Exploration: Top Ten Tunes
This is an exercise from the Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, which he calls Top Ten Tunes.
Every once in a while when you meditate (but not too often – maybe once every several months – so that you aren’t just using it for entertainment!) notice what thoughts come up, and see what categories they might belong to. Kornfield calls this our “Top Ten Tunes” – what are the records playing over and over in our heads?
Someone’s top ten tunes in a particular stretch of time – and it doesn’t have to be ten exactly -- might look like:
My mother’s health situation.
Does he/she like me? What’s the evidence for and against?
Food – eating it, not eating it, planning, dieting.
Sorting out client problems.
How to stretch money to fit what needs to be paid.
How people treat me.
Another time, the tunes might have changed. It can be valuable to actually see what is going on in our minds. The first time I did this, I was quite surprised. One of my top tunes was wondering how people were percieving me. I had always thought of myself as someone who didn’t think or care much about that – but it turns out that was my story about myself, not the reality.