?
We all have thoughts constantly. We replay the past, plan for the future, and have opinions on nearly every experience. Although thoughts are a foundational aspect of our lived human experience, we don’t often pause to consider what a thought is exactly.
In my personal life and mindfulness practice, I have found that understanding how something works can offer a new perspective that proves useful. With thoughts, we can understand what is actually happening in order to not get sucked in so deeply.
What the Science Says
Let’s start by breaking it down from a scientific perspective. When a thought arises, brain cells are activating to “talk” to one another. This is generally believed to happen via electrical signals and chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin (neurotransmitters). The thought lights up millions and millions of cells around different brain regions.
But that’s really unfair. We can’t take just one isolated thought. Let’s look at the bigger picture. Say you hear the sound of a door slamming. The soundwaves travel through the air to the ear. The small bones of your middle ear and your eardrum transfer the pattern of vibration through the cochlea to the auditory nerve. There, the “sound” is interpreted to send signals to the auditory and association cortex. It also likely activates fear circuity in the brain (perhaps in the amygdala), some visual circuity (processing what you saw), and suddenly the whole brain is communicating in various directions.
I think this bigger context is important to note. We may want to identify a thought as a single moment of neurons firing. But it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Thoughts are influenced by countless factors, and don’t really arise as a standalone experience.
A Mindfulness-Based Perspective
From a more mindfulness-based perspective, a thought is an object. Specifically, it’s a mental object. In Buddhist thought, humans have six senses. These include the traditional five (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch), as well as thinking. Just as a sound is the object of the ear or a sight is the object of the eye, a thought is the object of the mind.
Thoughts are not “ours” any more than the sound of a bird chirping is ours. In fact, thoughts are conditioned and a part of nature. Conditioned means they are influenced by other factors, as covered with the idea of thoughts not existing in a vacuum. If we are tired, the mind might be less sharp. If we are hungry or stressed, the mind might tend toward angrier thoughts.
As such, thoughts are natural. Think about it like this. You are sitting on the bus on the way home from work and the thought arises, “I wonder what I am going to eat for dinner tonight.” Did you create that thought? Did you think, “I’m now going to produce a thought wondering what I will have for dinner?” No, you didn’t!
Thoughts are conditioned and natural. This isn’t to say its right, good, or correct. Just that it is a natural process. You perhaps are hungry in that moment on the bus. Your stomach is sending signals to your brain telling you that you are indeed hungry (even if you’re not conscious of it in this moment). Maybe you didn’t plan out your dinner ahead of time. The thought arises naturally.
Why We Believe the Thinking Mind
Despite thoughts just being mental objects, we have a tendency to believe thoughts. Especially when it comes to difficult emotions, thoughts arise and we take them as true without even questioning its validity. There are a few reasons this happens.
Observation vs. Interpretation
Some thoughts are obviously true and worth believing. Other thoughts are not facts, but opinions. We can look at this through the lens of observation and interpretation. This process can also lead into prediction, a story of self, and many other things.
Let’s use the example that happens often with overthinking relationships. Your partner hasn’t responded to your text. You have the thought, “They have not responded to my text.” That’s an observation. It is a thought that is indeed a fact.
Then comes the interpretation. You may notice the thought, “They are mad at me.” Or perhaps it’s more like, “They do not communicate well.” These thoughts may or may not be true, but they are interpretations of the observation. Because we know the first thought (the observation) is true, we then accept the second thought (the interpretation) as fact as well.
This can of course lead into many other types of thoughts and papañca. This link happens without our awareness usually. We recognize something as true, and then the following thoughts are taken as facts without any questions. This isn’t a fault of yours. It’s nature!
Emotional Experiences
Many thoughts arise with emotions intertwined. Some emotions lead to thoughts or thinking patterns, while some thoughts can trigger emotions. Thinking about work at night can cause anxiety, which causes the thoughts to arise seemingly rapidly and with strength.
Emotional experiences can lead us to believe thoughts more readily. Strong emotions and acute stress strongly suppress activity in the prefrontal cortex. This cuts off accessibility to rational thought and impulse control. Stress hormones might flood the brain as well. With these emotions, the conditions can cause a believing of thoughts as we can’t really see the situation clearly.
Desire for Certainty
In both my personal practice and the practice of my students, I’ve seen the desire for certainty as a big driver of believing thoughts. When we don’t know something (such as why our partner hasn’t responded to our text), the mind seeks to generate certainty. Thoughts related to predictions and explanation arise.
As I’ll cover below in the section on actually working with thoughts just saying or thinking, “I don’t know,” is more skillful than making up stories. When we create explanations or predictions, we believe these as the mind wants closure.
Habitual Thinking Patterns
Finally, many habitual and repeated thoughts can feel true. This is due to simple exposure. If we wonder why our partner hasn’t texted back and think multiple times they are mad at us, we believe it a bit more. With these habitual thinking patterns, we take the thoughts as facts. If the thoughts weren’t true, why do they come up again and again?
In reality, the thought may be coming up again and again because the conditions haven’t changed much. You’re still feeling anxious, they still haven’t texted you back, and you have not accepted that you don’t know. Just because a thought arises repeatedly does not make it true.
Changing the Relationship to Thoughts
When working with thoughts, the goal should not be to suppress thoughts or label them as wrong or bad. Instead, we seek to learn how to observe thoughts without judgement. When we cultivate the ability to watch the thinking mind with acceptance and understanding, we get to know how the mind works.
As I cover in my Guide to Mindfulness for Beginners, meditation is not always calm. Neither is life. Sometimes the mind is active. Our job is not to resist this, but to observe it. As we observe the mind without judgement, several things happen.
First, we learn about how the mind works. The Burmese monk Sayadaw U Tejaniya calls watching experience “collecting the data.” By observing the mind as it naturally behaves, we get to know the tendencies and habits, lived experience, and reactions and responses.
Second, watching the thoughts and thinking mind builds resilience. If you pay attention to the thoughts over and over, you’re going to grow less reactive. We’re so accustomed to believing thoughts without awareness. By training in watching the thoughts, we weaken that habit of believing the thoughts or reacting with strong emotions.
Furthermore, observing the mind builds wisdom and insight. We see thoughts as nature, impermanent phenomena, and impersonal. We stop taking ownage of the thinking mind and its contents, and instead are able to just see thoughts as they truly are.
Of course, this takes time and practice. But as we work with thoughts, we grow to change our relationship to them. They become something else worth watching, just like listening to a sound or tasting an apple.
Meditation Practices to Work with Thinking
I’m a mindfulness teacher, so I have to offer some meditation practices to work with thinking. All of these practices can be useful in investigating the experience of thinking, how thoughts work, and how to stop believing your thoughts.
Before jumping into it, I want to note that it’s a common myth about meditation that we have to stop thoughts to meditate. You don’t. Mindfulness is about observing our present-time experience. If thoughts are a part of that experience, they’re worth observing!
Mindfulness of Thoughts
As mentioned, you don’t have to clear your mind to meditate. We actually can turn our attention specifically toward thoughts in meditation! Below is a short meditation on observing thoughts from my Mindfulness for Beginners playlist, which I recommend if you’re interested in other mindfulness-based practices and teachings.
Mental Responses
This is a longer guided meditation (25 minutes) that investigates the mental responses and reactions to experience. Whether it’s a sound, feeling in the body, or a thought, we can pay attention to how the mind responds. This helps build insight into how the mind is relating to experience and constructing our perspective.
Mental States
This is another short meditation from the Mindfulness for Beginners playlist. Rather than looking at individual thoughts, we look at the overarching mental state. Recognizing mental states can help us understand how and why individual thoughts arise and inform our experience.
Equanimity
Also from the same playlist, this is a guided meditation and a talk on the principle of equanimity. Equanimity is the quality of remaining spacious and stable in the midst of experience. When we cultivate equanimity, we don’t get knocked off balance so easily by things like thoughts.
Getting to Know the Mind
Finally, I want to offer a talk from my podcast. This is not a meditation practice, but a mindfulness-based discussion of how we get to know the mind. Specifically, the talk focuses on getting to know the natural tendencies of the mind rather than interfering.
Working with Pervasive Thoughts
Meditation of course can be helpful in not believing our thoughts or taking them as facts. But we don’t spend all day in meditation. Sometimes, pervasive thoughts arise. These most often are emotionally charged thoughts that arise over and over despite our wishes for them to cease.
Clinging and Aversion
When you find yourself believing your thoughts are facts and being whisked away by them, you might tune into the aspects of clinging and aversion. When and unpleasant thought arises, we might avert from it or push it away. When a pleasant one arises, the mind may respond with clinging or craving.
This can come up in clear ways, with thoughts like, “I don’t want to think about this anymore.” It also can happen more subtly with thoughts such as, “I shouldn’t be stuck on this.” Instead of staying with the actual thought, tune into the direct experience of clinging or averting.
What does it feel like to want more of a thought or less of a thought? See if you can separate the object (the thought) from the response/interpretation (liking or disliking, craving or aversion). Often, it’s the craving and aversion that brings the suffering more than the original thought itself.
Know the Knowing
This is a technique that comes from Sayadaw U Tejaniya and I have found useful with difficult emotions and thought patterns in my own life. When certain thoughts arise that we take to be facts, we get sucked into the thought itself. Instead, Tejaniya calls for us to be aware of awareness.
Rather than observing the actual thought, pay attention to the mind that knows the thought. I know that sounds esoteric, but give it a shot. It’s simpler than you might think. There’s a thought, but there is also awareness. Pay attention to this awareness or knowing. What is the knowing mind like? Is it contracted, agitated, calm, or curious?
Self-Inquiry
On a similar note, you might use some self-inquiry. There are many questions you can ask to dig at varying levels of depth, but here are a few worth considering:
What type of thought is this? (planning, regret, daydreaming, analyzing, observation, interpretation etc.)
Is this thought true?
Where did this thought come from?
What happens in the body when this thought arises?
Who is thinking this thought?
Who is aware of this thought?
Not-Knowing
I mentioned earlier that uncertainty can be a cause of identifying with thoughts. As such, we can seek to find peace in not knowing. I talk about this in my post on how we can let go of anger mindfully, but it’s useful with all kinds of charged thoughts.
This takes mindfulness and awareness. It’s a practice, so be gentle and patient with yourself. See if you can recognize where not-knowing is just a reality of experience. There are inevitably times you will think about something that is uncertain. Try to see the desire for certainty creating these thoughts, and accept that you just don’t know somethign in this moment.
Tips for Working with Thoughts
In my private work with students and our online meditation groups, working with thoughts comes up constantly. It’s something many people (meditators or not) struggle with. We have such a relatively easy time letting go of other things like sounds, but we believe our thoughts or try to control them.
Mindfulness meditation can help us in this journey. But I want to offer some general tips to use off the cushion and in daily life that can be helpful.
Practice Consistently
Whether it’s formal meditation practice or general mindful awareness throughout the day, consistency is your best friend. I cover this more in my post How Often Should You Meditate as a Beginner? The research is clear; consistency and frequency with mindfulness is more closely associated with positive outcomes and the building of the habit.
Whether it’s through a sitting meditation practice or finding ways to be mindful in your daily life, consistency will produce a change. I recommend reading my post about starting a daily meditation practice here, or checking out the Month of Mindfulness free program. It’s a month of daily guided meditations that are just 3-5 minutes to help you investigate mindfulness and build the daily habit!
Name the Thought
The practice of noting or labeling is a simple but powerful way to change our relationship to thinking. It’s a foundational piece of insight meditation, and is used in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). It was popularized in meditation circles by Mahasi Sayadaw, and remains a core technique of insight meditation.
Labeling can help us see thinking more clearly, detach from thoughts, and recognize what is arising and passing. It’s simple. When thoughts arise, you might simply note “thinking, thinking.” You also might try noting the type of thinking, such as planning, daydreaming, analyzing, regret, etc.
What this practice does is create space. We touch the thought without getting hooked in. It helps strike a balance. We are both mindful and present, while not fully swept away. It’s a way to practice the Middle Way when it comes to thoughts.
Don’t Argue
Often, we try to control the thoughts or subtly resist them. This is a natural response, and one that we can work to change. When we resist a thought, we’re adding a layer of suffering. This is the idea of the second arrow, or that pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.
Even if it is a difficult or painful thought, the added layer of resisting the thought is generally more painful than the original thought itself. As such, watch for arguing, resisting, or suppressing. I often tell my students simply to not argue with the thoughts!
Watch Arising and Passing
Impermanence is a part of all experience, including with thoughts. Instead of getting sucked into the actual content of the thought, you might try tuning into this aspect of the thought. Can you see it arising? What about its passing? Often, thoughts arise and pass much more quickly than we realize. They are often just momentary in nature.
Thoughts can leave behind a bit of emotional residue of course. We think about why our partner isn’t texting us back and feel anxiety and anger. Even as the thought passes, there’s the emotional imprint left over for a bit. This can give rise to other thoughts (or the same thought). Pay attention to this impermanent nature as thoughts arise and pass.
Be Curious
Curiosity is the way to go when it comes to investigating experience. We may tend toward judgement, desires to block negative thoughts, or simply thinking we’ve fully understood this thought. When we meet a thought without curiosity, we are more likely to have a reaction rooted in craving or aversion.
Instead, practice what is known as “beginner’s mind.” Look at the thought like it is your first time experiencing it. Be curious. Allow the mind to be aware with curiosity and interest rather than contempt, judgement, or boredom.
Don’t Villainize Thinking
Thinking isn’t bad or the problem. I see the recommendation frequently to “think positive thoughts.” Sure, negative thinking doesn’t exactly serve us. But when we start demonizing the thinking mind, our relationship turns to one of aversion very quickly.
Instead, recognize the impermanent and natural process that is thinking. We don’t need to villainize anything. The work to be done lies with how we relate to the thinking mind. How does the mind respond and practice with thoughts?
Be Patient
Finally, be patient with yourself and the mind! Meditation takes time to work. When you begin practicing with your thoughts, you are undoing years and years of conditioning. We can’t retrain the mind overnight. You might even bring awareness to your desire to change, or the craving that arises. But try to remember to be patient with yourself.
Find Support
Finally, find support for your practice. When it comes to mindfulness or any other form of growing, we don’t have to do it alone. I have a list here of online meditation groups that may be useful. They are all donation-based I believe, and are from teachers and communities I personally know or have meditated with.
You also use my contact page to reach out to me via email or WhatsApp with any questions. I offer private meditation classes and one-on-one mindfulness coaching for those who wish to get started with meditation and mindfulness. And if I’m not the right fit, I will happily help you find the right resources for you!
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Matthew Sockolov is a Buddhist meditation teacher who trained at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. Completing the Dharma Leader training program in 2017, Matthew was given power to teach in the Insight Meditation tradition by Jack Kornfield, Kittisaro, Thanissara, and others. You can learn more about Matthew here.