Treating the Mind Like a Muscle

Sometimes in class, I use the analogy of the mind as a muscle to draw attention to our unconscious thinking patterns and the results they produce.

Through mindfulness, we begin to notice days when our thoughts seem to run nonstop - perhaps all day long. Soon, we may notice feelings of anxiety, stress, fatigue, or overwhelm. This makes perfect sense!

If we compare the mind to a muscle, this is like doing crunches all day without rest: eventually, our muscles cramp, spasm, and we experience all sorts of physical consequences. The same happens in the mind, but the strain is emotional and cognitive.

The key difference is that this type of compulsive thinking often has a habitual, hypnotic, and unconscious quality. Imagining someone doing crunches all day in a trance-like state helps us visualize how these patterns can take hold in the brain: repetitive, automatic, and draining.

So what do we do? Exactly what we would do if we noticed we had been doing crunches for the last three hours: we stop, let go, surrender, relax, and rest.

The first step is always becoming aware of what is happening. If we are in that hypnotic trance of doing crunches, we must first realize that we are doing them. Becoming aware is the mindfulness practice. The next question is: how do we become aware? By observing the activity of the mind, just like we would observe the activity of our abs to realize we were doing crunches.

Observing the mind is mindfulness. There are many techniques we can use for this, and we explore them in class. Even simply asking, “What is my mind up to?” can be a meditation in itself. Group classes, a solo daily practice, gentle reminders on our phone, or all of the above help us become more mindful of the mind.

Something interesting happens during this conscious observation: the hypnosis is broken and the mind may even stop its habitual stream of thinking all together. We “stop crunching” and rest. This is the deeply healing and restorative rest that mindfulness offers. If the mind has a tremendous amount of momentum, which does happen (I refer to this as a 'mindstorm') then extra care is needed to care for the mind and body, allowing them to come to rest.

For many of us, being lost in a constant stream of thinking has been the norm for our entire lives. Modern life - TikTok, Reels, news, the internet at large - reinforces this habit. Like any habit, our constantly running inner monologue takes conscious effort to let go of. Falling back into old patterns happens; it is not a failure. All we do is keep coming back to awareness; that is, practicing mindfulness.

Every time we notice that we’ve slipped into unconscious thinking, that awareness is like a “mindfulness rep.” Over time, our normal state of waking consciousness shifts from a constant stream of mental noise to quiet, focused awareness. This does not inhibit thinking; it sharpens it, keeps it fresh, and makes it ready when needed.