When we become preoccupied with distressing thoughts or images that keep repeating, it blocks us from being present and engaged in life. In order to decrease our distress and anxiety, it is helpful to develop skills that enhance our ability to choose which of our thoughts we want to engage and pay attention to and which thoughts we simply just notice or observe.
In Jennifer Sweeton’s book, Trauma Treatment Toolbox, she presents the Trainspotting Meditation. This very effective meditation encourages us to observe rather than engage our thoughts by imagining our thoughts as a train that is passing by. At the heart of this meditation is the notion that thoughts are not facts, and that we have the ability to change the way in which we relate to our thoughts. Follow the instructions below to practice the Trainspotting Meditation.
Begin to shift your awareness to your mind, becoming aware of any thoughts entering, flowing through, or leaving the mind. As you observe these thoughts, begin to visualize them as trains, where each train represents one thought. Imagine that you are standing about 20 feet away from these thought trains, watching them from a slight distance as an observer. You may notice one thought train passing through your mind, or perhaps several. Some may move quickly, others more slowly, and some may stop for a while or appear to be on a loop.
As a curious observer of these trains, you are not the conductor, nor a passenger, of the trains, and therefore do not attempt to stop them, speed them up, or otherwise interact with them. Rather, as you become aware of each thought train, identify it in a single sentence. For example, you may state to yourself: “There is that thought train about [insert topic here],” or “This thought train is called [insert title here].” Your job is to watch these trains and allow them to enter, move through, and exit your mind at their own pace.
Continue to observe and name thought trains as you become aware of them. When you notice that you have jumped onto one of these trains, and have become a passenger or conductor of a train instead of an observer, congratulate yourself on this awareness, acknowledge the thought train, then jump off that train and resume your stance as an observer.
Continue trainspotting for a few minutes, watching and identifying thought trains and disengaging from thoughts that you have become immersed in by “jumping off” the thought trains as needed.