The We all have thoughts or feelings arise from time to time that we wish we could skip. It can be

uncomfortable or even feel invasive when these arise.

So what are we to do?

A very common response can be to numb out unwanted thoughts or feelings with whatever has worked in the past.

While this can work in the moment to distract us,

those same thoughts or feelings will likely pop right back up when whatever we've done to distract

ourselves is over. A pretty powerful side effect of meditation, though, is that we can learn to sit

with, observe, and move through these thoughts and feelings. I'm not saying that this is always easy, preferable, or even wholly

possible in all cases. Still, meditation before sleep can help us tiptoe toward having the ability

and even desire to sit with our thoughts and feelings. They become less scary and overwhelming and more familiar.

I like to compare them to that monster under the bed that we may have been scared of in childhood.

Once you look your particular monster in the eye, they become less of a thing to fear, and it's more

of an, oh, hi, it's you again. I see that you're here

and you can go any time. In fact, I encourage having this exact conversation with your own

personal monster, be it fear, anxiety, stress, whirling thoughts. Having a conversation with them makes them other than you. They are

simply a visitor, passing through. When we don't identify so strongly with particular thoughts or

feelings, it naturally creates space for them to both exist and leave. Have you ever heard the phrase, what you resist persists, what you

look at, disappears? That beautifully describes this phenomenon. Another tool I enjoy using when I'm having

those less than pleasant thoughts and feelings arise is to allow them to physically move through me.

I do this in a couple ways.

One, I move in a big way, be it on a walk or a workout or doing some stretching or yoga,

or two, I move in a small way. For me, this means allowing my body to move while I sit in meditation.

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