Happy Mindful Life

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“The philosopher Descartes believed that he had found the most fundamental truth when he made his famous statement, ‘I think, therefore I am.’ He had, in fact, given expression to the most basic error: to equate thinking with Being and identity with thinking. The compulsive thinker, which means almost everyone, lives in apparent separateness, in an insanely complex world of continuous problems and conflict…”
-Eckhart Tolle

In all likelihood, the moment you woke up this morning you were already thinking – about how you were early or late, about the day ahead of you, about plans and appointments and meetings or about what happened yesterday or last night or in your dream. We are so used to thinking all the time, so used to the continuous stream of commentary, judgment, ideas and worries, concerns and memories, that we sometimes believe this voice in our head IS us.

Have you ever wished you could stop thinking about something or someone? Or been frustrated that you couldn’t concentrate on the task at hand? If that voice inside your head IS you, why won’t it do what you want it to do?

In reality, our minds are being programmed from the day we are born. Our thoughts reflect the beliefs and conventions of our culture, our personal conditioning, and our experience. For that reason, it’s easy to identify with our thoughts – to see them as who we are.

You may have heard the advice “Don’t believe everything that you think.” When we identify with our thoughts, we accept them as fact, and this can be dangerous and grossly limiting, especially when our thoughts are negative.

“Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns, those old gramophone records that have been playing in your head perhaps for many years…You’ll soon realize: there is the voice, and here I am listening to it, watching it.” -Eckhart Tolle

For me, the message on the old skipping gramophone is “You’re not good enough”. Or alternately, “You can’t.” Over the years, I have continuously allowed this belief to keep me from pursuing my goals, and to make me feel bad. Taking a step back and observing that destructive pattern does a few things: it takes power away from those harmful messages, and it lets me have compassion for myself. It helps me to recognize that just because I think it doesn’t mean it’s true. Or really, that thinking it is all that MAKES it true.

“An uncontrolled mind tortures us with the thoughts it generates, and a controlled, spiritualized mind is a source of constant pleasure and peace. If I start to allow my mind to terrify me, I quiet it and ask myself if it is wise to let my mind terrify me and, if so, what is the value in doing so. Will the fear prevent the imagined problem or protect me from it? The answer, of course, is no, it will create the problem.” – Terry Cole-Whittaker

Sometimes it’s hard to get distance from your own thoughts. This is where meditation comes in. While sitting quietly, without outside distractions, it is much easier to identify and look at your thoughts, find the negative patterns, and recognize them as a product of programming. When you can recognize something that does not serve you, you can consciously work on creating a new pattern which does.

“If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall in to place” – Lao Tzu