How to Find Your Way Towards Consciousness and Calm
April 14 by Craig Harper 19 Shares | Lifestyle
When Thinking Gets in the Way
Lately I’ve written much about the chaotic mind, the propensity we have to over-think and the inability so many of us have to escape the internal noise, get out of our thoughts and find our way back to a little tranquility. Or as Happy Gilmour calls it, our Happy Place. Being constantly trapped in our stinkin’ thinkin’ can be a ticket to depression, anxiety and stress… not to mention the possibility of those less-than-desirable decisions, behaviours and outcomes. If you’re a chronic over-thinker, you know exactly what I’m talking about. All too often our thinking gets in the way of our happiness and our peace of mind. And our career. And relationships. And potential. And health. And… the list goes on.
The realisation that “I am not my thoughts” can be a very liberating one for people who not only identify strongly with their thoughts, but actually become their thoughts. In case you’ve never been told, I’ll tell you now:
You are not your thoughts and your thoughts are not you.
Thought Happens
Thought happens automatically, independently and continually, as do all of our internal processes – circulation, respiration, chemical reactions, sweating, vaso-constriction and dilation, digestion, healing… and many more. Yes we can choose what we do with, or about, our thoughts, and yes we can ‘manage’ our cerebral landscape to a point, but the human condition means that thoughts will constantly arrive in our head, like a never-ending stream of cars pulling into a petrol (gas) station. And naturally, many of those cars aren’t vehicles we wanna drive.
What the…?
We’ve all had those completely weird “where-the-F-did-that-thought-come-from” moments. Surely you remember that time when you fantasized about killing your annoying neighbour because he played his music so loud… okay, maybe that was just me.
I knew I shouldn’t watch Dexter before bed.
Of course there is also conscious thinking on our behalf – which usually comes in the form of problem solving, strategic planning, memory recall and organisational thinking, but in truth, much of what happens at that gas station above our shoulders is – despite us.
It just happens. And happens. Like waves crashing on the beach.
Finding our Way to Consciousness
The beginning of consciousness and inner freedom is having an ‘awareness’ of our thoughts without necessarily being completely identified with them. Observing them without being ‘in’ them. The relevant picture I have in my mind is of me standing on one side of an old timber fence, with my arms and chin perched on the top. On the other side of the fence my thoughts parade by me like models on a catwalk. They are unaware of me but I can see them clearly. They are mine but they are not me.
In this place, I am merely an observer of my thoughts.
In this place I have the choice of investing time, energy and emotion into those thoughts… or not.
The Observer
Once I become the observer and not the inhabitor of my thoughts, I have the ability to move from mental and emotional incarceration, to total freedom. Freedom to create an existence beyond the confines of my conditioning, my social programming, my fears and my (once) destructive thinking. Freedom to create an identity, reality and purpose beyond my chaotic mind. And freedom to discover who I am and what I can become, beyond my thoughts.
Feel free to borrow my fence.
that was such a good piece of reading. certainly cleared me of a lot of ‘thoughts’ about myself
Excellent post. I think a lot of folks who work in thought-work fields (which means just about everybody who reads this blog) tend to value their thought to the point of identifying with them. But it’s important to remember that we’re not just the electrical impulses that travel across our brains.
Watching your thoughts is the name of the game, and people have been practicing it for thousands of years. Finally it is catching on in the west.
Nowadays I picture my thinking mind as an alarmist, impulsive, loudmouth teenager; it really helps me keep perspective.
Anyone interested in this subject should definitely read ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle. I’m sure this article is inspired by the book.
I dont think it was INSPIRED by the book, it seems as if Craig pretty much copied sentences word for word from the book. You could atleast have given credit Craig.
There’s also Full-Catastrophe Living, by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a text that accompanies the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workshops that Kabat-Zinn originated.
This gave me some new perspective. Thanks.
Chaotic mind always reduces professional efficiency as well as delivers adverse effects upon the health.
[...] release the tension that has built within you. At such times, take out a paper and write down your thoughts – what bothers you the most? What you would want otherwise? How much you can help the situation if [...]
Finding your way into the inner-calm should be everybody’s achievement point I think. Once there, you can successfully do move your life along the direction you need to without being distracted by your own thoughts.
Great information. It is certainly difficult to quiet your thoughts sometimes. I use daily meditation to clear my mind and try to refocus my thoughts.
It´s very important we “filter” everything that we heard. Nowadays the amount of information we received is enormous, then we need to pick only that we need to improve ourselves. I think it´s the same thing with our thoughts, our brain doesn´t stop to working, hence it produces all kind of thoughts.
I don’t have problem eliminated my worst thoughts, but my big problem is stop thinking about one problem. Sometimes I stay hours thinking about something that I can´t will solve. The big challenge is how we control our mind and enjoy the present moment.