Spacious freedom can be yours when you learn to free your mind of thought. The further you are in your practice and development, the easier this becomes. Eventually the mind is open, wide, spacious. Through spacious awareness, you are less easily upset or thrown off balance because you see more clearly the arbitrary construction of meaning making. Here is a simple practice to begin developing this capacity for expanded awareness.
Find a quiet place where you can sit quietly for five or ten minutes. Bring your attention to your abdomen, about three inches below your belly button. Imagine breathing in and out of that place. Let your belly relax and protrude. Let go of any muscle tension or holding there. Continue to breathe in and out, focusing all of your attention there. As you breathe and focus, empty your head of thoughts. Simply perceive or notice the breathing in and breathing out of your abdomen. Notice the sensations you are aware of, but choose not to make sense or interpret or judge what your noticing means. Allow your noticing to be unelaborated by thought. Simply notice, sense, feel, without thought.
Directing your attention to the sensations in your body and concentrating on those areas can be done without thinking. A secondary benefit to this practice is that it helps you become more aware of the places in your body where you have a habit of contracting your muscles. When you contract your muscles you cut off or block energy flow. Since energy and spirit are one, when you block energy flow, you are blocking Awareness. Since our objective is to expand awareness, it is important to include awareness of the body.
Try it. With practice you will find that focusing into areas of your body, relaxes the mind and makes it easier eventually to "stop" thoughts from controlling you.