When the Mind Will Not Rest

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When the Mind Will Not Rest

A note on remembrance, the body, and laying down unseen burdens

“Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest.”
(Qur’an 13:28)

There are times when there is so much to share, yet nowhere to begin.

If there is a choice to be made, it is this: whether to follow the mind as it revisits the past in endless loops, or to step back and observe what is really happening. For me, this has felt like an onslaught of incessant thoughts—mostly memories—arriving uninvited, demanding attention, draining energy, and quietly sabotaging focus. At night,
especially, they have a way of keeping one awake.

Part of me dismisses these thoughts as insignificant or irrelevant. Another part recognises them as dis-ease—energy stuck, unresolved, feeding a low-grade sadness that can slide into depression if left unattended.

The question that arises again and again is a familiar one:

Is there a sure-fire way to stop the mind from thinking?

The honest answer, after many years walking the intersecting paths of Zen, Sufi practice, and Yoga, is no. The mind generates thoughts the way the heart pumps blood. Trying to silence it often creates more struggle than peace.

What is possible, however, is to stop being captured by thought.

Recently, during zikr, something simple yet profound happened. As remembrance deepened, my body began to respond on its own. My spine straightened. My head rotated slowly, gently, without conscious effort. After a few minutes, light physical stretching followed—again, not forced, not planned.

When it passed, my mind was quieter. Not empty—but less occupied. I felt lighter, as if a great deal of invisible baggage had been put down.

This was not new. And yet, it felt like a reminder rather than a technique.

Across traditions, such experiences are understood differently:

• In Sufism, as the body aligns with remembrance

• In Zen, as posture finds itself

• In Yoga, as energy (prana) moving where it had been held

Labels are not important. What matters is this:

The body often knows how to release what the mind keeps circling.

What I was reminded of—again—is that the practice is not about silencing thought, but about orientation. Not erasing memory, but returning the heart to its compass.

In Islam, we are not asked to empty the mind. We are asked to remember.

Dhikr is not mental control.
It is anchoring.

When remembrance is sincere, the nervous system softens. Old tensions release. Thoughts lose their grip—not because they are fought, but because they are no longer believed to be who we are.

Even after decades on a spiritual path, reminders are still needed. Perhaps especially then. Depth does not eliminate waves; it gives us a steadier keel.

If you find yourself awake at night, burdened by memories, looping thoughts, or a vague heaviness you cannot name, know this: you are not failing. You are not regressing. Something is asking to be met—not escaped.

Sometimes, all that is required is to allow the process to complete itself.

To trust it.

And to lay down what was never meant to be carried forever.

Wallahu a‘lam.

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