I haven't been meditating very long (and actually stopped for a few weeks and just started again - I have some strange aversion to meditating even though it always makes me feel better). anyways, I'm a bit confused about what it is I've actually been doing.
I was trying to do noting, but it seems like the more I try to label things, the more time I spend in my head thinking about them instead of actually paying attention to them. like, I'll be listening to a sound, then I'll think "listening, listening.. thinking about listening, oh, I'm thinking, how do I get back to listening?" and then usually I repeat the word "thinking" until it loses meaning and I can escape back to paying attention to things. and then it happens again. or, I'll be feeling something, then notice that I'm actually still paying attention to the memory of what was a short feeling several seconds ago, and when I get back to the present, I try to label what's going on and again I'm looking at a memory, spending several seconds figuring out how to label it while the rest of the world goes on without me.
is this normal? is it just something I have to do a billion times until it gets faster? or is there something I've misunderstood?
oh, and I have a second question:
a few times, after getting frustrated with the amount of time spent thinking about how to label things, I just stopped labeling them and tried to simply experience them. I did a.. thing.. the best way I can describe it is, I shifted from existing "in" my head to "in" my chest. I opened myself up to all the sensations in my body and just experienced them as fully as I could, staying in the present moment. it's the closest I've ever got to something I'd call not-thinking. it can be fairly overwhelming at first, especially if I'm stressed, but I usually feel more relaxed and.. grounded.. afterwards.

does anyone know what it was I was doing there? it kinda seems like it's some sort of concentration thing.. or, "choiceless awareness" sounds like the right sort of words, but, I'm not very familiar with the terminology so I'm not sure if I'm using those words the same way other people are