What's true for you right now? I say "now", which could refer to this minute, or it could be a reflection you drop into your meditation practice, after a period of sitting, settling and easing into silence. Alternatively, bring the question to mind during a gap in the day, perhaps when you find yourself caught in the twisted turning of the mind in a state of overdriven daydreaming or catastrophising mode. Better still, do both, and see what answers emerge, see what blocks come up against any answers.
It's a prompt I've been working with lately in my own practice, as a reminder to pull back and take a sanity/sense check when I feel the habitual tug of anxiety or haste, or judgement or projection. I've played out conversations in my mind that are coming up later in the day and rehearsed my contributions in the face of anticipated conflict. I've sat in meetings wondering what other people are thinking and pre-empting a defence. I've layered suffering on top of my ailments imagining the worst of people and situations.
None of this is to say that thinking things through is a "bad" thing. It isn't. It's the direction we take the thinking that might not always be so helpful.
And yes, the conflicts, the prompts for defence, whether real or imagined, the dread caused by illness, all of them require a response - and therein lies the key, a response rather than a habitual reaction.
In my experience, a wise and helpful response comes from checking, am I seeing things clearly, am I reading this situation right? Or, as the Buddha described it, am I throwing a second arrow at the source of suffering and making it a bigger deal than it needs to be?
Whenever we get carried away with our inner monologue, whether out of dreaded or hopeful anticipation, or the constant replay of conversations or events already gone by, we can veer towards a version of reality that is more draining on our mind and nervous system than it needs to be.
The late great Zen master, poet, activist and writer Thich Nhat Hanh encouraged practitioners to ask ourselves in any moment like this, "are you sure?". In other words, check, are you sure this is true, might you be minimising or maximising the story, is the storyline you're telling helpful or necessary? Might there be something else going on? What is really happening and how can you face it mindfully?
After contemplating the question, let it go. Let the storyline go, let the narrative go, even drop the contemplation, let go of the mental load, breathe a sigh to release it and see how you feel about responding, or not.
Ultimately, that's the benefit of this practice, and the heart of much of my practice lately - letting go, of tension, of narratives, of all the excess and additions and nonsense. Because to let go is to make space, to feel free, to lighten up, and to say, move, do, or not do, with more ease than tension.