Meditation: Becoming the Boulder in the Wild River of Your Mind
Meditation gets talked about like it’s a mystical superpower reserved for monks, yogis, or that one friend who swears she “transcended” during hot yoga. But in reality, meditation is simply the art of not getting dragged down the river of your own thoughts like a very dramatic canoe without paddles.
A big part of this practice is remembering you don’t have to chase every mental ripple that splashes through your awareness. You also don’t have to block the river, fix the river, or build a dam using only your unresolved childhood patterns.
You just learn to be the rock.
Why the Rock Metaphor Works
Thoughts and feelings flow like water. Sometimes gently. Sometimes like Class V rapids with an attitude problem. Most of us react automatically, fusing with whatever pops up:
A worry appears. Suddenly we’re living in the future, financially ruined, living in a tent behind a Costco.
A feeling arises. We assume it must mean something permanent.
A memory shows up. We decide it’s evidence of every fear we’ve ever had.
Meditation interrupts this reflex.
Instead of being tossed around like a soggy twig, you become the stable ground underneath the whole thing. The rock doesn’t judge the water. It doesn’t grip it. It doesn’t follow it five miles downstream. It simply lets the flow be the flow.
This shift is what mindfulness calls observing.
What CBT calls defusion. What non-dual traditions call remembering your nature as awareness itself. And what therapists call Tuesday.
What Meditation Actually Teaches
Meditation isn’t about stopping thoughts. It’s about noticing them without going on the ride.
It’s the practice of watching your internal commentary like you’d watch a karaoke singer at 1 a.m. You don’t have to join in. You can simply witness and smile kindly at whatever happens next. Every time you return to your breath instead of following a storyline, you strengthen the skill of steadiness. Every moment you catch yourself before spiraling, you’re building the inner muscle that says, “I don’t have to latch onto this. I can let it pass.”
And ironically, the moment you stop trying to control the river, it becomes much easier to navigate.
A Nondual Twist (Without Getting Too Cosmic)
From a nondual perspective, the rock and the river aren’t actually separate. The water flows within the same field of awareness the rock sits in.
You’re not an isolated object weathering the storm. You’re the quiet presence that holds it all. Nothing in the river is a threat when you realize it’s all simply movement within the same spacious mind.
And Yes, Humor Helps
Your mind will be ridiculous sometimes.
It will produce thoughts like:
“Everyone is secretly mad at me.”
“I bet my stomach ache is definitely a rare Victorian disease.”
“Maybe I should move to another country and become a forest person.”
Instead of fighting these thoughts or believing them, meditation invites a gentler approach:
“Oh, wow. We’re doing that today? Precious.”
A little humor breaks the trance and helps anchor you back into clarity.
