It was one of those nights. I woke up about 4 am obsessing with thoughts about a personal issue. My mind kept grinding away in a vicious circle, keeping me stuck in a mind-loop that returned me again and again to the same old anxious thoughts. Restless slumber eventually came an hour later. But then, in my meditation later that morning, the mind-loop reappeared as strong as ever. Fifteen minutes passed before I remembered I was even meditating or breathing.
 
I recognized that my mind was zipping round and round in an agitated circle interfering with my peace of mind. But as I kept coming back to my breath, I became a little more mindful and could detach myself a little bit from the mental grinding and "hover" above the mind-loop long enough to observe the circuitous repetition.  It was like a kid watching his electric train go round and round.  With some effort, I was able to identify the "stops" on the track: there was "the problem", which led to an "uncomfortable emotion", which led to "thoughts on how to get rid of the problem", which led to "judgment about the ineffectiveness of those solutions", which led right back to "the problem".
 
Somewhere in my state of witnessing my "agitation train" go round and round, I realized that I wasn't actually stuck in the problem anymore!  My mindful 'hovering' had lifted me up just enough to establish a viewing point and to elevate my perspective. 
 
I love the novelist Vladimir Nabokov's thought that "A spiral is a circle liberated." As we rise with awareness above our vicious mind-loops, we begin the curative spiral toward greater and greater awareness.
 
Get Centered and "Hover" Today!
 
Tom Crum