Thoughts out of nowhere

Thoughts pop up out of nowhere when I try to meditate.  I'm trying to focus on my breathing, and I suddenly get an idea about something to do for a project at work.  Part of me wants to stop and write it down so that I won't forget it.  But if I do, other ideas pop up over and over.  Before long I realize that the time I set aside for meditation is over and I'm no more relaxed than when I started.  I didn't reach my goal of shifting, for a while, from my logical left brain, the half of my brain that wants to change things, to the perceptive right brain, the half that accepts reality just as it is.

Fortunately, I've had enough meditation practice that this doesn't happen that often.  I know what I'm supposed to do when thoughts arise:  notice them, don't fight them, but don't let them turn into "conversations".  A thought that is not followed by a series of related thoughts soon fades.  Silence returns.

And there is much to learn from the thoughts that come out of nowhere.  The ones that pop up spontaneously and that keep coming back throughout the meditation:  these show me the things that are REALLY important to me.  Prior to meditating, I might not even have realized how much these things were bugging me.  But noticing how often they break the silence of meditation, noticing the emotion they bring with them, I learn that these are the things that matter most to me right now.

Ironically, it is often when I am NOT DOING anything, when I'm at my most passive state in meditation, that I learn what I must DO.